Complete College America report offers recommendations for how colleges can use K-12 performance assessments as an alternative to standardized tests
INDIANAPOLIS, (OCTOBER 20, 2022) — Complete College America (CCA), a national non-profit organization on a mission to raise postsecondary attainment in the United States, released recommendations from a task force on how colleges and universities can use K-12 performance assessments to improve college advising and course placement. Entitled “Making the Connection,” the report lays out the case for why institutions should consider using alternatives to traditional standardized testing to improve college placement—and inform targeted advising to help enrolled students complete college.
“K-12 schools and colleges have a mutual interest in increasing the number of students who graduate from high school well-prepared for success in college and their careers,” said Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, president of Complete College America. “An approach to college placement that incorporates multiple measures, including K-12 performance assessments, can help institutions better understand and serve their students by providing a more holistic view of students, their strengths, and their potential”
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift toward test-optional admissions policies and away from using standardized test scores to benchmark for college readiness and recommend first-year course placements. An increasing number of colleges are instead turning to authentic assessments of student performance—such as papers, presentations, research projects and other portfolios of student work—to assess their readiness for college and place them in first-year courses.
The new report summarizes the work of a cross-sector task force convened in 2021 by Complete College America which included a diverse group of high school and college practitioners and representatives of national organizations focused on secondary and postsecondary education.
Research has shown that students who display competence on assessments that measure deeper learning are more successful in college than other similar students even if they score lower on standardized college-admission tests. Traditional test scores can lead to incorrect placement in introductory courses that do not count for college credit, especially for students from historically underserved backgrounds who are less likely to benefit from private tutors, test preparation services and other resources.
“By using performance assessments to support placement and advising, colleges can shift their mindset to understand the whole student based on their full educational potential—rather than simply their past,” said Brandon Protas, strategy director of Complete College America. “Colleges should focus on the breadth of an individual’s experience rather than a single exam or data point, which in many cases is more reflective of the inequities in our education system than a student’s educational success.”
The task force recommended stronger partnerships between the K-12 and postsecondary sectors and within postsecondary institutions to ensure that student assessment information is transmitted and used to support advising and placement decisions.
The report also provides recommendations to help integrate performance assessments in the college placement process, making it easier to transmit portfolios of work from high schools to colleges in digital formats and investing in academic advising teams with the time and resources to understand a students’ academic abilities and interests.
For more information on Complete College America’s research and to read the entire “Making the Connection” report , visit www.completecollege.org.
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About Complete College America: Complete College America (CCA) builds movements for scaled change and transforms institutions through data-driven policies, student-centered perspectives, and equity-driven practices. Since its founding in 2009, CCA connects a national network of forward-thinking state and higher education leaders and introduces bold initiatives to help states and institutions confront inequities, close institutional performance gaps, and increase college completion rates, especially for marginalized and historically excluded students. For more information, visit www.completecollege.org.
Contact: media@completecollege.org
