Naturally, converting to competency-based learning may impact the placement process. While your placement process largely remains unchanged, it's important to review how students enter - or even accelerate - through your program.

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In this step, you'll want to:

 

• Adopt a "multiple measures" approach for accurate placement

• Consider orientation and faculty advising

• Update your placement tests

• Align placement test criteria - including samples - to course curriculum

• Review the placement challenge process

• Consider how students may accelerate past a subsequent course or level

• Extract samples of student placement performance

• Use placement performance data as a baseline to evaluate program effectiveness

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The Details

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Adopt a "Multiple Measures" Approach

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• Measure a student's language ability in grammar, listening, speaking, reading, and writing

• Avoid making placement decisions based on an isolated or single test score

• Consider developing in-house placement tools

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Consider Faculty Advising and Orientation

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• Adopt an initial and/or ongoing advising process to support placement, registration, cultural differences, program choice, course choice, exploration of goals, for "good advising is one of the key conditions that promotes retention" (O'Banion, 2016; Rios Erickson, 2007)

• Develop a mandatory orientation for students

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Update Placement Tests

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• Ensure students are placed using a valid measurement of either proficiency, course content, or both

  • Proficiency tests may, for example, be Accuplacer, ACTFL's Oral Proficiency Interview 

  • Course content (achievement) tests and blended (pro-chievement) tests are usually developed in-house

• Involve faculty as proctors, when possible (as opposed to computer-based tests)

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Align Placement Test Criteria to Course Curriculum

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• Embed the placement test criteria within the student learning outcomes (SLOs) across your program

• Extract samples of student performance on the placement tests (consent forms may be needed)

• Make these samples available to instructors and students (i.e. via master course syllabi or on the learning management system); this way, they can listen to/read real-world that show what students need to be able to do and by when

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Review Placement Challenge Process

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• Craft a policy and process in which students can challenge their placement within X-amount of time or within the official course add/drop date as defined by your institution

 

Consider Student Acceleration Process

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• Craft a policy and protocol for students who may wish to advance beyond the subsequent more quickly

• Consider using a program-wide placement test administered at the end of each course

• For students to be eligible to request to take such a test, they must meet certain criteria (i.e. a student may request to advance from a Level 1 course to a Level 3 course upon successful completion of the Level 1 course with maximum competency - not simply minimal competency - on all or most SLOs)

• Instructors may recommend certain individuals for acceleration testing (or may authorize advanced placement themselves with adequate justification)

• Depending on the test results, students may or may not accelerate into subsequent courses

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Extract and Use Sample Placement Performance to Evaluate Program Effectiveness

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• Consider using placement performance as baseline data to measure program effectiveness over time

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