Placement and Assessment Committee

2006 Newsletter
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From the Chair of PAC Ed Gallo Greetings to all who are interested in Placement and Assessment. We have many things going on in the math placement and assessment areas. We had a great themed session titled "Great Ideas in Math Placement and Assessment" at the San Diego National Conference. And we will be hosting another Themed Session titled "Placement and Assessment: Doing It the Beyond Crossroads Way" at the Cincinnati 2006 Conference. There will also be some very exciting regular sessions in the area of placement and assessment in Cincinnati. And with the unveiling of the "Beyond Crossroads" document in Cincinnati, there will be additional opportunities to work on "digital" products in support of "Beyond Crossroads". I encourage you to submit a short article or other item on math placement or assessment to the PAC Newsletter. Just send it to me (ed.gallo@sinclair.edu) or to Jim Ham (jaham@delta.edu), our Newsletter editor. We will also post such articles to our PAC website as part of our mission "…to serve as a resource or clearinghouse for the AMATYC membership on issues related to Placement and Assessment of students, courses, and programs in mathematics at two-year colleges". Featured Article LESSONS LEARNED IN THE ASSESSMENT SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS Carolyn J. Haessig, Armand S. La Potin   We received this article from the Tomorrow's Professor listserv. This listserv "... seeks to foster a diverse, world-wide teaching and learning ecology among its over 21,000 subscribers at over 600 institutions and organizations in over 108 countries around the world." The featured article "looks at some ways to get faculty more involved, and supportive, of institutional assessment." To view the entire article, visit http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings/641.html Beyond Crossroads 2006 Beyond Crossroads will be released in November, 2006. The current draft of Beyond Crossroads can be viewed at http://www.amatyc.org/Crossroads/CROSSROADS/index.htm. To assist in the implementation of the ideas of Beyond Crossroads, several digital products will be created over the next several years. Prototypes and samples of assessment digital products are now being considered. To view a potential assessment digital product, please visit http://placement.amatyc.org/assessmentcycle/elemalgebrajh052006.html or http://placement.amatyc.org/assessmentcycle/btcmcadp062206.html. We would like to encourage all PAC members to submit a sample assessment digital product using the Beyond Crossroads assessment cycle. Please submit your assessment work at http://placement.amatyc.org/digprodform.html. If you are interested in volunteering to be involved in the Beyond Crossroads project by creating or reviewing assessment digital products, please contact Margie Hobbs or David Graser. 2006 AMATYC Conference in Cincinnati - A Preview "Placement and Assessment: Doing It the Beyond Crossroads Way" Presented by the Placement and Assessment Committee Friday, November 3, 2006, 11:45 am - 1:40 pm This themed session explores strategies and ideas in mathematics placement and assessment. The presentations will be designed to emphasize placement and assessment concepts in the Beyond Crossroads document. Does Color Matter in Assessment of Student Performance? Description: After I gave a test printed on blue paper, students who had trouble reading the white tests came up to me thanking me for the color. For the majority, color makes no difference, but in each class, some students say "Wow, thanks for the blue!" and their test scores seem better. Connie Buller, Metropolitan Community College Assessing Intermediate Algebra: Extra Time = Increased Student Success? Description: What would happen if you had two extra hours of classroom time for your Intermediate Algebra class? This presentation describes how we added the time and what the results were. Ed Gallo, Sinclair Community College Introducing a Beyond Crossroads assessment digital product: An example from Elementary Algebra Description: A course assessment project using one of AMATYC's Beyond Crossroads' new digital products will be demonstrated. Participants will be encouraged to submit their own assessment work after they see how a mathematics department completed one assessment cycle in an elementary algebra course. Jim Ham, Delta College Assessing Student Comprehension in College Algebra Description: This presentation will discuss learning activities designed to assess a student's level of comprehension of College Algebra material. Activities include short written assignments as well as student-created problems and other problems that enhance the material covered in the class. Darlene Hatcher, Metropolitan Community College Math Review Short Courses for Better Placement at HACC Description: The two-week short course provides 20 hours of fast-paced and intensive review of developmental math courses. Students who are placed in the development math courses may take the short course for review to prepare for the course that they are placed into, to improve their placement score, or as enrichment. O. Pauline Chow, Harrisburg Area Community College Course Assessment in a Multi-Campus Environment Description: Recently, Ivy Tech Community College changed its Intermediate Algebra course assessment methodology. This presentation will address the design and implementation of our new state-wide assessment plan. Paul Hessert, Ivy Tech Community College If you are not going to Cincinnati or do not have a chance to see these presentations, you will be able to get information about them after the conference. Presenter contact information and handouts will be made available on our PAC website after the conference.   2005 AMATYC Conference in San Diego- A Summary Two PAC committee meetings were held during the 2005 AMATYC conference in San Diego. Ed Gallo, Chair of PAC, led the meetings. Agenda items included the following: Attendees were asked to provide or update their contact information. The Beyond Crossroads document was discussed, and attendees were encouraged to review the document and submit editorial changes. Ed encouraged members to submit a proposal to present at the 2006 placement and assessment themed session in Cincinnati. The PAC goals and objectives were discussed. The revised goals and objectives will be presented to the AMATYC Board for approval in the spring. Ed encouraged members to submit items to be included on the PAC website and for the PAC newsletter. The committee agreed to assist in the creation of assessment digital products that will supplement Beyond Crossroads. Some committee members also volunteered to serve as reviewers for the online version of Beyond Crossroads. The PAC subcommittees met to plan their work for the next year. Also, PAC sponsored a themed session for the third year in a row. The theme was "Great Ideas in Math Placement and Assessment." To see details of the themed session, visit the web page http://placement.amatyc.org/sandiego2005.html.

Member Soundoff Termites on the Ladder to Success Connie Buller, Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE Mathematics is an area where proper placement is a necessity. Having to explain basic fractions in Calculus I bodes ill for the student who needs that explanation. When properly placed students fail the class due to personal choices (like not doing homework, or skipping class, or not actively participating in class), I try to speak one on one with any students that earned a D or F. We talk of career dreams, and plans for finding success when retaking the class. What can the teacher do when under-prepared students walk in the door? If I happen to find the discrepancy before class begins, I talk to the advisor, and try to contact the student. Students can waste their time and their money if they take a class for which they are not qualified. They then have to take the prerequisite class(es) anyway in order to find success in, say, College Algebra. The student says, "I need only this class in order to finish my university degree," or "I have my baby-sitting and work and all my other classes scheduled by now, and this is the only class that fits," or "But I will work really hard!" The advisor says, "The student pushed me to enroll him/her in this class, so I did, and figured you were such a good, caring teacher that you could help the student pass anyway." Sometimes I don't discover the problem until the Intermediate Algebra student asks, "How did you know that 3 is the common factor for 24x + 15?" or reveals damaging misconceptions when failing the first quiz or test (this is one reason I give quizzes during the first few days of class). Then I catch the student on break, and visit about why, exactly, he or she is taking math. It is hard to climb high on a ladder that has termite-ridden lower rungs. If possible, I walk with the student to the advising area, and tell the student that if classes are full, I will let him or her into my own prerequisite class if I am teaching it, or speak with a colleague. I assure the student I will be happy to have him or her as a student in this class later, and I expect him/her to be able to earn a good grade at that time. The one thing I cannot do, in good conscience, is water down the content or assessment of the class, and skimp or even delete some of the course objectives. We must preserve course quality and consistency. If only one student uses my class as a stepping stone to higher math, or uses it to help in doing chemistry or computer science, I don't want to be a termite damaging that student in the future.   AMATYC Position Statement Under Review One of this year's PAC goals is to review AMATYC's position papers on the Initial Placement of Two-Year College Students into the Mathematics Curriculum. Please take a look at this position statement. Is it still relevant today? What needs to be revised? What needs to be added? Please send your comments to Ed Gallo (ed.gallo@sinclair.edu).   New Objectives/Goals for the Placement and Assessment Committee These are the new objectives/goals for the PAC for 2006 - 2007: Review the "Initial Placement of Two-year College Students Into the Mathematics Curriculum" position statement dated November 2002. Provide recommendation regarding this position statement to the Spring 2007 AMATYC Board meeting. Publish the PAC Newsletter once a year, with the goal of two issues per year. Plan Themed Sessions for the 2006 and 2007 Conferences. Expand the PAC website to include a list of more resources in each of the following areas: Assessment of Student Performance Assessment of Mathematical Programs Placement Assist in developing and reviewing the Beyond Crossroads digital products: Beyond Crossroads Live Assessment Conferences AMATYC - November 2-5, 2006 - Cincinnati, Ohio The 2006 Assessment Institute - Indianapolis, Indiana, October 29 - 31, 2006 AACU's General Education and Assessment Conference, Miami, Florida, March 1-3, 2007 The League for Innovation in the Community College Innovations Conference, New Orleans, LA, March 4-7, 2007 American Association of Community College Convention, Tampa, FL, April 14-17, 2007 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Chicago, Illinois, September 20-22, 2006 Phoenix, Arizona, October 5-7, 2006 Atlantic City, New Jersey, October 19-21, 2006 Atlanta, Georgia, March 21-24, 2007 Mathematical Association of America MathFest: Knoxville, TN, August 10-12, 2006 MAA-AMS Joint Mathematics Meeting, New Orleans, LA, January 5-8, 2007   Websites Check out the following web sites for information on issues related to placement and assessment. Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics (SAUM) http://www.maa.org/saum/ An NCF grant was awarded to advance the assessment of mathematics and mathematical programs. This site serves an an excellent assessment resource for college and university faculty charged with assessing their students and programs. NC State University Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/assmt/resource.htm This site is a clearinghouse for all the best assessment web sites and resources. The Math Forum's mathedcc listserv archive http://mathforum.org/kb/forum.jspa?forumID=184&start=0 Use the keywords placement or assessment to Search the archives of AMATYC's listserv. ASSESS - Assessment in Higher Education listserv archive http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/assess.html Search the archives of this listserv to find out what colleagues around the world are saying about assessment.   Publications The League for Innovation in the Community College's An Assessment Framework for the Community College http://placement.amatyc.org/framework.pdf (PDF) The Need to Rethink Placement in Mathematics   Questions? Contact Us. To join the AMATYC Placement and Assessment Committee and to receive future PAC newsletters, complete the PAC membership form. To contact a PAC Officer: PAC Committee Chair: Ed Gallo (ed.gallo@sinclair.edu) PAC Committee Vice Chair: Connie Buller (cbuller@mccneb.edu) Secretary: Jim Ham (jaham@delta.edu) Assessment of Student Performance Subcommittee Chair: Kathleen Ebert (ebertkc@alfredstate.edu) Assessment of Mathematical Programs Subcommittee Chair: Steve Kifowit (skifowit@prairie.cc.il.us) Assessment of Mathematical Programs Subcommittee Assistant Chair: Lila Roberts (lila.roberts@gcsu.edu) Placement Subcommittee Chair: Bill Coe (william.coe@montgomerycollege.edu) Placement Subcommittee Assistant Chair: Bev Parnell (bparnell@yvcc.edu)

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