Investigating the Alignment of High School and Community College Assessments in California. National Center Report #07-3

While California community colleges are open to all students eligible and able to benefit, most students must demonstrate that they are ready for college-level academic work by passing the college's placement exam once they enroll. Because California does not explicitly define college readiness standards for high school students, the placement exams function as the de facto entry-level standards for higher education. Over 94 different placement assessments were given to entering students last year at the community colleges. This study identifies the standards represented by the myriad placement tests in English language arts and mathematics. It then compares these standards to what high school students are expected to know in the 11th grade in order to determine if what we are expecting in high school matches what students need to know to take credit-bearing courses at the community college. The results suggest that the augmented California Standards Tests (CSTs) in English language arts demonstrates sufficient alignment with the objectives measured by the most prevalent placement exams in use on California community college campuses. However, the math tests showed adequate alignment values only with respect to depth of knowledge consistency and balance of representation, falling short in many content areas in terms of categorical concurrence and range of knowledge alignment. (Contains 12 tables.)