Improving Mathematics Placement for Community College Students: An Evaluation of Placement Improvement Programs

New incoming community college students are not aware of placement tests, their importance, and how to prepare for them. Consequently, many are placed into mathematics classes below their ability level. This study is a quantitative evaluation of two placement improvement programs, placement preparation workshops and three-week review courses, which were created by a community college to help students obtain a more reflective placement for their abilities. This evaluation focuses on student data to analyze the effects of placement preparation workshops and three-week placement review courses in helping students improve their college math placement, contribute towards students’ cumulative math class success, and to overall college success for students of all ages and genders. While these programs attracted both students who desired to improve their mathematics placement, and those who desired information and practice resources prior to testing, these programs resulted in students who improved their mathematics placement, with some students testing completely out of their program of study’s math requirement, and led to retention, math success, and overall college success rates for participating students that were comparable, and in most cases much higher, than the overall rates for all or developmental math students at this college. Finally, several recommendations are given that could assist all community colleges in preparing new incoming students for a placement test, and contribute to improved enrollment, retention, success, and graduation rates of community college students.