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ESL Placement Instrument EvaluationThe current method of placement into ESL writing classes at LA Mission College is through the computerized adaptive test COMPASS by ACT. Students answer multiple-choice questions, but there is no writing sample required. The ESL faculty believed that this method of evaluation did not accurately place students into writing classes and did the following research investigation. In Fall 2013, we collected writing samples during the first week of class from students who were enrolled in ESL writing classes in levels 3-8 that semester. Students were given the same writing prompt that was given in the past when we used a written assessment entitled CESLA. Students were given 45 minutes to respond to the following prompt:When people go to a new country, they sometimes have difficulty with the new language. What kinds of problems do people have if they don't speak English well in the United States?Instructions:Write one or two paragraphs to answer this question.Give examples to illustrate.Using enrollment information from the IT department, it was determined that there were 57 students enrolled in ESL writing classes (levels 3-8) who were placed in their ESL classes by the ESL assessment test. We pulled out the 50 writing samples from those 57 students, removed the names from their writing samples and conducted a holistic grading session with the full time faculty to grade each writing sample for the correct ESL course level, then compared the results with the COMPASS assessment placement results. AssessmentWriting Sample LevelPlacementESL 1ESL 2ESL 3AESL 4AESL 5AESL 6ATotalESL 3A131?5ESL 4A1554?15ESL 5A3143?11ESL 6A1196?17Engl 21????112?50This data indicates that most of the students (37 or 77%) were placed in a higher level than they should have been. 21 (44%) of the students were placed two levels or more above their writing sample level. Only 10 (21%) were placed in the correct level according to their writing sample.AssessmentPlacedPlacedPlaced?LevelToo LowCorrectlyToo High?ESL 3A120%360%120%5ESL 4A00%427%1173%15ESL 5A00%327%873%11ESL 6A00%00%17100%17?48In conclusion, the data indicated that the computerized COMPASS ESL assessment test does not accurately place students into the correct ESL writing course (77% were placed to high). This negatively impacts student success, retention and motivation when students are placed in courses that are too difficult for them. We did not make any changes to our Placement Instrument at that time, because the statewide Common Assessment was in the works and is now slated for statewide implementation starting in Spring 2016. Although the Common Assessment will be the same for every college, the cut-scores will be determined locally at the campus level to align with the ESL credit and non-credit courses on each campus. The Common Assessment encourages the use of multiple measures of assessment as well and the weight of the Common Assessment and other placement measures will be determined locally. The Common Assessment can include local tests, so we will be able to add our own writing prompt to the assessment, but it will have to be validated and approved by the state Chancellor's office before it can be used. Even though a writing sample from the students is a more accurate means of placing them in the correct ESL level, this method of testing takes a longer time to evaluate and requires additional funding to pay for the test readers/evaluators. We have recently been notified that ACT will be discontinuing Compass effective November 30, 2016, which should not have an impact on LAMC as long as the Common Assessment keeps to their timeline and is available on our campus beginning Spring 2016. If the Common Assessment is delayed, it has been recommended by the District Director of APMS Services that we switch to Accuplacer until the Common Assessment is available. ................
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