Placement Tools for Developmental Mathematics and Intermediate Algebra

This paper investigates the placement of students at an urban Ohio college campus in developmental mathematics and Intermediate Algebra courses. We have found that the ACT Mathematics and COMPASS Domain I (Algebra) Placement scores both correlate well with success in the Intermediate Algebra course and that, although females have lower placement test scores than males, they have a higher success rate in the course. We determined that the existing cutoff for placement in the Intermediate Algebra course is accurate in predicting students to be more likely to succeed than fail the Intermediate Algebra course at this institution.