Math Placement Acceleration Initiative at the City College of San Francisco Developed with San Francisco Unified School District
Description:
This issue brief presents an analysis predicting students' success in their first community college math course and explains how a placement policy created through San Francisco's Bridge to Success (BtS) initiative acts on these results. BtS brings together the City and County of San Francisco, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), the City College of San Francisco (CCSF), and key community organizations to promote postsecondary success for underrepresented students. Because some of the students requiring remediation entered CCSF straight from a SFUSD high school, BtS leadership identified that a joint policy between SFUSD and CCSF could improve policy and student outcomes for incoming CCSF students. The analysis conducted by the Gardner Center predicted which matriculating students could succeed under this policy, based on high school math grades, attendance, and California Standardized Test math scores. Using the results of this analysis, the BtS math placement team created a new policy for SFUSD graduates entering in fall 2012: Entering SFUSD high school graduates who place below college-level math may choose to enroll in a course one level higher than their tested placement level if they meet two of the following three criteria: (1) cumulative math GPA at SFUSD of 2.7 or higher; (2) cumulative attendance at SFUSD of 90% or higher; (3) California Standards Test math proficiency level of Basic or above in 11th grade.
Suggested Citation:
Williams, B. (2012). Math placement acceleration initiative at the CCSF developed with SFUSD. Stanford, CA: John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities.