To: Math 147 and Math 170 Students

To: All 147 instructors and all Math 170 instructors.

Re: Readiness Assessment through ALEKS

From: Doug Bullock, Chair Math Department

Date: July 2, 2008

We have been offered (and I have accepted) an excellent opportunity to test precalculus skills and calculus readiness for all students as they enter Math 147 or Math 170 this fall. Essentially, each student in your class will have an initial homework assignment that amounts to an assessment of their precalculus skills. They will complete this homework assignment on their own over the summer or in the first week of class.

In this memo I will outline the mechanism that has been put in place this summer, how students will interact with it, and finally how it will affect your classes and your work this fall. I will also mention some of what I see as pro and con elements.

This is an experiment and it is important to learn whether or not it is workable in the future. It is also important to implement it in a way that is fair and equitable to all affected students.

The Mechanism:  The test is a product from ALEKS called Preparation for Calculus. The ALEKS homepage is www.aleks.com for anyone who would like to research the product or the vendor.  BSU has purchased from ALEKS the right for every student enrolled in 147 or 170 to log onto the ALEKS site and take the initial assessment in Preparation for Calculus.  Summer orientation advisors have been supplied with information about how to advise students and how to direct them to the ALEKS website.  All students passing through summer orientation should receive a memo similar to the “Memo to Students” included below.  The text of that memo has been appended to the course description for all sections of 147 and 170 on BroncoWeb.  ALEKS will provide weekly reports of all the scores posted by our students. These will come to Marvel in Excel spreadsheets. Marvel can also check scores directly at any time.  Students may take the assessment as often as they like, and they may opt to study on their own over the summer as they wish. ALEKS will deliver all of their assessment scores to us. The university pays for only the first assessment. Further assessments and remediation are the responsibility of the students, although the Provost is willing to cover half the students’ cost if they successfully self-remediate through the ALEKS remediation module .

What Students Do:  Take the assessment any time over the summer or during the first week of classes this fall.  Students may take the assessment as often as they like, and they may opt to study on their own over the summer as they wish.  ALEKS will deliver all of their assessment scores to us.  The university pays for only the first assessment. Further assessments and/or remediation are the student’s responsibility, the exception being the potential for covering part of the cost as described above for students who successfully self- remediate. One possibility for remediation is to purchase 6 weeks of access to the full Preparation for Calculus product from ALEKS. This module costs a little under $40 and will automatically include at least one reassessment. Stand alone assessments cost $3.60 each.  Change to different course if the assessment indicates incorrect initial placement.

What you will need to do:  Treat the ALEKS assessment as the first graded assignment in your class. Assign grades for the ALEKS assessment uniformly across all sections. We will meet during the pre- service week to determine an appropriate uniform grading policy.

That’s all, but if you want to help this go smoothly, here are few things to consider. o We must weight the ALEKS assessment as a non-trivial graded assignment so that students take it seriously. The memo sent to students says that it will count for 10% of total grade, and that the only possible scores are 0 and 10. This is modeled on a successful program in place at the University of Illinois which has used this assessment on over 10,000 students. If we want to use a different grading scheme, we can work that out when we meet during the pre- service week this fall. o Remind your students by email that this is an important assignment. You can contact all your students via email through BroncoWeb. (You might have to put up with a few navigation hassles from PeopleSoft. Enable pop-ups and be patient for a few mouse clicks.) Marvel will be sending periodic emails all summer to try to inform all registered students, but your email would be helpful also. o If a student complains to you personally, I recommend one, two, or all three of these replies: . “This is your first homework assignment. It’s not optional and it’s the same for every student in every section.” . “You can take the assessment as many times as you want to. After the first free one, you have to pay $3.60.” . “This is designed to increase success for all students. If you want to discuss it further the Math Department Chair will be happy to meet with you. You can reach him at 426-1172.” o Plan to meet with all the 170 and 147 instructors on the Wednesday before classes start. We will have a chance to settle some final details at that time. o Contact me if you want to take the assessment yourself to see what it’s like. o Read up on the information posted at http://coen.boisestate.edu/aleks

Pros:  Some chance that it will result in stronger students in your 170 classes. University of Illinois saw a large reduction in D/F/W grades in their Calc I classes after they implemented this. (Previous D/W/F rate was around 35-40%. It dropped to about 20%.  Assessment of precalculus skills at the time the class begins. This can improve on placement mechanisms that are stale or untrustworthy: prereq credit or placement scores from a long time ago, questionable transfer credit, etc.  Good source of data to compare against other placement mechanisms, including ACT, COMPASS and prerequisite classes.  Good source of exit exam data for any students who take our 108 or 147 and then move into the next course (147 or 170, resp.)  If it works, we can expand it to apply to Math 143 and Math 160.  If correctly implemented this is a relatively painless way to cooperate with requests from client departments and administration for changes in our approach to Calculus.

Cons:  Comes a quite a surprise to both you and your students. I strongly encourage you to voice your opinions to me. Student concerns can also be directed to my office.  Imposes a change on how you compute final grades. (Please note that you can still configure your grading policy so that this does not actually force you to assign a final grade that you don’t think is warranted.)  Students might complain. Please see above for how this might affect you. Don’t be shy about using the third reply.  Must be applied uniformly across sections.  Creates administrative work for me and Marvel.  Possibly creates administrative work for you, although I am trying to keep that from happening. If this does create chores for you, please let me know what so that I can look for ways to offload them to the office staff or to other university resources.  I have included in this proposal an offer for students who are in Math 147, but score highly on the assessment, to move into Math 170. University of Illinois has seen roughly equal numbers of students moving in both directions. The result was that they did not have to add sections. The major “con” here is that we do not have strong data using ALEKS as a direct placement tool. My hope is that it is no worse than COMPASS.  Anything else that you can think of. Please let me know.

Text of Memo to Students:

Correct placement, according to math knowledge and ability is absolutely critical for your success. As a result of our commitment to helping you succeed in mathematics courses, effective fall, 2008 we will help determine your readiness to enroll in Math 147 and Math 170 by testing your requisite math knowledge via the BSU Math Assessment Exam through ALEKS.

The mathematics department requires you take the BSU Math Assessment Exam through ALEKS to assess your prerequisite knowledge for the course you have enrolled in. The ALEKS assessment tool will help identify strengths and weaknesses of your mathematical knowledge. It will give us information to determine your appropriate level for course placement.

Math 147: Minimum score of 40% on the ALEKS assessment. Math 170: Minimum score of 70% on the ALEKS assessment.

If you do not meet the minimum score you will be recommended for the prerequisite course. If you choose to remain in the course, your grade may be lowered by 10%.

You may take the ALEKS assessment exam as often as you wish between June 20, 2008 and the 5th day of classes for the Fall 2008 semester. Your highest score will count for placement. Only the initial assessment is free. You are encouraged to purchase the "assessment and learning" module of ALEKS if you did not reach the minimum ALEKS score for your course and you want a learning module to assist you in reaching the required minimum score.

You may access the placement exam through the following website, which also contains additional information about retesting and remediation. http://coen.boisestate.edu/aleks