Ten years ago, nearly all community colleges were using standardized placement tests in English and math to determine whether new students were ready for college-level courses. Students with low scores were placed in developmental—remedial—courses that usually did not count toward college credits. Over a quarter of students entering public community colleges ended up taking at least one developmental course, and historically, the overwhelming majority did not graduate.

But large-scale studies showed that these test scores misjudged many students: In fact, many more of them could be moving straight into college-level courses, meaning they were spending time and money on courses they did not need and that were potentially holding them back from earning degrees. So in recent years, colleges have been moving away from using only standardized tests to place students, and have been incorporating students’ high school performance into the decision as well. A random survey of colleges MDRC conducted in 2023 showed that nearly three-quarters were using high school performance to inform these placement decisions.

MDRC has studied these newer placement models—called multiple measures assessment, or MMA—extensively. Broadly speaking, those studies have revealed two things.

1. Students make more progress if they get into college-level courses faster.

When MMA systems allow students to enroll in college-level courses directly, without taking developmental courses first, more of them pass their first college courses and they earn more credits. Even less-prepared students, those with lower high school grades, pass more often and earn more total credits if they go straight into college-level courses. That’s because many students who are placed into developmental courses never take the corresponding college-level courses (because they lack the time or money, or because life events get in the way). Getting into college-level courses right away, even if they have to struggle, is often students’ best chance at passing them. Putting more students directly into college-level courses also saves students and governments money, because they take fewer developmental courses that do not count toward a degree.

2. High school grade point average (GPA) is the best predictor of student success in college.

There are many types of alternative placement systems. Some combine students’ high school performance with their scores on standardized tests. Some, as the name implies, combine multiple measures (for example, the last math test students took, or their scores on a measure of their learning and study strategies). It turns out that high school cumulative GPA is better than a standardized test at predicting how students will fare in college-level courses, and that it alone works just as well as more complicated rules or systems. On a four-point scale, students perform roughly half a point lower on average in college than in high school, so any student with a 2.5 to 3.0 high school GPA is likely to pass college-level courses in math and English with a C or better.

Looking Forward: Decisions for a New Policy Context

At the same time as colleges have moved away from using standardized tests to determine which students are ready for college-level courses, they have also been making another reform designed to get students into college-level work faster: offering developmental courses at the same time as students enroll in college-level ones, rather than requiring them to take the developmental courses first. (These types of courses are called “corequisite” rather than “prerequisite” courses.) The same 2023 survey mentioned above found that over three-quarters of colleges offer corequisite courses of some kind.

This shift has raised new questions. On the one hand, students can presumably benefit from getting the background knowledge they are missing, to help them succeed in college-level courses. But on the other, taking a developmental course at all—even while they are taking college-level ones—eats up students’ money and time, and could crowd out other work they could be doing to earn a degree. So do corequisite courses help all students or hold some back? Can they still benefit from being placed using high school GPA rather than a standardized test? MDRC will publish new research next year to answer these and other questions about corequisite courses and placement decisions.