Policies changed on repeating courses, cutoff test scores

Two new policy revisions at MCCC may keep some students out of the classroom.

The college's course repetition policy now limits to three the number of times a student can repeat a course.

Previously, students could repeat courses as many times as they chose, as long as a grade of "C" or better was not achieved.

"Students should not need to take more than three times to pass a class; unless of course they are simply retaking to get a better grade," said Dr. Grace Yackee, vice president of instruction.

If a student has reached the maximum number of three repeats and wants to retake a course, the student must receive permission from the dean of the division.

This type of situation will be approached on a case by case basis, according to Yackee.

As of now, if a student withdraws from a class, it will not count toward the limit of three attempts.

This revision went into effect for the Fall 2011 term.

The policy that defines how the ACT and the COMPASS tests are used to place students into college courses also has been revised. It shifts how students will be placed into reading and writing courses, and for the first time sets bottom cutoff scores for ENG 090 and RDG 090.

Under the new revision, students who receive below a score of 50 on the COMPASS Reading test or 32 on the COMPASS Writing test will not be allowed to enroll in ENG 090 and RDG 090.

Students will need to work on their skills elsewhere until they've improved their scores.

Students who score between 50 and 60 on the COMPASS Reading test and between 32 and 40 on the COMPASS Writing test will be placed in 090 classes; students with higher scores can can be placed into higher level college courses.

The changes only attach a bottom cutoff score to the Reading and Writing tests. At this time, students can take Math 090 regardless of their COMPASS score. Instead of cutoff scores, the Math faculty is experimenting with a phased approach to developmental courses.

The new use of placement scores will go into effect for the Winter 2012 term. Students who test into RDG 090 will be required to complete the course before being allowed to take most 100-level or higher courses, while ENG 090 will need to be completed before students can take higher level English courses.

Effective Fall 2012 term, students who test into the developmental education classes will have to complete both ENG 090 and RDG 090 to take higher-level courses.

See POLICY, Page 2

Discussion of the changes began when the state recommended the college examine its  course repetition policy.

"A state audit suggested we have a policy to address lack of student progress among students who repeat courses," Dr. Yackee said. "The State Audit emphasized the concern regarding duplication of costs."

The performance audit, done by the state in December 2010, found there were 834 occurrences in which a class had been retaken by a student more than three times. The 834 occurrences were linked back to 684 individual students, meaning that several repeated multiple courses more than three times.

The audit examined the time frame between the Fall 2007 semester and the Spring 2009 semester. The audit noted that the courses repeated the most were English Comp I and English Comp II. The number of students taking the classes for at least the third time totaled 186, with some students repeating the courses as many as eight times.

The second highest course was Introduction to Political Science, with117 students retaking the course more than three times, and some taking it for seventh time.

"The state of Michigan views that as a waste," Nixon said.

Humanities professor Mark Bergmooser shares a similar opinion.

"Repeating courses is not the problem; the use of state funds for the repetition of these repeated courses is the issue at hand," he said.

According to Valerie Culler, director of financial aid, a student may only receive financial aid to repeat a course once.

Nixon said he thinks there is a correlation between course repetition and students entering courses who are unprepared.

"There is somewhat of a relationship between repeating classes over and over again and whether students were ready," he said.

Yackee stressed that the college is not denying admission to students, but trying to better prepare students for college success.

"We are not denying admissions…we are delaying admissions until students show readiness for college-level study. Would you throw someone into the middle of the ocean who cannot swim?" she said.   

"We are doing just that when we enroll students into college level courses for which they are not prepared to learn. Look at the levels we expect…the high schools expect higher levels," she added.

According to Yackee, the revised policy's cutoff scores are much lower than what the state of Michigan expects from students graduating from high school.