Overview
Texas statute requires that students meet the state definition of college readiness in reading, writing, and math as determined by scores on the Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA). Recent changes to the TSIA have led to continuing refinement of placement standards at ACC to ensure that students receive the right instruction in the right setting.
Accomplishments
With limited seats available for developmental reading and writing students, the Integrated Reading and Writing (INRW) Program has implemented a managed enrollment system to assure that INRW seats are not taken by students who are TSI-complete or have waiver or exempt status. Since fall 2021, the program has identified 400+ students who met TSI requirements who were attempting to enroll in the INRW co-requisite courses intended for not-yet-college-ready students, and made sure those seats were maintained for students who needed them to achieve TSI status.
Now that INRW properly serves the targeted population (specifically the exit-level co-requisites), the TSI placement chart cut scores have been updated to permit more non-TSI-complete students to take exit-level co-requisites.
Impact
Assuring the developmental education courses are serving the correct population of students assures those students have access to an educational program with limited resources. This also contributes to the increase in our success rates by increasing the percentage of students compelling college-level English in their first year through our co-requisite program. The revisions of the TSI placement chart also save students money and help them complete their degree and transfer goals in a timely manner.
Next Steps
As more students return to campus, INRW placement reforms will include exploring alternative ways to improve placement in the INRW 0420/INRW 0430 course sequence, also known as our 8X8 sections, or 5X5 in the summer. These sections are very accelerated and may not be appropriate for all students. Collaboration with the advising community on the best way to identify students for these sections is the first step in this process.
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