The Expansion of Multiple-Measure Placement Policies During COVID-19: A Case Study of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System

Because of their open enrollment policies, community colleges serve large numbers of students whose K–12 education has left them unready to succeed in college-level courses. Colleges typically use test scores such as the ACT to place students into appropriate course levels. However, the use of test-based measures alone has been criticized as being an incomplete measure of students’ ability. As a result, most colleges have begun to use high school grade point average (HSGPA) to supplement placement policy. We examine one such reform enacted across the 16 colleges in the Kentucky Community & Technical College System (KCTCS). We find that the number of students deemed college ready upon entrance to KCTCS substantially rose after HSGPA was added and that HSGPA is a stronger predictor of passing gateway courses than ACT scores. Newly college ready students based on HSGPA but not ACT scores generally had weaker first-year outcomes than students who met ACT college readiness benchmarks, but the gaps in gateway course enrollment and completion narrowed during the study period. However, we are unable to attribute the narrowing of these gaps solely to the use of HSGPA because of other concurrent developmental education reforms.