Wisconsin

Report

Developing Assessments for All Early Learners

February, 2023

This document outlines design parameters for child assessment solutions that meet outstanding needs of the early childhood education field. It prioritizes the experiences, strengths, and needs of pre-K educators, families, and children whose perspectives are less often elevated in the design, creation, and validation of measurement and assessment tools.

Brief

Findings from the Pretrial Justice Collaborative

January, 2023
Erin Jacobs Valentine, Sarah Picard

In place of bail, many jurisdictions are instead releasing people awaiting trial with varying levels of supervision in an effort to ensure that they appear in court and avoid new arrests. This brief compares the relative effectiveness of different intensities of pretrial supervision.

Brief
January, 2022
Dan Cullinan, Elizabeth Kopko

Two experimental studies examined multiple measures assessment (MMA), in which colleges use alternative measures (like high school GPA) rather than just standardized test scores, to assign students to developmental or college-level courses. Students placed using MMA were more likely to complete college-level courses. This brief offers recommendations for other colleges.

Report

Three-Semester Findings from an Experimental Study of Multiple Measures Assessment and Placement

December, 2021

Some students are referred into developmental (or remedial) education inappropriately when placed using only standardized placement tests. When multiple measures assessment was used, students in Minnesota and Wisconsin were more likely to enroll and pass college-level math and English courses within three semesters. The additional cost of this alternative assessment averaged $33 per student.

Report
February, 2021
Jillian Berk, Ariella Kahn-Lang Spitzer, Jillian Stein, Karen Needels, Christian Geckeler, Anne Paprocki, Ivette Gutierrez, Megan Millenky

Participants in the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program are more likely to obtain a GED or high school diploma, earn college credits, and be employed. This study evaluates an expansion called Job ChalleNGe, which includes more court-involved youth and includes an add-on residential training program.

Growing up in high-poverty, highly segregated neighborhoods can limit the future prospects of young children. But low-income families with children often lack sufficient resources and face other systemic barriers to choosing freely what neighborhoods they live in. The federal government’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, which subsidizes rent for some low-income...

Brief

What Colleges Need to Know About Multiple Measures Assessments

February, 2021

Colleges often use standardized testing to determine whether incoming students need developmental courses. But those tests do not predict students’ college readiness accurately. This brief explains how the use of alternative multiple measures can improve placement decisions, increase college-level course pass rates, and boost progress toward graduation.

Report

Impact Findings From an Evaluation of a Multiple Measures Assessment Strategy

October, 2020
Elisabeth A. Barnett, Elizabeth Kopko, Dan Cullinan, Clive Belfield

A random assignment evaluation at seven State University of New York campuses finds that using multiple measures assessments to determine placement in remedial education led to more students being placed in college-level courses, where they did better than their peers who were placed in remedial classes.

Issue Focus

Three Insights from Research

June, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic means community colleges cannot administer in-person tests to determine whether students must take developmental (remedial) courses. But some colleges were already using multiple pieces of information for course placement, rather than a single test score. This brief offers three relevant insights from research on these placement systems.

Report

Promising Results from a Bridge-to-College Model

May, 2020

Bridge-to-college programs aim to help people complete high school and enroll in postsecondary education. This evaluation of one such program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay, WI finds that it helped more students earn their GEDs and enroll in college courses.

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