How High School Coursework Predicts Introductory College-Level Course Success

Abstract

Objective: In recent years, developmental education (DE) reform has led to a restructuring of the placement process, redesigning of course instructional modalities, or implementing student support services to supplement developmental coursework. In Florida, recent legislative changes allowed students to opt out of placement testing and enroll directly in college-level courses regardless of academic ability. The purpose of this study is to understand how students’ high school transcript information can be used in the academic advising process when students are no longer required to take standardized placement tests. Method: We used a combination of high school courses from statewide student-level data and conducted logistic regression analyses to understand how these courses help predict success in English Composition 1 and Intermediate Algebra. We also developed student profiles and presented predicted probabilities to illustrate how students with different combinations of high school coursework were pred...