"A study of the most recent ACT college-entrance exams found that less than 25 percent of high-school grads have the skills to pass entry-level college classes. In addition, the review said that 28 percent of grads didn't score enough to pass even one entry-level class in science, math, reading or English."
- "Dumbed Down." Herald Palladium

While preparing to write this article, I came across the above quote from an article that just happened to be in my local daily newspaper. According to this study, schools are not being successful with 75 percent of students in America. Because of this, your school may very well be getting more and more students of parents who are no longer satisfied with public education. With these students come all different levels of academic success. To help you determine how successful a student has been, you have a free tool that you can utilize: Switched-On® placement tests.

Switched-On placement tests were designed to help you more easily determine where a student fits into the Switched-On Scope and Sequence. Placement test results will show any weaknesses in their understanding of crucial concepts, allowing for comprehensive remediation even before entering their chronological grade level for a particular subject.

Simply assign the math and language arts placement tests to your students, starting at least two grade levels back from their chronological grade level.

For example, let's assign the placement tests to a student going into 8th grade.

Within Switched-On Online®, assign both the math and language placement tests via the student's Assign Courses control. Then, through the student's Grading control, open up the Math Placement Test, and use Skip X on the righthand side to skip the grade levels up to Level 6. Repeat this for the Language Arts Placement Test. The end result will look like this:



Within Switched-On Schoolhouse®, assign the math and language arts placement tests via the Curriculum Setup tab. Then, edit that student's Math Placement Test, and use the Remove button to remove levels 3, 4, and 5. Repeat this process with the Language Arts Placement test. Here is what it would look like right before exiting the Edit Subject window:



The student will now be taken to Level 6 of the placement tests. When analyzing the results, utilize 70 percent as a passing grade. Since quiz numbers directly correlate with the unit numbers of that grade level, any quiz that scores less than 70 percent shows that the student needs that unit for remediation. After all placement testing is finished and results are determined, simply create a custom course to reflect any remediation necessary for the student.

The first step to a student's academic success is through accurate placement into a curriculum. Switched-On placement tests provide you a simple tool to help ensure each student is ready for the next grade level, providing a stronger foundation for continued academic success.