Spring College and Career Fair Opportunity

Greeting WESD Counselors! I wanted to pass along this great opportunity!  The Salem Area College and Career Fair on April 25th, would be a great spring event to get Juniors thinking about colleges before they return in the fall to “real life” decisions and the application process.  Kathy Moore was able to get a larger venue, that we hope will continue for years to come.  Let’s support this event to the extent that we can, so we will have it as an option for Juniors every year.  The event is not just for Juniors, I am just suggesting they are a great target group for this event. NEED MORE INFORMATION?  Use the link below to see the flyer for this event. Cherie Clark Regional Coordinator College and Career Willamette Promise | Willamette Education Service District cherie.clark@wesd.org l www.wesd.org/willamettepromise  503.385.4699 Salem Area College and Career Fair Find the Flyer Here

Community College Placement Tests

My daughter took some placement tests last week, and I found out some info that you and the mentors might find interesting. 

It appears that the placement tests for community colleges all have their own interpretation of cut scores. The test is the same for PCC, Clackamas Community College, and Chemeketa, the ACT Compass, but each college can pick their own cut scores. 

So a student can score at Math 20(general math) at one school, and Math 70 (Intro to Algebra) at another. And score into Reading 90 and Writing 90 or into RD 115 and WR 115 with the same score at different schools. This also is true for scoring out of taking these courses. 

So by shopping around at different community colleges, you can save a few thousand dollars in tuition and a whole lot of time sitting in classrooms taking classes that really might not be necessary. I couldn't believe the differences in the math cut scores especially. How can one college math department interpret a score as putting you at a general math level and another at algebra. The general math is two math classes below the other. So arbitrary. 

For instance, a student can score two points below a certain Reading level at PCC but score two points above that level on the same reading test at Chemeketa.