Placement Tests

The switch in placement tests at community colleges this year is, well, confusing, with lots of caveats. The two attachments from Chemeketa’s testing department outline the changes.

Basically, Beginning this year, community colleges in Oregon are all using the same placement test, called Accuplacer. Since this is a costly test to administer, colleges are now using students’ Smarter Balanced scores and Senior English grades to determine what level reading, writing and math classes they will begin college with. The higher the Essential Skills score, the higher the level college class a student will land in.

All Chemeketa Scholars students will still be required to take the Accuplacer no matter how high their Smarter Balanced scores were. If a senior took the old Compass placement test as a junior and scored well, he/she does not have to retake the new Accuplacer test. Also, Compass and Accuplacer test scores can be mixed and matched for placement into Chemeketa classes.

Smarter Balanced Placement Document

Accuplacer