8 Guided Self-Placement

GSP at MTSU

MTSU’s Department of English began piloting Multiple Measures Placement in the form of a Guided Self-Placement (GSP) instrument for international students in 2018. In Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, we revised our instrument and continued to refine our approach with the support of the Multiple Measures study team. In Fall 2021 the Admissions and Standards Committee approved our expanded use of the placement instrument. Now all students who choose to appeal their placement by standardized test scores or who do not have current scores use the GSP survey.

GSP Rationale

At MTSU, prospective students are placed into English courses based on standardized test scores (e.g., ACT/SAT). However, in addition to extensive evidence that demonstrates test scores alone are not an effective method of placement (Chen, 2016; Rutschow & Mayer, 2018) nor an effective predictor of student success in college (Belfield & Crosta, 2012; Scott-Clayton, 2012), faculty and students report dissatisfaction with placement and believe that students are often misplaced into prescribed courses. ACT and SAT are intended as a measure for college admission rather than course placement. Further, students who start college in prescribed coursework are disproportionately underserved student populations, including underrepresented minorities. To address this gap, we have expanded our use of Guided-Self Placement (GSP) for incoming first-year students to verify their placement in General Education English courses. Our GSP process increases student agency by including students in the placement process. Rather than simply placing students by test score, our GSP instrument gathers data from students regarding grade history, overall GPA, test scores, past writing experiences, and self-placement. Scholarship on the validity and presence of GSP is becoming robust as there is a national shift towards placement reform (see Balay and Nelson, Crisco et al., and Gere et al.). GSP has been successfully rolled out in large university systems, and it has been used to place international students at MTSU since 2018. The use of multiple measure placement and GSP may change the demographics of students who are placed into prescribed courses and better ensure that students take the courses that they need.

GSP Instrument Details

The GSP survey should take about 15-20 minutes to complete and includes the following 6 sections:

• Section 1: Student Information
• Section 2: Previous Reading and Writing Experiences
• Section 3: Learning Preferences
• Section 4: Test Scores & GPAs
• Section 5: Personal Narratives
• Section 6: MTSU Writing Course Self-Placement