North Carolina’s nearly 60 community colleges will implement a program to place students into classes based on high school grade point average (GPA) rather than entrance exams by the fall of 2020.
The program, called the Reinforced Instruction for Student Excellence (RISE), will be implemented at some schools like Wake Technical Community College as early as the fall of 2019.
“Through an extensive review of literature, on-site observations in other states, and shared experiences from faculty and staff across the system, the RISE teams have developed a model to promote student success to complete gateway math and English courses,” the official NC Community College system’s overview of the program said.
Under the old system, a placement test determined which classes students could take, often placing students with lower test scores in remedial classes.
The RISE program aims to allow students to bypass unnecessary remedial classes.
“Research has shown that standardized tests are not a true representation of a student’s capabilities,” Cierra Hill, Chapel Hill’s liaison for College and Career Promise, said. “A lot of students suffer from testing anxiety, and their score may not be a fair representation of whether or not a student is able to meet the standards and expectations of a community college and its rigor.”
Specifically, RISE allows students with a GPA of 2.8 or above to be placed automatically in college-level English and math courses. Students with GPAs between 2.2 and 2.799 can still jump to college courses provided their SAT and ACT scores are high enough.
Students who do not meet the criteria under the RISE system will be placed in new “co-requisite” classes, which are designed to aid students with college-level classes. Students with a GPA under 2.2 will still take remedial classes, renamed “transition courses,” under the program.
“I think the change will help a lot of students who struggle with testing,” senior Abbey Chewning said, “even though there are a lot more factors that go into a student’s GPA than just their proficiency in a course.”
Only students who have been out of high school for ten years or fewer will be enrolled in classes based on the RISE program. Placement tests will be administered for students who graduated school beyond the time frame.
The state’s decision to implement RISE comes after the program’s success in other states, including Tennessee, California and Indiana.
