Next month, DVC will resume testing entering students on their writing and reading comprehension skills, but it will be a different test than the one used for the past 15 years.

The college’s Assessment Committee voted last month to introduce Accuplacer, a computerized, multiple-choice reading test and a student-written essay, also scored by the computer.

Accuplacer will replace the essay students previously wrote in response to a prompt, which was then evaluated by two English professors.  

Students’ scores determine whether they are recommended for placement in remedial and basic skills English classes or eligible for English122, the college’s transfer-level composition class. English 122 is also a prerequisite for certain courses in other DVC departments.

“Money,” was English department chair Nancy Zink’s one-word answer as to why the college decided to switch.

“English wanted to keep it the way it was,” Zink said. “We just couldn’t afford the readers.”

Accuplacer will cost the college about $5 per student, compared to about $10 per student for the English department readers, said Beth Hauscarriague, dean of matriculation.

In fact, in the short-term, it will cost even less.  

The college buys credits called “units” at $1.70 per unit. The English assessment test will cost three units as opposed to one unit for the Accuplacer math assessment test that is also being introduced. 

Last year, when the college bought the math exam, it also purchased 18,000 units at the discounted price of $1.55 per unit. Although it depends on how many students take the math exam, there will be thousands of units left that can be used for the English exam, Hauscarriague said. 

“There is no human grading and the scores are available immediately,” Hauscarriague said. “In my mind, it is a better way of delivering the test with a method that is more familiar to them.”

But some English professors don’t see the change as an improvement for students. “It doesn’t really [replicate] what we do in the classroom,” said Tom Barber, head of the English division’s assessment committee. “We normally have them do reading and writing, [but] it’s a multiple choice test.”

As for how a computer could score a student-written essay, Barber said, “It’s sort of cutting edge technology. It actually grades for ideas, important words, phrases.”

He said the makers of Accuplacer compared the computer’s scores with those of college professors, and the results were similar.

“We’ll see if it can place students with the same accuracy,” Barber said.

English professor Irene Menegas, who favored the old test, said, “I think we are losing a lot.”  

“It’s hard to imagine how the placement could be as effective. They narrow the world of possible answers.” 

DVC’s old assessment test was something new when it was first introduced in the early 1990s and was modeled after similar tests being used by the University of California system, said Barbara Sawyer, a retired English professor who was instrumental in developing the “homegrown” test. 

“[The English department wanted the test] so incoming students would know what college was like,” Sawyer said. “We wanted to have a test that reflected the way we teach in the classroom.”

Prior to that, there was no assessment and students could sign up for whatever English class they wanted, leading many students to sign up for classes they were not prepared for. 

“[Creating the test] was a lot of hard work, but in the end most of us thought we had something valuable.” Sawyer added.

The “homegrown” test required far more involvement from instructors. There was an assessment committee that had to choose readings, readers who had to be trained, and then the essays needed to be graded. 

The essay portion of the Accuplacer test has yet to be validated by the state. “With all the tests, we need to do local validation,” said Ellen Kruse, interim English division dean. “That’s what we’re in the process of doing.”