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Policy Statement 

To facilitate student success in coursework, ��ɫ��Ƶnical Community College establishes and follows procedures to assess students for placement into appropriate courses that match students’ proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics with academic requirements of the curriculum. 

Procedure

��ɫ��Ƶ’s Testing Center offers a variety of in-person and online student assessment services. Students participating in online placement testing must have internet access and a personal computer (mobile devices should not be used for placement testing). Refer to the Placement Testing section of the website for additional information, including scheduling guidelines.

��ɫ��Ƶ uses local placement tests (referred to below as “��ɫ��Ƶ Placement Tests”) to assess students’ college readiness in reading, writing, and mathematics.  

Students who have completed associate degrees or higher from a regionally accredited college or university in the United States are college-ready and can take any gateway 100-level course on their plan of study. Students who do not already hold an associate degree or higher from the United States must use their unweighted high school GPA for placement if they graduated from an accredited high school in the United States. ACT, SAT, GED, HiSET, RISE, NCDAP, COMPASS, ASSET, and ACCUPLACER scores can be used for placement within ten years from the date taken. If college transcripts, high school records, or test scores are unavailable, students must take the placement test. Students can also take the placement test to place into a higher-level course than their high school GPA would place them.

Determination of readiness for placement testing will be based on students’ responses to the questions below. With the exception of high school students testing to enroll in Career and College Promise (CCP), all students are required to answer the following questions:  

• Is U.S. English your first language?
• Did you graduate from a U.S. high school?
   

Students who answer “Yes” to the questions above will be eligible to take the ��ɫ��Ƶ Placement Tests. Students who answer “No” to one or both of the questions above will take the ACCUPLACER ESL test.  

Students may contact the Assistant Vice President, Academics and Guided Career Pathways (or their designee) to appeal the requirement to take the ACCUPLACER ESL test and may request permission to take the ��ɫ��Ƶ Placement Test(s) instead. 

��ɫ��Ƶ Placement Tests

The ��ɫ��Ƶ Placement Tests include:

• English placement test – Students will take the ��ɫ��Ƶ English Placement Test to place into the proper English prerequisite, corequisite and/or gateway ENG course (ENG 025, ENG 045 and/or ENG 111, respectively).
   
• Two (2) Math Tests – Students take either the QL/Stat test to place out of MAT 025 and into MAT 143 and/or MAT 152 (with or without a corequisite MAT 045 class, depending on their score) or they can take the Algebra placement test to place out of MAT 035 into any gateway math class with or without a corequisite MAT 045 class, depending on their score.  
   

All ��ɫ��Ƶ Placement Tests are provided at no cost to the student and are multiple choice and administered by computer in the Testing Center. Both the English and math placement tests have a one-hour time limit. Scores are shared with the appropriate academic advisor, who will assist their assigned students with academic planning and course selection.

Students may retake the ��ɫ��Ƶ Placement Tests only once and may not retest on the same day as their original test.  

ACCUPLACER ESL Test

Students taking the ACCUPLACER ESL test in the areas of reading skills, language use, and sentence meaning must meet with the Director of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) (or their designee), who will evaluate their placement test scores and conduct personal interviews. During the interviews, the Director (or their designee) may request a writing sample to accurately determine a student’s skill level. Students will be placed into the appropriate EAP reading and writing course, with the possibility of an additional grammar or listening/speaking class based on their individual needs.

Students who place in Levels 3 and 4 will be directed to take either the ��ɫ��Ƶ QL/Stat or the ��ɫ��Ƶ Algebra Placement Test. Students in Levels 1 and 2 of EFL courses in reading and writing should not take the ��ɫ��Ƶ Math Placement Tests unless they have received permission from the Director of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) (or their designee).

Students whose ACCUPLACER ESL placement test scores and interview results indicate that they meet the skill level criteria in language will be directed to take the ��ɫ��Ƶ Placement Tests in English and mathematics.

Students may not retest in any area of the ACCUPLACER ESL placement test unless they have met with and received permission from the Director of EAP (or their designee).

Testing Accommodations

In accordance with the Accommodations for Students with Disabilities policy, students may request testing accommodations by contacting Accessibility Services at 919-536-7208 or accessibilityservices@durhamtech.edu.