How does course recommendation impact student outcomes? Examining directed self-placement with regression discontinuity analysis

For many students, placement into developmental education becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Placing college students into developmental education significantly negatively impacts student attainment, student probability of passing, and college credits earned. To combat these negative effects, many universities are investigating alternative placement mechanisms. Could directed self-placement be an effective alternative mechanism? Do students who self-place suffer the same negative impacts from placement recommendations as their traditionally placed counterparts? This paper uses longitudinal data with causal inference methods to examine whether directed self-placement has similar negative impacts on student grades and pass rates as mandatory placement schema. We begin with an analysis of over 20,000 student placement records into one of two different placement tracks for first-year writing. Longitudinal and institutional data allow us to control for characteristic variables such as student race, family income, and sex. The results of our regression discontinuity design show that directed self-placement does not negatively impact student grades or pass rate. This may be an improvement for students who place at or near the threshold for developmental/remedial education; However, class, race, and gender-based statistical differences persist in the program at-large, demonstrating that placement technique plays only one part in building a more equitable program.