Purpose of the UW Center for Placement Testing
The Center provides primary support to all UW System institutions for placement test development, test administration, test scoring, and test research.
The Center coordinates placement testing for freshmen coming into UW System institutions.
The Center currently supports five committees which develop placement tests in English, French, German, Mathematics, and Spanish.
The Center also publishes the foreign language tests for sale to non-UW post- secondary institutions through the UW Press.
The UW Center for Placement Testing provides placement test development, scoring, processing, and test administration services to all institutions in the UW System. These services are intended to provide support for institutional placement testing programs.
The University of Wisconsin Placement Testing Program
Rationale for Placement Testing
In higher education, placement testing is actually a part of the instructional process. It provides information needed by faculty for placing students into the most appropriate course within a given sequence of instruction. This is accomplished by placing students into courses where their prerequisite skills, as measured by the placement tests, fit those necessary to begin that course. This will tend to maximize their success in learning that subject. If students are properly placed, it is expected that they will learn more, and thus, derive greater satisfaction from that course than if they are improperly placed.
Background of the UW Placement Testing Program
In 1972, faculty in the University of Wisconsin System began to develop what has since become the University of Wisconsin Placement Testing Program. This transpired because of a widespread concern with the placement procedures that were in existence at that time. The University of Wisconsin Placement Testing Program was developed to better meet the needs of the respective UW System institutions, to make the placement tests curriculum-specific, and to develop placement tests in the foreign languages, an area in which placement tests were essentially non-existent at the time.
Since that time, test development committees from each discipline have met regularly to evaluate and improve the respective placement tests. These committees are composed of faculty and staff who receive training in principles of educational testing. Each committee also has the services of an educational measurement specialist who serves as both committee member and consultant.
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