TestingServicesUpdate

Division of Student Affairs

Results of test to faculty came too late for faculty to

meet with their students

Math CATW

Student results of math test were given to department in one

document for up to 80 courses. The math

department did not have the administrative staff to divide the courses and email to faculty. Testing

Office worked with Information Systems to develop a system that allows math faculty to

receive the results of the math final test by

individual course sections.

Testing Office, with additional staff, were

able to process all CATW scores within 24 hours allowing faculty to meet

and advise their students on Reading Day. Plans

are underway to provide faculty with the CATW

assessment results as a guide to inform them of

students areas of weakness.

The Testing Office established a process calendar for testing services in collaboration with department chairs, Queens College Reading Center and other special programs for uniformity of expectations and accountability.

Technology was leveraged to ease administrative burden. This has resulted increased satisfaction among Academic Affairs and students.

The faculty can now add re-test information on their syllabus to allow students to plan ahead.

Improved Student Services and CUNY Compliance

The Testing Offices hours of operation: Monday - Thursday 9 AM until 7 PM and test sessions end at 8 PM. Friday 9 AM to 3 PM (until 6 PM during final exam retests and Saturday 9 AM 3 PM). With the hiring of additional staff the Testing Office is able to extend hours of operation and adhere to CUNYs proctor to student ratio of 15:1.

In the past the testing proctor ratio was 35:1. As a result of the additional testing funds the Testing Office (from October 14 to March 1) increased staff and was able to add 55 testing sessions adding over 5,000 additional test seats during the evening and Saturdays.

Testing Services Update

HEIGHTSReaching new

1

There was an increase in demand for the number of test sessions for special populations (ACE, College Now, High Schools (International and Middle College), re-invites for SIC and direct admits. As a result, more test sessions were added to accommodate the growing demand by testing in the evenings until 7 PM and Saturdays.

Previous testing schedule could not handle increased demand

Achievement2

Students who test into remediation are given information about FYIP and are immediately referred to the FYIP office. This has been the primary mode of recruitment for this program prior to new student advisement.

Increase enrollment in FYIP

3

The Testing Office leverages technology to proactively communicate with students and monitor test sessions by 1) communicating testing appointments by email and VIP (incorporating IDEAS42 recommendations) 2) SEMS is utilized to monitor attendance of test sessions. These technologies allow for students to be informed of the entire testing process including their appointment time, reminder of test before test date and post test session information and testing results are posted on VIP.

Students not knowing their test session, because CUNY Central sends out letters

4

More efficient process implemented summer of 2014: delivery of booklets to Queens and ELA department has improved and the scores entered by staff has increased. The process now takes 1 week (especially during peak operations).

CATW Re-leveling Concerns of 3 week lag time was voiced

by special populations

5

The Testing Director explored the option of having non-ESL booklets not reviewed by ELA. The department had reviewed testing data and found no correlation of ESL competencies in failing booklets. Therefore, all failing books had to be read. Regardless, the additional staff was able to handle the process and post scores within 1 day of receiving ELA booklets.

Writing booklets not designated ESL

Achievement

Achievement

Achievement

Achievement

of respondents Agreed or Strongly Agreed that The testing staff was knowledgeable and helpful

of respondents Agreed or Strongly Agreed that The testing staff was professional

of the respondents Agreed or Strongly Agreed that I received friendly service from the staff

Finals andMidterm Retesting

Leveraging TechnologyEase administrative burden for both academic departments and Testing Office by utilizing an online sign up for retests.

Working with Academic Chairs and Program Directors the calendar outlines when faculty designate students who are eligible to test, when students would sign up and when results would be available.

This is completed using LaGuardias web attendance.

Proactive CommunicationStudents are communicated with using their email and MyLaGuardia about their appointment time, and are sent confirmation of appointment and reminders before the retest date.

BenefitsEnhance the quality of service offered by Testing Office in accordance with College Strategic Plan target 9.1.3 by:

Providing more exam options and reduced wait time for test

takers, increasing student satisfaction

TIMEEnsuring academic

departments receive exam results in an expedited fashion

RESULTSEnhancing efficiency and effectiveness of services

provided by the Testing Office and its stakeholders

EFFICIENCY

It was great the staff was very professional

My testing experience went very well today. The staff was helpful and told me what I needed to do

The staff members were very helpful and generous. Handle a huge amount of people easily

I consider my testing experience today amazing based on the good service I received from LAGCC staff

It was a good and a relaxing experience

At first I was really nervous, but the proctor was so kind that I felt more at ease taking the test

New Students Tests95%

95%

96%

95%

94%

97%

97%

91%

96%

96%

96%

97%

Statistic Overview

Current Student RetestsWriting CATW

Current Student RetestsReading

Current Student RetestsMath

2181 student responses (June - Sept. 2014)

570 student responses (Spring II 2014)

705 student responses (Spring II 2014)

1468 student responses (Spring II 2014)

LAGUARDIA

I would like to express my gratitude to you for your flexibility to accommodate the needs of our students. With more testing slots (evening and weekend), students were able to take the test without having to skip their classes or taking a day off from their work. Under your leadership, the Testing Office has tremendously improved its service and schedules. I hope you will continue with this and/or provide more lots. (Fan, Wenjuan, former Chair of ELA, 1/6/15)

Your distribution of our FYI schedule/flyer to new students and sending them directly to our office has allowed us to fill up our class sections in a timely manner. Setting up testing dates in advance helps our office as well as faculty and students in course planning. We have already set up testing dates for our upcoming Fall 2015 session. (Bruno, Vincent, Director of First Year Programs, 1/8/15)

I am writing to let you know how crucial it was during Fall I 2014 for the Testing Office to offer evening and Saturday time slots for CATW re-testing. This helped ensure the successful implementation of the new re-test model, in which students are required to sign-up for exams, rather than being tested in their classes, overseen by proctors. I hope that we can continue to offer CATW re-testing during evenings and Saturdays. Without this, I have serious doubts about how we could use the new re-test procedure involving student sign-up for test times. (Tapper, Gordon, Chair of English, 1/9/15)

Academic Affairs

Our success to help students transition to the credit side is due to you allowing our students to take their placement examsthis allows us to provide early assessment to refer them to special programs like FYI and CUNY Start. Your staff are always professional and willing to go the extra mile to make themselves available to my office, and our students. Your leadership as Director has been exemplary. I greatly value our partnership and look forward to our continued success! (Correa, Erika, Director of ACE Advisement, 1/9/15)

Your proctors were all very courteous and patient with students, teachers and advisors. Its apparent that youve made some efforts to train your staff in the areas of communication and collaboration, and the increase in staff has made a marked improvement regarding organization, efficiency and productivity. (Bayrakdar, Deema, Director of CUNY Start, 1/12/15).

I applaud you for your diligence with the cohort of CLIP students who tested recently. How quickly you were able to get the placements on the system is impressive. (Housel, David, Director of CLIP, 2/10/15)

Special Populations