Revealing Readiness How Corequisite Placement Designs Shape Student Outcomes

By Dan Cullinan, Lena Novak, Liam Tsao, Gilda Azurdia & Byeonghyeon So | April 2026

Many states and institutions are reexamining how students are placed in courses, moving from standardized test-based placement policies to placement policies that incorporate multiple measures of academic preparedness such as high school grade point average (GPA), high school course-taking patterns, and noncognitive assessments.

To learn more about how community colleges are modifying their placement policies and to un­derstand the effects of these changes, MDRC researchers collaborated with eight community colleges across the country to learn about their current placement policies and to develop a new placement system. The research team then worked with the colleges to implement this new system in the fall semester of 2024.

After implementation, the research team analyzed outcomes for students under the original and study placement systems—including students’ placement recommendations, the courses they enrolled in, and their grades in their first-semester English and math courses. The research team also gathered insights from college faculty and staff members about the design of their corequisite models and the factors that supported and hindered implementation. Finally, MDRC conducted a cost analysis to understand the feasibility of developing and implementing these new placement policies.