At California State University, Channel Islands, officials are tossing aside the traditional use of placement tests to determine college students' writing proficiency and eliminating remedial English courses as part of a pilot program they hope will ultimately build students' confidence, improve their writing skills and boost their achievement in other classes.

The method, called directed self-placement, is gaining popularity because research has shown that students do a better job of placing themselves in courses than the tests do, in part because the placement tests can't measure a student's desire to work hard and succeed in a challenging class.

"Normally in the CSU, you take an English placement test and you get a score. That score may or may not reflect the student's actual ability," said Jacquelyn Kilpatrick, coordinator of the university's English department. "Motivation is a tremendous factor. It's their education, so they get to make the decision."

Dan Royer and Roger Gilles, members of the English faculty at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., first developed directed self-placement in the 1990s. The method is now used at such schools as Arizona State University, Purdue University in Indiana and Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

With help from Royer and Gilles, Kilpatrick developed a proposal to use the method at CSUCI. The four-year test will launch when the university's first freshmen begin classes at the new university later this month.

The findings could lead to changes in the way freshman composition is addressed throughout the CSU, said Allison Jones, assistant vice chancellor at the CSU chancellor's office in Long Beach.

"It's a four-year pilot because we want to see how the student who comes through this year does throughout their four years (at Channel Islands)," Jones said. "We're going to be staying with it and watching it closely."

At most CSU campuses, students take an English placement test to determine their proficiency. Those who pass are allowed to take the freshmen composition course required for graduation. Those who don't pass are often directed to a noncredit remedial course before they can take the freshman composition class.

In the fall of 2002, barely half of all CSU freshmen were deemed proficient in English, with 49 percent needing some kind of remediation. The remediation is costly and time-consuming for students and the campuses, so the CSU system has been working in recent years to improve proficiency rates.

At CSU Channel Islands, students will have two options: a two-term, intensive "stretch" course or a one-term, fast-paced "challenge" course. Students will decide for themselves, with guidance from the university, which course to take. Also, their English class -- regardless of which one they take -- will be linked to another required course such as biology or political science. The two instructors will coordinate learning materials to help students in both classes.

The challenge course, English 105, is a three-credit course designed for students who are strong readers and writers who feel comfortable writing a documented research paper; can revise their work based on others' feedback; and are confident in their knowledge of spelling, punctuation and grammar rules.

The stretch course, English 102/103, is a six-credit, two-semester program designed for students who are less confident in their writing abilities, consider themselves average readers or writers, aren't ready to jump into writing documented research papers, and would prefer to slow down a bit and work on their writing at a steady pace.

Instructors will act as coaches and more time will be spent on writing development. Specialized workshops will be offered to students who need extra help with rules of grammar, punctuation, or other areas, but without the negative stigma that comes with remediation.

"We all have things we need to work on," Kilpatrick said. "Those students who have fundamental gaps, such as basic problems with grammar, will be getting that assistance," Kilpatrick said.

Arizona State's research shows that students who go through the stretch course do better in their other classes, have higher retention rates -- meaning more of them stay in school -- and have higher graduation rates than their peers who didn't take the course. At ASU, 92 percent of students who take the stretch course pass it, compared to 88 percent who pass the school's traditional course.

"The 102/103 course is a real opportunity for them to really get this writing thing," Kilpatrick said. "These are such important classes. We need to help them succeed."

She had little trouble persuading CSUCI President Richard Rush to try the new approach.

"I want to take those calculated risks that break new ground when it looks like it will benefit the students," he said. "Anything that helps students write better, in my mind, is valuable."