This dissertation provides a model for reconsidering student agency in educational spaces and specifically in self-placement practices. Employing a Cooperative Inquiry framework in which students were included in the research process, this project sought to understand the experience of incoming students at a larger research-intensive institution…

In US-based postsecondary education, first-year students commonly have their compositional ability consequentially assessed on the basis of standardized tests. As a result, students who score above certain thresholds on ACT, SAT, or AP exams often are placed into honors or remedial courses; receive credit remissions; and/or test out of general…