A Decision Theoretic Approach to Student Placement

Abstract

A decision theoretic approach is proposed for scheduling a student into a future course when there is more than one possible choice. The statistical aspects of the decision theoretic placement procedure are discussed in detail. A linear model approach is given for utilizing items in a student’s records to estimate the probabilities of attaining various levels of performance or achievement as measured by an appropriate criterion. The probabilities so obtained are combined with subjective judgements via a utility function to arrive at a placement decision. An example is included illustrating the procedure for placing junior high mathematics students into one of two possible math courses.