Under a new law, California community colleges throughout the state will be unifying under a single placement test standard designed to create a more efficient system to save money for schools and lesson the hassle for students.

California Assembly Bill 743, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Oct. 8, requires the California Community College Chancellor’s Office to establish standardized assessment tests for community colleges in English, ESL and math. 

“Currently, if a student takes a placement test at one community college, generally those results will not transfer to another,” said Stephen Fletcher, supervisor of the De Anza College Assessment Center.

“I’ve seen people who have taken it at Gavilan, San Jose City and now De Anza,” Fletcher said. “It’s a wear on them to do something like that.”

A unified set of placement tests would allow students who take the new test to transfer those results to other schools that have adopted the system. De Anza has yet to formally declare its adoption of the standards. 

If adopted by the De Anza, college faculty would have to meet and decide on how to interpret the new test results. The interpretation of students’ scores is determined by faculty of an individual college, resulting in their placement in varying class levels. 

A matriculation committee will be left with the decision on how to integrate current students into the new test standards. One possibility is that students who had taken a previous test and are enrolled in courses would continue on. 

For now, students must wait and live with the current system, Fletcher said he would be “surprised if it went into effect before June or July of 2012.”

A conference in Monterey on Nov. 4 was to discuss a timeline or any further decisions made by the Chancellor’s Office.