Only for developmental writing did Boatman and Long find some positive effects of being assigned to the lower level course. Similarly, Dadgar (2012) examined the margin between upper level and lower level math and found negative or null effects, and Xu (2013) examined the margin between upper level and lower level reading and writing and found negative or null effects for being assigned to the lower level course in both subject areas. The studies cited in this section suggest that students at many points in the developmental continuum are unlikely to be harmed by attempting courses that are slightly more difficult than their placement scores suggest they can handle. For example, a student whose score is just below the assessment margin between two and three courses below college-level math does not benefit from taking the third-level course. This interpretation aligns with work from the K-12 literature demonstrating that academically lagging students benefit from more challenging courses taken with more-advanced peers (Burris, Wiley, Weiner, & Murphy, 2008; Levin, 2007). However, that does not necessarily imply that students scoring at the very lowest levels should be placed in college-level courses. Some low-scoring students can succeed in college-level work, but many cannot. With additional supports such as corequisite models, perhaps more of these very low-scoring students would succeed in college-level courses, but certainly some would continue to fail. Summary and Recommendations Thus the three criticisms made by Goudas and Boylan (2012) do not stand up to scrutiny. But they do echo misunderstandings about the conclusions and implications of these developmental education studies that we have often encountered when presenting our findings at conferences, colleges, and state-level meetings.