Is It Time to Rethink Your Pre-assessments?

As educators, many of us launch each school year or instructional unit with formative pre-assessments as a planning compass—especially when making decisions around pacing and opportunities for acceleration. Our goal: We want to get a clear picture of where students are starting so that our instruction can meet their needs. But we need to ask ourselves some important questions: Are these tools truly providing the actionable insights we hope for? What might we be overlooking in the process? And perhaps most important, How can we rethink pre-assessments to better support every student—not just for acceleration?

Over the years, I’ve taken a hard look at how I create, implement, and use pre-assessment data. That reflection led to a shift—not only in how I design and use pre-assessments, but in how I view their purpose. This has led to greater academic growth and increased confidence for my students.

Rethinking the Why: From Sorting to Supporting

As teachers we are consistently gathering data and creating plans that focus on student achievement and growth. However, I was often told to create and implement pre-assessments for my classrooms focused around two areas. I was asked first to track student growth data, and second to ensure that students had the opportunity for enrichment. While they were both valid reasons, I often felt we were missing the vast majority of our students with this approach.

Too often, the pre-assessments I was implementing focused on student acceleration, building extensions while overlooking the majority. Meanwhile, I was missing the opportunity to identify and address prerequisite skill gaps that could hinder success for the rest of the class.

When I shifted my mindset to focus on prerequisite skills, pre-assessments became diagnostic. They helped me to uncover the foundational knowledge that students were missing to access new content. This was not about slowing anyone down. It was about ensuring that all students had the building blocks they need to thrive. In analyzing both individual and class data, I could adjust pacing, group students based on their needs, or even assign homework focused on foundational skills specific to each student.

Rethinking the How: Beyond the Test

When I heard the word pre-assessment, I used to think of a formal quiz or pretest. If you think the same, it may be time to redefine pre-assessment. I have found that traditional pretests are stressful for students, especially when they ask students to demonstrate knowledge of concepts they haven’t had the opportunity to explore. In my own classroom, I often found that these types of pre-assessments identified a few students who were ready to accelerate. However, I was missing students who didn’t show their strengths on the pretest, but caught on quickly once we began the lessons. These students were missing the opportunity for enrichment because they couldn’t excel on a pretest.

Even worse, these pre-assessments often led to disengagement. Students who felt they were not capable of success would shut down and stare at the pretest until it was collected. This created behavior issues and a loss of valuable instructional time for students needing remediation. It became clear that traditional pre-assessments were only meeting the needs of some students and missing the mark for the rest of my students.

Pre-assessments as Classroom Routines

After reflection I redefined pre-assessment as an ongoing, formative process embedded in my classroom routines. Here are a few strategies I have used to make this shift.

Spiral warm-ups: While daily warm-ups may vary and are often collaborative, I designate one or two days each week for students to begin class with a silent warm-up. These days I would focus questions on the next unit, homing in on the foundational knowledge that students would need. Over time, these quick checks provide rich insights into readiness while reinforcing long-term retention.

Embedded review and forward-looking questions: At the end of a unit test, I include one or two questions that connect to upcoming concepts. For instance, after assessing students on linear equations, I included a question on a system of equations. I didn’t expect mastery but gauged familiarity and readiness. These types of questions help bridge content and offer an easy, low-stakes way to gather data without giving an entirely separate pre-assessment. I usually don’t grade these questions at all, but a teacher could use them for bonus points. It’s important to let students know that these questions are not graded so they do not cause unnecessary stress.

Exit tickets. I reorganize my exit tickets to include a combination of questions based on what we learned that day, what we will look at tomorrow, and a reminder of previously addressed skills. I adjust the next day’s lesson according to student responses.

ABC activity. At the start of the semester, I give students a sheet of paper with the alphabet and ask them to list as many math-related terms as they can think of. This is an amazing way to gauge content literacy. While this preassessment doesn’t show me students’ conceptual understanding, it opens the doors to content literacy in my classroom and helps students activate their prior knowledge after the long break.

USING PRE-ASSESSMENT DATA TO MAKE INSTRUCTIONAL DECISIONS

Once you’ve collected and reviewed student data, you can determine how to best support all students. As we transition into the new unit, I set up stations based on the skills that students need to be successful and group students based on preassess data. Some stations focus on remediation of prerequisite skills, while others focus on extending the current unit with extension activities. This approach allows all students to grow and keeps the class together as we move on to new content.

As educators, our purpose goes beyond delivering content—we’re here to cultivate growth, confidence, and a sense of belonging in every learner. When we use pre-assessments to understand where our students are coming from—not just where we want them to go—we create more equitable, responsive, and empowering classrooms.