The Preassessment Strategy That Boosts Student Achievement

Stop scrambling in September and start the school year with confidence!

In this episode of Schoolutions Teaching Strategies Summer Series, discover how strategic preassessment design during your summer planning can transform your classroom from day one. Learn the research-backed approach that increases student achievement through targeted, responsive instruction.

What You'll Learn:
✅ 3 essential types of preassessments every teacher needs
✅ How to identify students' background knowledge before you start teaching
✅ Practical tools and workflows for efficient assessment creation
✅ Digital solutions including Google Forms, Flipgrid, and Padlet
✅ Common mistakes to avoid (and how to fix them)
✅ Flexible grouping strategies based on student readiness

Perfect for teachers, education coaches, instructional leaders, new teachers, teacher mentors, and school administrators looking to improve student engagement, lesson planning, teaching tips, effective teaching, instructional strategies, student success, professional development, and education strategies.

Whether you're dealing with low engagement, student motivation challenges, or need better classroom management approaches, this summer planning strategy will help you meet every student where they are so you can take them where they need to go.

00:00 Introduction - The September Scramble Problem
00:47 Why Preassessment Matters (30% Achievement Boost!)
01:51 Summer: The Perfect Planning Time
02:46 3 Essential Types of Preassessments
04:08 Setting Up Low-Stakes Success
05:41 Practical Design Workflow
06:54 Using Data Strategically
07:53 Digital Tools That Work
08:36 Common Mistakes to Avoid
09:27 Building Long-Term Resources
10:47 Your Summer Challenge
11:13 Wrap-Up & Next Steps

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

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🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

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When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey there, dedicated educators. Welcome back to Schoolutions Teaching Strategies Summer Series. Let me paint a picture that's probably all too familiar. You spend hours crafting the perfect unit, beautiful lesson plans, engaging tasks, everything Pinterest-worthy and ready to go. September arrives, you launch into your amazing unit, and then reality hits like a ton of bricks.

Half your students are already doing advanced operations in their heads while the other half are staring at you like you're speaking ancient Greek because they don't even understand what the concept represents. Cue the internal teacher panic, right? Here's the brutal truth. We've all been there, walking into September with gorgeous plans only to discover we're either boring or advanced learners or completely overwhelming our striving students. 

It's like planning a road trip [00:01:00] without knowing our starting point. You might have the perfect destination, but good luck getting there efficiently. What if I told you there's a way to eliminate that September surprise? What if you could walk into your classroom on day one already knowing exactly where each student stands, what they're excited about, and what gaps you need to fill?

The secret weapon? Strategic preassessment design during your summer planning time. And here's what blew my mind when I learned this: Research shows that effective preassessments can increase student achievement by up to 30% simply because your instruction becomes laser-focused and relevant to each student's actual needs.

Today I'm diving into three types of preassessments every teacher needs, how to design them efficiently during summer, and most importantly, [00:02:00] how to use that data to create responsive instruction that meets every student where they are. Think of this as your insurance policy against September chaos, because when you know your starting point, every single student can experience meaningful growth. So grab your summer planning materials and let's talk about how to transform your September success before school even starts.

This is Schoolutions Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that isn't just theory, but practical try-it-tomorrow approaches for educators and caregivers to ensure every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. 

Welcome to Schoolutions Teaching Strategies Summer Series. This is the podcast that helps educators make the most of their classroom [00:03:00] time. I'm your host, Olivia Wahl, and today we're diving into something that can transform your September success: designing preassessments for major units during your summer planning time. If you're like most teachers, you've probably walked into September with beautiful lesson plans only to discover that half your students already know the material while the other half are missing crucial background knowledge.

Today, we're going to try to solve that problem before it starts. Let's start with a scenario many of us know too well. You've planned an amazing unit on fractions, complete with manipulatives, real world applications and engaging tasks. Day one arrives and you realize some students are ready for advanced fraction operations while others don't understand what a fraction represents. Sound familiar? 

This is exactly why strategic preassessment design during summer planning is a game changer. [00:04:00] When you know where your students are before you begin, you can differentiate from day one and be responsive instead of scrambling to catch up three weeks into the unit. Research from educational assessment experts shows that effective preassessments can increase student achievement by up to 30%, simply because instruction becomes more targeted and relevant to students' needs.

Summer is the perfect time for this work because you have the mental space to think strategically without the daily pressures of classroom management and grading. You can focus on the big picture of your curriculum and identify those major units where student background knowledge varies dramatically.

Start by looking at your year-long curriculum map. Which units consistently challenge you because of varying student preparation. These are your preassessment priorities. Typically, these units include foundational concepts in [00:05:00] mathematics or prerequisite skills for writing genres. Science units that build on prior learning and social studies topics that assume cultural or historical knowledge. 

Here are three types of preassessments that every teacher needs. These are what you should design this summer. First, the diagnostic assessment. This identifies what students already know about your upcoming content. For a unit on ecosystems, you might ask students to draw and label a food web or explain predator prey relationships in their own words. The goal isn't to grade these responses, but to map the landscape of student understanding. 

Second, the prerequisite skills check. This focuses on foundational skills students need for success in your unit. Before teaching multi-step equations, you need to know if students can solve one step equations and understand the distributive property.[00:06:00] Design, quick focused assessments that reveal gaps in prerequisite knowledge. 

And third, the interest and connection inventory. This helps you understand how to make your content relevant. Ask students what they already know about your topic, what interests them most, and how they see it connecting to their lives. This information becomes gold when you're planning engagement strategies. 

Make sure to set these assessments up for success by framing them as first-thinking opportunities. Let students know that this is just helping you gauge their understanding going into the unit so you can tailor and be responsive to their needs. 

And now let's get practical about design. Effective preassessments share several key characteristics. Again, they're low stakes and low stress. Students should understand these aren't graded and won't count against them. [00:07:00] Frame them as helping you become a better teacher for them specifically. They're authentic, they're engaging. Instead of multiple choice questions, use performance tasks, quick writes or concept maps or even student created videos. They're efficient. Aim for assessments you can administer in 50 to 20 minutes max and review in 10 minutes per student. You're looking for patterns, not detailed analysis of every response. 

Surveys work really well for this too. They're actionable. Design questions that will actually inform your instruction, avoid items that won't change how you teach. 

Here's a possible workflow for creating these assessments. Start with identifying your target units. Choose three to four major units where student variability typically creates challenges. Next, map the essential knowledge and skills for each unit. [00:08:00] What must students know to be successful? What background knowledge do you typically assume they have? After that, design your three types of assessments for each unit. Start with simple formats and focus on clarity. 

Once you have your assessments designed, then you can create scoring guides or analysis frameworks. You don't need elaborate rubrics, but you do need efficient ways to categorize student responses and identify patterns. Lastly, plan your instructional response strategies. If your preassessment reveals specific gaps, what will you do? Having these plans ready prevents September scrambling. 

The real power comes from using preassessment data strategically. You can create simple tracking systems that help you group students flexibly and plan differentiated, responsive instruction. Consider developing student learning profiles [00:09:00] that combine both academic readiness, interests, and learning preferences. When you start teaching in September, you'll know immediately which students need additional support, which are ready for acceleration, and what topics spark engagement for different learners.

Plan, flexible grouping strategies based on common patterns you expect to see. If your preassessment reveals that some students need fraction basics while others are ready for complex problem solving, have both types of tasks ready to go. 

There are several digital tools that can make preassessment, creation and analysis more efficient. Google forms with response spreadsheets allow quick pattern identification. Flipgrid let students create video responses that reveal both content knowledge and communication skills. Padlet works well for collaborative knowledge building where students share what they know about a topic. For analysis, simple [00:10:00] spreadsheet templates with color coding can help you visualize student needs at a glance. 

And I want to help you avoid common preassessment pitfalls. So let's address some mistakes to avoid. Don't make preassessments too long or complex. You're gathering information, not teaching the unit. Don't use them as gatekeepers that prevent students from accessing grade level content, but instead use them to plan scaffolding and support.

Avoid the temptation to skip students who struggle with the preassessment. These students often need your instruction most and benefit tremendously from targeted support. Don't forget to communicate with students about the purpose. When they understand preassessments help you teach them better.

They're more likely to give genuine effort. Once you've created effective preassessments, you've built a resource you can refine year after year. Each summer review year assessments based on what you've learned during the previous [00:11:00] school year, which questions gave you the most useful information, which didn't change your instruction. Adjust accordingly. 

Consider collaborating with grade level or subject area colleagues. Sharing preassessment strategies and even specific items can save everyone time while improving instruction across classrooms. And as we wrap up, here's your challenge for the remaining summer weeks. Choose one major unit that consistently challenges you because of varying student readiness. Design one diagnostic assessment, one prerequisite skills check and one interest inventory for that unit. 

Test your assessment design by imagining how different student responses would change your instructional plans. Remember, the goal isn't perfection in July. It's having better information in September, so you can teach every student more effectively [00:12:00] from day one. Preassessment isn't about lowering expectations or tracking students into different paths. It's about meeting students where they are so you can take them where they need to go. When you know your starting point, every student can experience meaningful growth. 

Thanks for joining me for this summer tip episode. Until next time. Remember, the best September instruction starts with thoughtful July and August planning. Take Care. Schoolutions Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. Now, I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. [00:13:00] What types of preassessments are you planning to create? Give me your best tips and your strategies. Tune in every Monday and Friday this summer for mini episodes filled with tips and ideas that will help you prepare for September while still resting and rejuvenating this summer. See you soon for another tip and until then, enjoy the sunshine and take care.