Hi Mari! You are so right about all ages of kids needing reminders. For pre-test data, I take the standard and break it up into skills and create one question per skill to test students on. Based on those results, I formulate my small groups.

Hi Mari Beth! Thanks for reading the post and sharing your comment. In terms of your question, schools often provide pre-test requirements and materials at the beginning of the year. For example, running records for reading levels or a math skills assessment help teachers sort through the data and create skill groups. In high school, you would want to create an assessment reflective of a comprehensive Q1 test. This will help you see 1) what skills did students come in with and 2) what prior knowledge do students already have about this subject matter. You can quickly see who needs accelerated material because they already have the skill set and who needs remediation because they aren’t quite ready. If your school has already placed students in particular levels of subjects based on data (ie. English 1 and English 2) then you would take a small assignment and group students based on common misunderstandings or errors. Let me know if that clarifies things for you!

What type of pre-test data are you looking for when you start putting kids into groups?