Start each student where they can succeed, so the assessment can find what they know and what they need to learn next.

Before you set an assessment, decide where each student should begin. A best-fit start gives you more useful data and a better experience for your students. This guide shows you how to choose the range or stage with confidence.

The purpose of an Essential Assessment (EA) assessment is to locate each student's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). That is the point where a student can do some things on their own and is ready to learn the next thing.

Not every student in your class needs to begin at the same range or stage. A student who is working well above or below the class will not be well served by the class starting point.

Open the assessment and look at the sample questions before you set it. The preview helps you:

Take a few minutes to do this for each starting point you are considering.

Think about each student, or group of students, one at a time. Use what you already know:

If you are unsure, lean towards a start the student can access with some confidence. A student who feels successful early is more likely to keep going and show you what they know.

Do not rely on the dynamic feature to do the work for you. Choose the range you believe will capture the student's learning, then let the assessment show you what they know and what they need to learn next.

Your professional judgement is the best starting point. The assessment then adds evidence to confirm it or challenge it.

Review your choices before you set the assessment. If you view the sample questions and believe that the range/stage is too hard or too easy, edit the range or stage first. You can do this by the stage/range drop-down menu within your class view:

Or within a students profile:

When you are happy with each starting point, go to Manage Class Assessments and select the toggle next to the assessment's name. To load the assessment to your view, select the name of the assessment.

For a full walk-through, see How do I set an Assessment?

The dynamic feature is there to support your judgement, not replace it. It adjusts the assessment as the student answers, but it still needs a sensible place to start. If the start is far from where the student is working, the assessment has to spend many questions just getting closer to their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). A best-fit start lets the dynamic feature do its real job, which is fine-tuning.

Every question asks a student to read, think and decide. If the opening questions are too hard, students use up their working memory and energy on content they can't yet access. By the time the assessment adjusts, they may be tired, anxious or switched off. That shows up in the results as lower performance than they're capable of. A best-fit start keeps the thinking effort on the right content, so students have the energy to show you what they know.

You have evidence the dynamic feature doesn't. This is especially true once your class has completed a pre-assessment. Pre-assessment results, classwork, observations and support plans already tell you roughly where each student is working. Use that knowledge to set the starting point beyond the pre-assessment continue with the "best-fit" approach. Most students stay in the same rang/stage and only those students that need to be elevated are adjusted up. The next point-in-time assessment (mid or post) then adds evidence to confirm your judgement and is not impacted by dynamic.

A start that's too far off adds questions. The student works through content that is too hard or too easy before reaching the questions that matter. A longer assessment means more time out of teaching, more fatigue, and more chance of rushed or guessed answers. A best-fit start keeps the assessment shorter and focused.

The assessment should be purposeful. Each question should help you find what the student knows and what they need to learn next. Questions far outside a student's range tell you very little. Questions near their ZPD tell you exactly what to teach.

Results are more reliable when students stay engaged and answer questions they can access. Frustration, disengagement and guessing all add noise to the data. A best-fit start gives you results you can confidently use to plan teaching, group students and talk with families.