The pre-module assessment can be administered to students digitally or in paper-pencil format.
At grades 1-5, an observational assessment provides a parallel set of items to those on the digital/print pre-module assessment. The observational items are hands-on, interactive, discussion-based tasks. In the event the data from the digital/print assessment reveals irregular results that suggest a student may have struggled to understand one or more questions, the observational assessment can be used as a follow-up assessment for the given student(s). Alternatively, the observational format could be used with small groups of students as the primary mode of administration, in lieu of using a digital or print format.
The digital format of the pre-module assessment offers an adaptive feature, called ‘branching’. For some Essential Foundational Knowledge (EFK) items, when a student answers the associated item incorrectly, the assessment will ask one or more additional questions to gain insight into the depth of the gap in foundational knowledge. Not all items include these branched questions.
Here is an example of branching used on the pre-module assessment for Grade 3, Module 2. The item on the left assesses the EFK, Given a whole number within hundreds, identify equivalent unit form representations, including those that use more than 9 of a given unit (e.g., 19 tens and 2 ones), which is normally taught in Grade 2. The subsequent items are posed to the student only if they respond incorrectly to the original item. The branched items assess content originally taught in Grade 1, Modules 6 and 4, respectively.
