Quill currently has 16 different assessments you can assign to determine which writing skills your students need to practice. You can learn about how to find and assign them here. All of these assessments will generate recommended activities for practice based on your students’ needs. There are 3 general baseline diagnostics, 3 general growth diagnostics, 3 baseline diagnostics for English Language Learners, 3 growth diagnostics for English Language Learners, and 4 writing skills surveys.

A baseline diagnostic, the first assessment assigned to students, assesses students' skill proficiency in different writing concepts to create personalized plans of practice recommendation activities.

A growth diagnostic, assigned after students have completed a baseline diagnostic and some or all of their practice recommendation activities, measures growth in students' skill proficiency.

The writing skills surveys, developed in partnership with College Board®, are the most recent additions to our collection of assessments. They were designed to align with College Board’s Pre-AP®, AP®, and SpringBoard® curriculums and can be used in lieu of Quill’s general diagnostics for those courses. For example, a seventh-grade SpringBoard® ELA teacher could assign the SpringBoard® Writing Skills Survey in lieu of the Starter or Intermediate Diagnostic. (We recommend ELL students in any class begin with the ELL Starter Diagnostic, ELL Intermediate Diagnostic, or ELL Advanced Diagnostic, instead of a general diagnostic or writing skills survey.)

While each diagnostic and survey focuses on different groups of skills, there is some overlap in the activities that are then recommended.

​This article provides further detail about the skills covered in each of Quill’s diagnostics and surveys.

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