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How do I assign a Growth Diagnostic?

Assign a Growth Diagnostic to assess your students' growth after they have completed a Baseline Diagnostic and practice recommendation activities.

Quill offers two types of Quill Diagnostics: a Baseline Diagnostic and a Growth Diagnostic. Please review the difference between these two types of Quill Diagnostics below, and read on to learn how to assign a Growth Diagnostic to your students.

📝 A Baseline Diagnostic is a pre-test and is intended to initially assess a student's writing skills so that Quill can create a plan of practice recommendation activities based on the student's performance on the Baseline Diagnostic.
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📈 A Growth Diagnostic is a post-test and is intended to subsequently assess a student's writing skills after they have already completed the corresponding Baseline Diagnostic and the practice recommendation activities associated with the Baseline Diagnostic. After a student completes a Growth Diagnostic, Quill will create a plan of practice recommendation activities based on the student's performance on the Growth Diagnostic. Please note that the practice recommendation activities for the Growth Diagnostic will be different from those for the Baseline Diagnostic. For this reason, a Growth Diagnostic will be locked until you have assigned its corresponding Baseline Diagnostic.

Table of contents

When to assign a Growth Diagnostic

Generally, it is the correct moment to assign a Growth Diagnostic to your students if the statements below are true:

How to assign a Growth Diagnostic from the My Diagnostics report

To assign a Growth Diagnostic from the reports for the corresponding Baseline Diagnostic, click the View Reports tab, click the Diagnostic Reports sub-tab, and click the My Diagnostics option from the dropdown menu.

Then, find the Baseline Diagnostic for which you want to assign the corresponding Growth Diagnostic and click the respective View results and recommendations button.

In the menu on the left side of the subsequent page, click the Assign Growth Diagnostic tab.

Use the Assign Growth Diagnostic column to assign Growth Diagnostic to students.

The buttons above the Assign Growth Diagnostic table can be used to select students:

  • The Select all button checks every student's Assign Growth Diagnostic checkbox.

  • The Select all recommended button checks the checkbox only for students Quill has marked as ready.

  • The Deselect all button clears your selections.

You can also check or uncheck any individual student's box in the Assign Growth Diagnostic column. When at least one student is selected, the Assign button becomes active.

Clicking the Assign button assigns the Growth Diagnostic to every selected student.

  • If there is not yet an existing activity pack containing the Growth Diagnostic, a new activity pack containing the Growth Diagnostic will be created and automatically assigned to every selected student. In addition, the Growth Diagnostic will be published immediately.

  • If there is an existing activity pack containing the Growth Diagnostic, the selected students will be added to the existing activity pack.

Click here to learn more about the Assign Growth Diagnostic page.

How to assign a Growth Diagnostic from the Assign Activities tab

Navigate to the Assign Activities page. Then, click the card Assess student writing with a diagnostic card to view each Growth Diagnostic that is available to you to assign.

Select the Growth Diagnostic that corresponds with the Baseline Diagnostic your students have completed.

Please see the Growth Diagnostics available to you below to assign.

  • Starter Diagnostic (Growth Post)

  • Intermediate Diagnostic (Growth Post)

  • Advanced Diagnostic (Growth Post)

  • ELL Starter Diagnostic (Growth Post)

  • ELL Intermediate Diagnostic (Growth Post)

  • ELL Advanced Diagnostic (Growth Post)

Tip 💡

If you cannot assign a Growth Diagnostic, confirm that the corresponding Baseline Diagnostic has been assigned. Assigning the Growth Diagnostic will remain locked until the Baseline Diagnostic has been assigned.

If students cannot access a Growth Diagnostic, confirm that the corresponding Baseline Diagnostic has been assigned and completed, along with its associated practice recommendations. The Growth Diagnostic will remain locked until the Baseline Diagnostic has been completed.

Some common reasons why students cannot access a Growth Diagnostic include:

  • Students completed a different Baseline Diagnostic other than the Baseline Diagnostic that corresponds with the Growth Diagnostic.

  • Students completed the corresponding Baseline Diagnostic in a different class.

Proceed through the process of reviewing and assigning the Growth Diagnostic on the Review and Assign page.

How to schedule a Growth Diagnostic from the Assign Activities tab

If you have just assigned a Baseline Diagnostic, you will automatically see a page to schedule the corresponding Growth Diagnostic.

To schedule the Growth Diagnostic, select a publish date for the Growth Diagnostic in the Schedule the growth diagnostic section. Then, click the Schedule Growth Diagnostic button.

By scheduling a Growth Diagnostic immediately after assigning a Baseline Diagnostic, you will save time and ensure you'll have meaningful growth data showing all the skills your students have learned.

How to assign a previously assigned Growth Diagnostic to more students

To assign a previously assigned Growth Diagnostic to more students, please navigate to the Manage Activities page.

Tip 💡

Use the search shortcut, Ctrl+f or Command+f, to quickly search for the Growth Diagnostic by its name.

After finding the activity pack containing the Growth Diagnostic, click the Add/remove students assigned button for that activity pack.

Clicking the Add/remove students assigned button will bring you a page containing rosters for each of your classes.

If the activity pack containing the Growth Diagnostic is not yet assigned to a student, the box next to the student's name will not be checked, and you will see no copy to the far right of the student's name.

To assign the activity pack containing the Growth Diagnostic to a student who is not yet assigned the activity pack, check the box to the left of the student's name. After checking the box next to the student's name, you will see the copy, Pack will be assigned, to the far right of the student's name.

If you want to assign the activity pack containing the Growth Diagnostic to an entire class, click the Select all button for that class.

Once you have checked the boxes next to the names of the students to whom you want to assign the Growth Diagnostic, click the Update students assigned to pack button.

Please click here to learn more about assigning and unassigning existing activity packs to and from new students.

Tip 💡

Please note that unchecking the box next to the name of any student who was already assigned the Growth Diagnostic will unassign the Growth Diagnostic from that student and remove that student's data for the Growth Diagnostic, so keep the box next to a student's name checked if you want to keep their data for the Growth Diagnostic. The student will not be reassigned the Growth Diagnostic. Please click here to learn more about assigning and unassigning existing activity packs to and from new students.

How to view Growth Diagnostic reports

To access Growth Diagnostic reports and assign practice recommendation activities, click the Diagnostic Reports sub-tab, and click the My Diagnostics option from the dropdown menu.

Then, find the Growth Diagnostic for which you want to see reports and click the respective View results and recommendations button.

On the left side of the subsequent page, you will see all of the reports available for the Growth Diagnostic in the 4. View Growth Results and 5. Assign Practice sections. Please click the links below to learn more about each of these reports.

FAQs:

Why can’t my student access the Growth Diagnostic?

First, confirm that the student has completed the Baseline Diagnostic and most of/all of its associated practice recommendations. The Growth Diagnostic will only become available after students complete the Baseline Diagnostic. If the issue continues, double-check that the correct diagnostic sequence has been assigned and followed.

Also, make sure the student is logged into the correct class. Students may be rostered in multiple Quill classes and could be attempting to access or complete the diagnostic in a different class than the one it was assigned in.

Why are students seeing multiple diagnostics or feeling confused about what to complete?

This can happen if there is overlap between ELL and non-ELL diagnostic assignments. Review assignments to ensure students are only receiving the appropriate diagnostic pathway for their group, and that there is no duplication across classes or assignment types.

Why isn’t the completed Growth Diagnostic appearing on my My Diagnostics dashboard?

There are a few common reasons this can happen:

  • Brief data sync delay: After a student completes a Growth Diagnostic, there may be a short processing delay before results appear in the dashboard. Try refreshing the page and checking again in a few minutes.

  • Completed in a different class: Students who are enrolled in multiple classes may have completed the Growth Diagnostic in a different teacher’s class. In this case, the results will appear under that class’s My Diagnostics dashboard instead.

  • Class filter is set incorrectly: The My Diagnostics page may be filtered to a different class. Double-check the class dropdown filter to ensure you’re viewing the correct roster.

    Additionally, please note that Class Summary percentages may fluctuate temporarily while not all students have completed both the Baseline and Growth Diagnostics. These values will stabilize once all students have finished the full diagnostic cycle.

Why is a student prompted to retake a diagnostic that already shows as Completed?

If a student is being prompted to retake a diagnostic that already appears as Completed, there are a few common causes to check:

1. The same diagnostic was assigned in multiple classes

If a student is enrolled in more than one Quill class, they may have been assigned the same diagnostic multiple times across different classes. In this case, the student may have completed the diagnostic in one class but still see an incomplete version in another class.

What to do:
Navigate to the Manage Activities page and check whether the same diagnostic activity pack has been assigned in multiple classes.

2. There is an ELL vs. non-ELL diagnostic pathway conflict

Students should complete either the standard diagnostic pathway or the ELL diagnostic pathway, but not both at the same time. If a student has both an ELL and non-ELL version of the same diagnostic assigned, this can create duplicate assignments and cause confusion about which diagnostic should be completed.

What to do:
Review the student’s assigned diagnostics and remove any duplicate or unintended diagnostic pathway assignments.

3. The student accessed the diagnostic in the wrong class

Students who are rostered in multiple Quill classes may accidentally open the diagnostic from a different class section than the one in which they originally completed it.

What to do:
Ask the student to confirm they are working in the correct Quill class and accessing the diagnostic from the intended class dashboard.

If the issue continues after reviewing these scenarios, please contact support@quill.org with the student’s name, the diagnostic name, and screenshots of the student’s assignments so we can investigate further.

Which students are assigned the growth diagnostic when a teacher schedules it from the new page?

The students who were selected when the corresponding baseline diagnostic was most recently assigned are assigned the scheduled growth diagnostic.

Is a new activity pack created each time a growth diagnostic is scheduled?

If there is an existing activity pack containing the growth diagnostic being scheduled, a new activity pack is only created when the publish date is different from the publish date of the growth diagnostic in the existing activity pack.

What is the name of the activity pack containing the growth diagnostic I've scheduled?

The activity pack is named {Name of the Growth Diagnostic} - (Assigned {Assignment Date in MM/DD/YYYY format}).

Have more questions?

Please feel free to send a message to the Quill team using the green message bubble on the bottom right corner of the screen or email us at support@quill.org.

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