An Adaptive Diagnostic is a short, skill-by-skill assessment you assign to your students. It measures where each student stands on a range of skills and reports a proficiency level for each one. You can then act on those results by adding the skills a student needs directly to their skill path.
Diagnostics are designed to take about 40 minutes and can fit inside a single class period.
Before you start
Diagnostics are a standard-license feature. You need a licensed account, and you can only assign to licensed classes.
Assigning is teacher-only. Administrators can view diagnostic results in reports, but they cannot currently assign a diagnostic, including to a class they teach themselves.
Diagnostics are available on adaptive subjects, including Adaptive Math and Adaptive Grammar. Grammar also offers thematic diagnostics that run across grade levels.
Step 1: Find a diagnostic
Diagnostics live on the Adaptive subject guide you already use to browse skills:
Open your Adaptive subject, for example Adaptive Math.
Find the Diagnostics section at the top of the subject guide.
Click View Diagnostics.
The diagnostics you see are filtered by the same filter preferences that filter your skill list. If your preferences are set to the grades and themes you teach, you'll see the diagnostics matched to them.
Step 2: Choose Recipient Groups
Select Assign on the diagnostic you want.
Build Recipient Groups by clicking Add Recipient Group +. A recipient group can contain:
one or more whole classes,
one or more individual students,
or a mix of both.
Each group carries its own settings. For example, if two of your classes should get the same start date and time limit, put them in the same group of recipients. If your period 2 class needs an extra week, give it a group of its own.
Step 3: Establish the Settings for each group
Each recipient group has its own settings:
Setting | What it does |
Start Date | When the diagnostic opens. Students in the recipient group can't begin before it, and it won't appear on their dashboard until the Start date passes. |
Due Date | The date students are told to finish by. On its own, it does not close the diagnostic. |
Late Submissions | An end date you choose for accepting late work. Students can keep working until that date. |
Time Limit | How long a student has once they start. The default is 45 minutes, which gives a little room around the 40 minutes a diagnostic is built to take. |
Spanish Translation | Lets students toggle a Spanish translation inside each question. |
Time Limit
The timer starts the moment a student begins, and it counts real-world time. It does not pause. Closing the tab, losing a connection, or leaving for lunch all keep the clock running. If a student loses time to something outside their control, you can reset their timer. See Reset a student's timer below.
We recommend setting the timer for at least 45 minutes, and you can expect students to need that full time. The longer the timer is set, the more skills Albert is able to diagnose. Because the questions adapt to each student's level, they will cover a different number of skills and finish at different times.
Spanish Translations
The Spanish translation toggle is set per recipient group. It's available when both of the following are true:
your school allows translations, and
the diagnostic contains translated questions.
If either isn't true, you'll still see the toggle but it will be disabled. Students who have it turned on get a translation toggle inside each question. Their answers are still evaluated against the English text.
Step 4: Assign
After establishing settings, click Add Diagnostic to Skill Path in the top right corner to Assign the Diagnostic to your recipients.
What happens to your classes when you assign
The Adaptive subject is enabled for any class that doesn't already have it. If you assign a 6th grade Adaptive Math diagnostic to a class that isn't set up with Adaptive Math yet, Albert adds the subject to that class for you. You don't need to set it up first.
Free practice in that subject stays open. Those students get normal access to it, so they can practice those skills on their own outside the diagnostic.
The Diagnostic's skill list is locked in when you assign. Each diagnostic covers a set list of skills that you can't add to or remove from.
What your students see
Diagnostics are intentionally simple to ensure we measure what students actually know:
One question at a time. No explanations, no right-or-wrong feedback, no skill names, no progress bar. A countdown timer is the only indicator on screen.
Skipping is always allowed. Students can skip questions in the Diagnostic.
The diagnostic appears on the student dashboard only while it's open. It shows up once the start date passes and drops off once it closes for that student, whether they finished, ran out of time, or the late-submission window ended.
Students don't see their results. Diagnostic results are for instructional decisions, and they go to you in your reports.
Find your assigned diagnostics
Assigned diagnostics live in the Skill Paths view on your teacher Home tab, in their own Diagnostics group. You can view them across all your classes or within a single class.
Each row shows the diagnostic's status, its dates, and how many students have finished, along with options on the right to edit and a link straight into the Diagnostic Report.
Assignment Status
Status | Meaning |
Scheduled | The start date hasn't arrived yet. Students can't see or begin it. |
Open | Students can work on it. It stays open through the due date and, if you allowed late submissions, through the late-submission end date. |
Closed | The window has ended. No one can start or continue. |
Reset a student's timer
If a student ran out of time, you can give them a fresh clock. Timers can be reset once a student has started. You can reset:
one student's timer, or
the whole class's timers at once.
A reset restores the clock. It does not clear answers. Everything the student has already answered is kept, and the classifications they already earned stay in your reports. They pick up where they left off with a new countdown.
To reset timers:
Click on the Diagnostic from the Skill Paths tab in your Home dashboard.
Click Reset student timers.
Choose to reset for individual students or all recipients by clicking Reset or Reset All.
Click Done.
After you reset, the student is notified the next time they open, refresh, or answer a question. They can then choose to resume before the new countdown starts.
Assign the same diagnostic more than once
You can assign the same diagnostic multiple times in a school year - for example, once at the beginning of the year and again mid-year, to measure growth.
Each time you assign, you will create a separate Diagnostic assignment with its own settings, its own recipients, and its own results. Change the Diagnostic's name in the top left to tell them apart, giving each a distinct name like, "BOY Math Diagnostic" and "Mid-Year Math Retake":
Where results show up
To view Diagnostic results:
Navigate to your Diagnostic from the Skill Paths tab in your Home dashboard.
Click the Reports icon to the right of the Diagnostic or click the 3 dots → View Report.
Diagnostic results flow into the Reports you already use:
Proficiency now has two measurement methods. Practice proficiency is the level a student reached with explanations and support available. Diagnostic proficiency is what they demonstrated with neither. Every report states which method it's showing.
Your existing reports don't change. Adaptive reports still open on practice proficiency. They switch only when you select the diagnostic method or filter to a specific diagnostic.
Each skill is classified as Advanced, Intermediate, Beginner, or Unranked. Unranked means the student worked on the skill but didn't demonstrate beginner-level ability.
"Not started" is different from "Unranked." A student who never reached a skill before the diagnostic closed shows as Not started.
The classifications use the same levels as adaptive practice, so you can move straight from a diagnostic result to adding the skills a student needs to their skill path.
For the full picture, see What's the difference between practice and diagnostic proficiency?