The Placement Assessment addresses both phonics/decoding and high-frequency word knowledge. The high-frequency words are needed to read the small-group books across the sets.
When a student passes the spelling-sound or decoding portion of a section but does not pass the high-frequency words portion, continue with the next section of the assessment. Once the student does not pass the spelling-sound or decoding portion of a section, stop. Place the student based on spelling-sound or decoding, and make note of the unknown high-frequency words. Before beginning instruction in the set, introduce the unknown high-frequency words and provide instruction and review of those words. After ample time, start the set instruction and include the high-frequency words in the review. This introduction or review process is important because the high-frequency words are needed to access the student texts.