A placement test sorts a student into a level. That is the obvious purpose and the less important one.
The more valuable job is this: it creates a written starting point that you and the parent both agree on, on day one. Six months later, that record is the entire basis for showing progress.
Without it, progress is an argument
A parent who never saw a starting assessment has only their own impression to judge by. And impressions are unreliable in both directions — a child who has improved enormously but is still shy in English reads as "not progressing".
With a starting point on file, the conversation changes from opinion to evidence. Not defensively. It lets you say something specific about their child that you could not otherwise say.
Keep it short and boringly consistent
Twenty minutes, same format for everybody, same person scoring it where possible. A long test tells you marginally more and costs you enrolments, because it makes trying your school feel like an application.
What it must capture:
- Level, on whatever scale you actually teach to
- One or two specific observations — "reads confidently, hesitant speaking"
- The class you are recommending, by name
That third item is the one schools forget, and it is what turns an assessment into an enrolment.
Tell the parent the result properly
Five minutes, in person or on the phone. Three things: where their child is starting, which class you recommend and why, and what you would expect to see change by the end of the term.
Be conservative on that last one. A parent who was promised fluency in a term and got solid progress feels short-changed; one who was told to expect steadier reading and more willingness to speak, and got exactly that, renews.
Setting the expectation is cheaper than exceeding it, and more reliable.
Test again on a schedule, not on request
If the only re-assessment happens when a parent complains, then every re-assessment happens in an atmosphere of doubt. Once a term, same format, for everybody.
That also gives you something rare: a real distribution of how much progress your teaching actually produces. Which is worth knowing whether or not it flatters you.