PreK-2 Mathematics Present Levels & Assessments

Updated: March 14, 2026. Reviewer: Dr. Rose Sebastian, Ed.D.

How to Write Evidence & Strengths Based Present Levels for Math

The goal of a present level for any student is to tell about what that student can do in an area where they are below grade level. If the student is at grade level in mathematics, awesome! Just say so in the strengths statement. If they are not, this is where you state what exactly the student can do– and where they are at. Focus on strengths and clarity. Saying that the student can’t count to a thousand doesn’t tell you what they can count to. And use these statements to set up your goals!

Sample PLOP #1
Sample PLOP #2

Nikola can read and write numbers to 100. She can rote count to 49 and count backwards from 5. She needs support to count by 5s or 10s and put numbers in order. She can tell what is one more than a number.

Nikola understands what addition and subtraction are but is still shaky on executing the steps. When she was asked to use blocks to solve addition and subtraction problems, she sometimes added and sometimes subtracted and, when she did try to do the right operation, she got the correct number of blocks about half of the time. Her overall accuracy on fact problems was less than 25%.

Nikola knows six days of the week and one month of the year. She can name a penny but not other coins. She can name all of her colors and all of her basic shapes except for a triangle, which she can point to. Se can add onto ABAB patterns but not ABBABB or ABC patterns.

In the classroom, Nikola understands the grade level concepts and can do the grade level work if she gets the information repeated and extra time. She needs support to understand the material initially but then, given more time, is able to do the work on his own.

Mathematics is Amina’s favorite subject! She can rote count to 30 and count objects consistently to 20 and inconsistently to 30. She can identify the numbers 1 to 10 consistently. She sometimes reverses numbers like 12 and 21 and so her accuracy after 10 is lower. She can write numbers to ten as well, although many of the numbers are reversed. She knows her birthday, three months, and four days of the week. She can identify basic shapes like hearts and squares and her colors.

She can tell you which object is bigger or smaller and which group has more or less. She has an emerging sense of addition and subtraction and can use manipulatives to add or take away from a group but needs support to do problems on paper. Given teacher and picture support, she can solve one step addition and subtraction story problems with numbers to ten.

Assessments & Baseline Tools & Strategies for Annual IEPs

Writing strong present levels stars with collecting useful, accurate data. Some of that can come from classroom progress monitoring and some from individualized assessments, like the ones below and in our store.

Assessments can often be time consuming for teachers and students, so use data you already have as much as possible. If your student uses any computer programs for mathematics that track data, use that data for the present levels! And include what you see in class too. The goal is to create a holistic picture of the student without making them sit through a million tests or eating up the time you could spend actually working with the student.

Number Sense
Life Skills
Addition & Subtraction
Word Problems

Assessing Students' Counting and Number Recognition

The first challenge is to figure out how high a student can count, what numbers they can read and write, and how well they can compare numbers.

IEP Assessment Resources

How high can the student rote count?
How high can they count with one-to-one correspondence?
Can they count down? From what? What about skip counting?
Which numbers do they recognize? Which can they write?
Can they tell you which group is larger or smaller? What one more or less than a group is?

Need assessment tools or help turning assessments into strong IEPs? The IEP Success Kit has comprehensive (minus a DRA!) reading, writing, and mathematics assessments for annual IEP and progress monitoring reports!

Assessment Tips

With some students who are struggling with more than and less I will try out different wording for “one more” and “one less” like what’s bigger than or greater than a number. For rote counting I have noticed that a lot of kids can go to 29 and then skip 30, go to 39 and then skip 40. Don’t just write down the highest number they can count to– write down any thing interesting that they do while they are counting. If they look like they are going to make it to a hundred, stop them and just write, “past 50” or something like that in the present levels.

Baseline Ideas

Han can rote count to 29 and has one to one correspondence for counting objects past 20. He can’t count down from a number but he can count by 10s to 50. He can tell what is one more than a number for numbers to 20 and tell what is one less than a number for numbers to 10.

Assessing Life Skills in Mathematics

In addition to knowing what numbers and algorithms younger or lower functioning students know, we need to figure out what students know about shapes, colors, money, time, calendar, mathematical concepts and patterns. All of these are part of life skills as well as basic math concepts. The goal is to report out the highest skill a student has like telling time to the half hour, identifying coins, or adding like coins.

IEP Assessment Resources

Can a student tell time? If so, to what?
Which coins can a student identify?
What colors and shapes can they identify?
What mathematical concepts do they have like more, less than, bigger, or smaller?
Can they continue a pattern? What type?
What days and months do they know? What about their birthday?

Assessment Tips

The concepts tend to be an area of strength for most kids. Make sure to read them the directions. Money and time are hard. If a kid doesn’t know their coins, don’t have them try to add them. Likewise, if a student gets the first row of clocks (time to the hour) wrong, then stop the time assessment there. There is no elegant way to write this up so just write down what the kid can do.

Baseline Ideas

Niko understands basic math concepts like bigger/smaller and taller/shorter. He can name all basic colors and most basic shapes, except for ovals and rectangles which he can point to. He knows the name of a penny and the value of a quarter. Niko can tell time to the hour and knows five days of the week and three months of the year when prompted. He can add onto an AB pattern but not more complex patterns.

Assessing Early Addition and Subtraction

Addition and subtraction present levels for students working at a lower elementary school include both the types of numbers they can add and subtract and how they do it– can they do it with blocks, with their own pictures, by modifying a picture you drew, by writing numbers, in their head, or some other way? What tools do they use to solve the problems?

IEP Assessment Resources

Can students add and/or subtract numbers to ten using blocks? What about with bigger numbers?
Can students add and/or subtract using pictures that you have drawn?
Can students add and/or subtract using numbers? If so, how? Do they draw pictures, use their fingers, make tallies, do it in their heads or something else?

Assessment Tips

There are three levels of addition and subtraction in the assessment– with already drawn pictures, with blocks that a student has to get out, and with just paper. If the student struggles with blocks and pictures don’t have them try the paper only. Pay attention to how they are solving the problems and what goes wrong when they get it wrong– are they just guessing? Over-counting blocking? Making their drawings too messy?

Baseline Ideas

tudent 1:

Suann has a concept of addition and can solve addition fact problems with blocks. She does not yet have a concept of subtraction.

Student 2:

Dante can solve basic addition and subtraction fact problems by drawing lines and circles. When the numbers get bigger, he sometimes draws the wrong numbers of lines or counts them incorrectly. He needs teacher support to do all two digit problems.

Assessing Word Problem Skills

Word problems, also known as story problems, are often an area of challenge for students with disabilities as the problems combine decoding, reading comprehension, mathematical problem solving, and mathematical procedures. As a result, it is worth taking the time to build out the PLOP in this area– many students need goals in word problems so you need to know where they are at!

IEP Assessment Resources

Word problems vary in:

Whether the student reads it or you do
How many steps there are
How confusing the language is
The complexity of the vocabulary
The relevance of the content to the student
How big the numbers are
The number and types of procedures required
The types of support students are offered to solve them

Your goal is to try to figure out where a student is right now– and to use that to figure out a plan to get them a bit closer to grade level for the next year!

Need interventions for word problems? Check out the Word Problem Intervention series!

Assessment Tips

Try reading the problems to students.
Let them try the problems on their own. If they are struggling, start offering them support and note down which supports were the most helpful for them and what you saw them doing!

Baseline Ideas

Given already drawn pictures or groups of manipulatives, Amina can solve one step addition and subtraction problems with numbers smaller than ten.

What IDEA Says About Present Levels

Present levels are a key part of IEPs spelled out in the Individuals with Disabilities Act. IEPs in every state have present levels sections with similar information, but different formatting. To learn what these sections look like (and what to look for to know if they are well done) in different states, check out our state-by-state guide to reading present level sections. To learn more about what the law says about types of evaluations, visit our page on formal and informal assessments.