ABSTRACT
The idea is to assess high-ability students' knowledge and skill development in particular content areas prior to instruction, to identify what they already know and can do, and to provide them with instruction and curricula that meets their academic needs. A major component in curriculum compacting is pretesting or preassessment. It is essential that the pretest materials reflect the goals and objectives regarding the skills and content to be mastered during instruction. Teachers need to be cognizant of those goals and objectives in order to select or develop pretest materials matched to the curriculum being considered for compacting. Teachers can identify students in need of curriculum compacting with proper training. Teachers also understand what curriculum needs to be compacted and tend to compact most frequently in mathematics and language arts. The challenge of compacting may not be in identifying what should be compacted, but rather what to do with the released time and how to manage it.
