If you’ve ever found yourself clicking through menus trying to figure out how to print a test on Pear Assessment, you’re not alone. Many teachers — even experienced ones — get momentarily stumped by the platform’s print workflow. The good news is that once you know where to look, the process is straightforward, flexible, and genuinely useful for your classroom.
Whether you’re dealing with students who don’t have reliable device access, preparing accommodations for IEP requirements, or simply want a paper backup on exam day, Pear Assessment’s print feature has you covered. This guide walks you through every step, clarifies your options, and answers the questions teachers most commonly ask.
What Is Pear Assessment and Why Would You Print From It?
Pear Assessment is part of the Pear Deck Learning platform and is designed as a versatile testing solution that combines the reporting capabilities and customization districts need with the simplified classroom assessments teachers love. It supports everything from quick formative checks to rigorous summative exams, with a certified item bank and standards-aligned reporting built in.
That said, digital doesn’t always mean better — at least not for every student on every day. Teachers can provide assessments in alternative formats, such as paper and pencil, to accommodate students who require non-digital options. This is especially relevant for students with IEPs, 504 plans, or situational challenges like a broken Chromebook or spotty Wi-Fi.
Printing a test also gives teachers a concrete backup plan. If your school’s network goes down mid-exam, having physical copies on hand means the assessment doesn’t have to stop. It’s practical risk management, not a sign of distrust in technology.
Who Can Print Tests on Pear Assessment?
Before diving into steps, it’s worth understanding access levels. Not every user can print every test by default.
A user with either district- or school-level access to the Create Local Assessment Test right can enable printing for teachers. Once access is enabled, teachers can print test booklets and answer documents as well as preview an online test.
So if you’re a classroom teacher and the print option appears grayed out or missing, your district administrator may need to enable it first. Once that’s done, the feature becomes available for any tests you author or have permission to access.
Here’s a quick breakdown of who can do what:
| Role | Print Capability |
|---|---|
| District Administrator | Can enable/disable printing for all teachers |
| School Administrator | Can enable printing within their school |
| Teacher (with access) | Can print tests, answer keys, and reports |
| Teacher (without access) | Print option may be restricted or hidden |
| Student | No print access |
How to Print a Test on Pear Assessment: Step-by-Step
Once print access is enabled for your account, here’s how the process works.
Step 1: Log In and Go to Your Test Library
Log in to your Pear Assessment account using your credentials. After that, go to the Test Library section. This is where all your created tests are stored. You’ll find it in the left-hand navigation under “Tests.”
Step 2: Select the Test You Want to Print
Browse or search your library for the assessment you need. Select the test you want to print. Make sure the test is complete and saved properly before moving to the next step. An incomplete or unsaved test may not render correctly on paper, so double-check your questions and formatting before proceeding.
Step 3: Access the Print Option
Open the selected test and find the action or menu button. Click on the print option. Depending on your interface, this may appear as a three-dot menu (⋮) next to the test title, or as a direct “Print” button within the test editor.
Step 4: Configure Your Print Settings
This is where teachers have real control over the output. Choose your preferred settings like answer key, layout, or format. Always review settings carefully. This ensures your printed test looks clean, correct, and ready for classroom use without any missing content or errors.
Key settings to consider:
- Answer Key Toggle — Include correct answers for your grading copy, or exclude them for student copies
- Layout Options — Adjust spacing, font size, and question order
- Question Shuffling — Generate multiple versions of the same test to reduce copying between students
- Section Breaks — Useful for multi-part assessments with distinct topics or standards
Step 5: Print or Save as PDF
Once your settings are configured, you can either send the test directly to your printer or save it as a PDF file. Saving as PDF first is often the smarter move — it lets you preview exactly how the printed pages will look, catch any formatting issues, and store a digital backup you can reprint later without going through the setup process again.
Enabling Plain Paper Testing (For Administrators)
If you’re an administrator setting up print access for your teachers, here’s the specific path: how to unsubmit on pear assessment
Select the Title of a test to open the test authoring interface. Select the Administration tab and then select Collection. Under Print Settings, turn on Enable plain paper testing. Select the checkboxes for one or both of the following settings. Under Preview Settings, turn on Enable teachers to preview online test.
One important note: The first setting allowing teachers to print answer documents will be automatically disabled if interactive items are on the test. This means technology-enhanced questions — like drag-and-drop, graphing, or multi-select items — cannot be converted to paper format as answer documents. You’ll need to substitute or remove those question types if you want a fully printable paper version.
Printing a Draft for Review
There’s also a useful draft-printing feature worth knowing about. Select the Print Draft button to print a copy of the assessment with a cover page that shows the complexity/DOK levels, learning standards, the total number of questions, and the number of questions per type. The draft will also indicate correct answers when available and show which questions are interactive item types. The draft pages will have a “Draft” watermark across the question text.
This is especially handy when collaborating with colleagues or department heads to review a test before it goes live to students.
Printing Reports and Student Data
Printing in Pear Assessment isn’t limited to test content alone. The platform also supports printing performance reports, which adds another layer of usefulness for teacher-parent communication and progress tracking.
The Teacher Premium and Enterprise versions of Pear Assessment allow you to take a deeper dive into your assessment data, track progress over time, and print reports for parents/guardians.
The Student Profile Reports give you comprehensive data on each student, which you can also print and share with parents. The Summary tab shows assessment data results and standards mastery status, while the other two tabs provide more details on each of these.
So beyond just printing the test itself, you can print individual student report cards, class summaries, and standards mastery reports — all directly from within Pear Assessment.
Why Printing Still Matters in a Digital Classroom
Some educators assume that a platform like Pear Assessment is purely online. In practice, though, the most effective classrooms blend both modalities.
Here’s why teachers continue to use the print feature regularly:
Equity and Access — Not every student has reliable internet or a functioning device at home. A printed test ensures no student is disadvantaged by technology gaps outside school.
Focused Testing Conditions — Screens introduce distractions: notifications, browser tabs, and digital fatigue. Paper can actually improve focus for some learners, particularly those with attention-related challenges.
Accommodations Compliance — For students who require non-digital testing formats under their IEP or 504 plan, printing is not optional — it’s a legal requirement. Pear Assessment goes beyond universal accommodations, offering flexible question types and student grouping capabilities that enable teachers to provide targeted support. Printing is one component of that flexibility.
Backup Planning — Technology fails. Schools with high-stakes assessments scheduled need a paper contingency. Having a printed version ready takes minutes and can save an entire testing session from derailment.
Archiving and Compliance — Districts sometimes need physical documentation of assessments for audit or records purposes. Printed copies meet that need cleanly.
Tips to Get the Best Print Results
Getting a clean, professional-looking printed test takes a little preparation. Keep these best practices in mind:
- Preview before printing. Save as PDF first and review every page. Look for questions that get cut off, images that don’t render correctly, or spacing that looks cramped.
- Check question types. Technology-enhanced questions won’t translate cleanly to paper. Consider replacing them with equivalent standard question types when planning a paper version.
- Use separate print runs for teachers and students. Print one version with the answer key for your records, and a separate student-facing version without it.
- Plan ahead on timing. District or campus test authors should ensure the testing window gives teachers enough time to print out the required documents. For example, if a teacher wants to give a test on Tuesday, the test author should make the start date a few days earlier to allow print time.
- Store PDFs in a shared drive. Once you’ve configured and saved a test as a PDF, file it somewhere accessible so you can reprint quickly without repeating the setup process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I print a test on Pear Assessment without admin permission? It depends on how your district has configured the platform. If an administrator has enabled plain paper testing and granted you the appropriate access level, you’ll have access to the print option. If not, the feature may be hidden or grayed out — in that case, contact your school or district tech administrator to request access.
Can I include or exclude the answer key when printing? Yes. The print settings in Pear Assessment include an answer key toggle. You can include correct answers for your teacher copy and generate a separate version without answers for students. This makes it easy to manage both versions from a single test.
What happens to technology-enhanced questions when I print? Interactive or technology-enhanced question types — such as drag-and-drop, graphing, or highlight-based items — cannot be printed in their original format. These questions are either excluded from the paper version or converted to a static representation. If your test relies heavily on these question types, consider creating a modified version with standard question formats for print use.
Can I save my Pear Assessment test as a PDF instead of printing directly? Absolutely. The option to save as a PDF is available alongside the print option. This is the recommended approach for most teachers because it lets you preview the final output, archive a digital copy, and reprint later without going through the configuration steps again.
Can I print student response reports from Pear Assessment? Yes. Beyond printing the test itself, Pear Assessment also allows teachers to print individual student reports, class performance summaries, and standards mastery data. These are particularly useful for parent-teacher conferences or for sharing progress with IEP teams.
Conclusion
Learning how to print a test on Pear Assessment is a practical skill every teacher on the platform should have. The process is relatively simple once you understand the access requirements, know where to find the print menu, and take a moment to configure your settings before sending anything to the printer.
From managing accommodations to preparing for tech failures, the print feature exists for good reasons — and using it well is part of running a thoughtful, inclusive classroom. Save your tests as PDFs first, plan your print timeline ahead of assessment day, and take advantage of the answer key options to keep your grading organized.
The more comfortable you get with Pear Assessment’s print workflow, the more flexibility you’ll have on test day — and that’s one less thing to worry about when it matters most.
