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Once a student opens an assessment and submits at least 1 response, that assignment is considered started. From that point forward, some settings remain editable and others do not. This article describes exactly what you can and cannot change, and explains the data consequences of removing or resetting individual students.

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What You Can Still Change

The following settings can be updated after students have started the assessment.

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What You Cannot Change

The following changes are blocked once any student has started the assessment.
If you need to restructure the assessment after students have started, clone it, make your edits, and assign the revised version to students who have not yet started. Do not reassign to students who have already submitted.

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Reset or Remove Individual Students

Two separate actions affect individual students: unassigning and resetting.

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Unassign a Student

Unassigning removes a student from the assignment entirely. All of their responses are permanently deleted. Use this when a student was assigned the wrong assessment and you need to remove them before any data appears in a gradebook or report.
  1. Click Assignments in the navigation menu.
  2. Click the assignment name.
  3. Click Live Class Board.
  4. Select the checkbox next to the student’s name.
  5. Click More and select Unassign Students.
  6. Type Remove to confirm, then click Yes, Remove.
Unassigning a student deletes all of their responses permanently. This action cannot be undone. If the student needs to retake the assessment, assign it to them again as a new attempt.

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Reset a Student’s Attempt

Resetting returns a student’s status to Not Started without removing them from the assignment. Their previous responses are deleted, but the student remains enrolled. Use this when a student started the wrong assessment or encountered a technical issue mid-attempt.
  1. Click Assignments in the navigation menu.
  2. Click the assignment name.
  3. Click Live Class Board.
  4. Select the checkbox next to the student’s name.
  5. Click More and select Reset.
  6. Confirm the reset.
After reset, the student can re-enter the assessment and start fresh. Their original responses are not recoverable.

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Choosing Between Unassign and Reset

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Students Who Haven’t Started Yet

Students with a Not Started status can still be managed without the restrictions described above. You can do the following for not-started students even after others have begun:
  • Add a password, but only if no student has submitted yet
  • Unassign them without any data consequence, because no responses exist to delete
  • Mark them as absent to block access from outside the classroom
  • Redirect them to a different version of the assessment
You cannot restructure the assessment itself (add or reorder questions) even for not-started students once any other student has begun, because the assessment structure is shared across all students in the assignment.

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How Not-Started Students Affect Class Averages

Pear Assessment excludes students with a Not Started status from class average calculations by default. Only students who have submitted at least 1 response are included. This means:
  • If 20 students are assigned but only 14 have submitted, the class average reflects those 14 students only.
  • The not-started count is shown separately in the assignment summary so you can see how many students are pending.
  • Once a not-started student submits, they are automatically added to the average. The class average updates without any manual action.
This exclusion is intentional. Including students with no responses would produce a misleading average and skew standards mastery data. If you see a class average that looks higher or lower than expected, check the not-started count in the assignment summary before drawing conclusions.
If a large portion of the class has not started, wait until most students have submitted before reviewing class-level averages or sharing results with instructional leadership.
Last modified on July 16, 2026