This document, one of 12 guides that have been developed to facilitate evaluation by and for local education agency (LEA) personnel in Illinois, covers assessing basic skills through a set of activities for making professional decisions regarding remediation, individualized learning, and program and course improvements and for making status reports to various internal and external publics so that they will be more supportive of vocational education. Included in these activities are the following: (1) analyzing course materials to inventory basic-skills learning experiences; (2) reporting findings to administrators and external publics, to other teachers, and to counselors; (3) selecting and administering basic-skills tests in mathematics, oral communications, reading, and writing; and (4) using findings to improve lessons for individual students, programs, and courses for groups of students. The guide has been designed to aid the person who has responsibility for leading this particular activity set. It includes three sections. The first section on preliminary considerations contains a brief explanation of this evaluation activity and the necessary steps to prepare for the evaluation undertaking. Suggestions are included for holding a staff meeting to discuss the activity. The second section of the guide is a procedure/task breakdown, which outlines suggested tasks for conducting this evaluation activity. The third section of this guide contains supporting documents, including information handouts, example documents, and references. (KC)