Unless your students have been exposed to Sequential Spelling before, you should start them with Sequential Spelling 1 or maybe Sequential Spelling 2. Only if you feel you must. We have found that students prefer not having to study and that when they correctly spell words that they haven't studied, their self-confidence about spelling begins to zoom. If you must give grades based upon performance, there are pretests and posttests for every 60 day period. AVKO would love it if you bought one for every student.
Some schools have.
But that's not necessary. One student record book for each student would be very, very convenient and we do recommend that. However, by using one student response book as a model, you can create your own model for your students to make from spiral notebooks. You're the teacher. You know your kids better than we do.