![]() Make sure that they are actively learning, but having fun in the process. Provide a couple of fun, low-stress refresher lessons to prepare your students for what material will be on the benchmark exam and reactivate their prior knowledge. Administering benchmark exams in a manageable, single-subject format can help provide a more accurate measure of what knowledge students have already mastered and where they have real gaps in the given subject area.Įven for beginning-of-the-year benchmarking, it’s important to dedicate some class time to review before administering any assessments. In addition, educators know that students are bound to lose interest with any long test. Whether you’re teaching all subjects at the elementary level or a specific subject at the secondary level, testing your students on one topic at a time will help them to focus their energy and feel more in control. Testing is inherently stressful for many students-help your students avoid feeling overwhelmed by breaking up your benchmarking into several phases. So, what’s the best way to actually go about implementing a benchmark assessment strategy? Here are four best practice tips to help you get started: Take it a step further by administering additional benchmark assessments at one or two more intervals throughout the school year, and coupled with data from your more informal day-to-day formative assessments, you can feel confident about identifying your students’ needs and adjusting your instructional approach as necessary to meet them. You already know the curriculum that you’re expected to help your students master throughout the year benchmarking can help you lesson plan strategically from the start, and tackle that curriculum in the most efficient way to make sure that all of your students are on pace. With that definition of benchmark assessment in mind, it’s easier to see the potential value, especially at the start of the school year. Instead, the goal of benchmarking is to identify students’ academic strengths and weaknesses and use that information to guide future instruction, and support success on later summative and high-stakes tests.Īll of your formative assessment questions answered – download our FREE Guide to Assessment for Learning! However, unlike summative assessments, the purpose of benchmarking is not to determine content mastery. They are fixed assessments, evaluating students against specific grade-level standards and learning goals rather than simply taking a quick pulse of understanding. But, before you write off the idea, it’s important to consider the reasoning behind benchmark assessments, and the value they can provide.īenchmark assessments, also frequently called interim assessments, are intended to be something between formative and summative assessments. ![]() ![]() Is that the first thought that comes to mind at the mention of administering beginning-of-the-year benchmarks to your students? If so, you’re certainly not alone-today’s students and teachers are faced with no shortage of assessments, all of which come with their own unique set of pressures and expectations. ![]()
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