Accelerating Student Learning:

Benchmark assessment protocol (individual teacher/team) *page 1

The purpose of this protocol is to provide a series of action steps for teachers and their teams to maximize the value of
using benchmark assessments to inform instruction. Benchmark assessments are intended primarily to help teachers
plan to engage in a backwards design process before a unit begins and to address gaps in student understanding after
they are administered.
This protocol is written based on the assumption that all teachers have access to colleagues who are teaching the same
course that they are, either in their building or via e-mail/phone.

Before unit begins

Consider what you already know about your students, including cultural/social data, behavior, language skill,
learning disabilities, status (EL, Special Ed, Advancer Learner), and learning styles
Take the benchmark assessment with your teaching colleagues (as if you were students)
Determine likely student misconceptions and plan how to address them during the unit
How will students need to think in order to answer this question?
What do I need to do when I teach to establish these habits of thinking?
Identify any skills that students need to be successful on the assessment that might not be explicitly
taught during the unit (e.g., summarizing, writing a paragraph, completing a graphic organizer)
Identify key academic vocabulary and grammatical structures that need to be explicitly taught in order
to provide ELs with full and meaningful access to both instruction and assessment
Work with your ESL/SPED teachers and all other Specialist/Resource personnel on plans for
differentiation, adaptations, and modifications for students with disabilities
Norm on expectations for responses to open-ended items with team and review rubrics used for scoring
Identify concepts that will be especially challenging for students, budgeting time during the unit
accordingly. Think about academic/behavior supports that you will front load to ensure student success.
Administer pre-assessment (if applicable)
Examine overall and item results by race, EL status, Special Ed status, advanced learner status to identify
trends for specific student groups
Determine student starting points relative to expectations on the benchmark assessment
Determine student groupings based on specific skills or knowledge demonstrated on the pre-assessment
Consult differentiation tools within the curriculum guides, including Language Performance Indicators,
advanced differentiation resources, and Strategies for Struggling Learners (where available)
Develop formative assessment plan for the unit leading up to the benchmark
Map out aspects of student thinking you will need to assess along the way and determine approximate
timing for these
Ensure alignment of formative assessment strategies with standards and depth of knowledge (DOK)

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Accelerating Student Learning:

Benchmark assessment protocol (individual teacher/team) *page 2
Ongoing throughout the unit
Review the benchmark assessment with teaching team
o Determine whether or not students will be prepared to demonstrate knowledge/skills on the
benchmark based on evidence from assessments (formal and informal)
o Make adjustments to unit plans, lessons, instructional groups and formative assessment plan
o Generate questions that will probe common misconceptions and elicit higher order thinking around
those big ideas and expect that students support answers with evidence
Have students self-assess by learning target
o Identify LTs/skills where students need more practice
o Identify LTs/skills where students demonstrate strength and confidence
Use examples of student work to provide descriptive feedback for the whole group, small groups, and individual
students

Before benchmark assessment administration

Articulate expectations with students
o Explain the purpose of the assessment
o Affirm that all students can and will be successful (e.g., Ask students to reflect on a time when they
experienced success in something challenging, either in or out of school)
o Affirm that all students have been prepared to demonstrate their knowledge/skills
o Communicate that students are expected to show/explain their thinking
o Assure students they will be supported after the assessmentthere will be opportunities to continue
working on areas/items

After benchmark assessment administration

Review student responses and work (item and skill-level results more important than overall result)
o Identify ITEMS on which students A) did particularly well and B) tended to struggle
For the 2-4 ITEMS where students struggled the most, form a hypothesis about what made this
question difficult, and propose some teaching strategies or follow-up to address it
o Identify LEARNING TARGETS or SKILLS where students A) did particularly well and B) tended to struggle
For the 2-4 LEARNING TARGETS or SKILLS where students struggled the most, form a hypothesis
about what made these LTs/skills difficult, and propose some teaching strategies or follow-up to
address it
o Examine overall and item results by race, EL status, Special Ed status, advanced learner status to identify
trends for specific student groups
Meet with teacher team to share reflections and analysis; identify strategies for addressing gaps and build time
into long-term plans
Review original instructional plan to check for assumptions and determine what students did not master
Consult with specialists (reading, math, IS, Special Ed, EL) to receive specific support around identified needs
Review results with students individually (as needed) and as a whole group, helping students determine what
made them successful
Re-teach and re-assess learning targets and concepts that students did not master when the benchmark
assessment was administered

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