bench marking assessment system

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BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT

SYSTEM

TEACHER USER GUIDE

2003


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Teacher Training Guide

Benchmark Assessment System Toll-Free Support - 866-848-0401

What are Benchmark Assessments?

Introduction

Welcome to your schools newBenchmark Assessment System. No doubt you have many

questions about how this thing actually works, so heres some background information togive you a quick overview.

TheBenchmark Assessment System was developed as a support tool for teachers to help

them gauge their students strengths and weaknesses against end-of-year standards.Benchmark Assessments have been designed to advance teaching and learning in several

important ways. First, they provide teachers with quick, reliable monthly feedback onhow students are progressing toward state standards. Second, they provide schools with

timely information about the strengths and weaknesses of classes and grade levels on themajor standards of each content area. And, most importantly, they provide teachers with

targeted strategies for helping students learn those things that the Benchmarks indicate

they still need to master. TheBenchmarks are notdesigned for the exclusive and narrow purpose of boosting standardized test scores. Although theBenchmarks will helpstudents succeed on standardized tests, they should be used as part of a comprehensive

education program and school design.

Benchmark Assessments are available online through an internet-based system thatenables tests to be created, delivered, and reported electronically. Online delivery of the

monthlyBenchmark Assessments will allow schools to administer the assessments on acontinuous basis using any school computers that are equipped with Internet access.

Tests are automatically scored and the results of multiple-choice assessments areautomatically reported.

Benchmark Assessments

1. Test LevelsYour schoolsBenchmark Assessments are based upon your states end-of-year standards.It is important for schools to know how students measure up against their grade-level

standards, even though some students may be working on standards that are above orbelow their grade level. The majority of standardized tests measure students against the

standards of their grade level. It is recommended, therefore, that theBenchmarks beadministered to students for the grade level they occupy. For example, a third-grade

student in a second-grade reading group should still take the third-grade benchmark

assessment. The only exception to this recommendation should be for Special Needsstudents whose IEP and state regulations allow that student to take an out-of-gradealternative assessment.

2. ScheduleNewBenchmark Assessments are posted every month from September to June. Schoolscan plan to administer benchmarks for all required grades and subjects any time from the


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first to the final day of each month (depending on where the weekends fall). Score reportscan be generated at the school level at any time during the month.

Apart from certain administrative views, you will only be able to view Benchmark

Assessment information for your classes.

3. Length of TestsAlthough Benchmark assessments are not timed assessments, every benchmark has been

designed to accommodate the constraints of a 45-minute time block. Combining ReadingBenchmarks with any otherBenchmark, due to the length of some reading passages, is

strongly discouraged.

4. Computer Lab/ClassroomTheBenchmarks may be administered either in your schools computer lab according to a

pre-arrangedschedule or via your classroom computers. Large schools (enrollments over600) with only one lab may have to resort to using classroom computers to prevent the

labs from becomingBenchmarks-only labs.

5. Accommodations and ExemptionsSchools should follow the rules for accommodations and exemptions established by

district and state authorities for standardized tests. For example, if a special educationstudent will have items read to him or her by a teacher during standardized testing, the

same accommodation should be provided for theBenchmarks.

6. Make-up TestsAt the end of each testing window, the Benchmark Assessment Web site will be

refreshed with new tests for the month at hand. This means that the old tests will not beavailable to teachers or students. Therefore, make-up work needs to be done within the

testing window for each month. If it is not possible for a student to make up a test that heor she has missed during the testing window for that month, the student simply will not

take the test that month. Naturally we urge you to allow students opportunities to makeup missed tests as soon as possible during the appropriate testing window.

7. Benchmark SupportTeachers should contact their school benchmark administrator for support in using benchmark system. If you need immediate assistance and your administrator is

unavailable, please call the toll-free support number below.


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Using the Benchmark Assessment System

1. Logging In to the Systema. Teachers, administrators and students all log in to the Benchmark Assessment

System in the same way. From the Log In screen, enter the user name andpassword you were given by your system administrator.

b. You will be presented with the following screen (Figure 1):

Figure 1

c. From this screen you can either view benchmarks, view reports, access thetools menu, view help or return to the log in screen. The navigation bar you

see at the top of the screen will be visible from anywhere within the systemwith the exception of when you are viewing an actual benchmark.

Navigation Bar

Current

Benchmarks

View

Re orts


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2. Viewing Benchmarksa. When you select the Benchmarks marble, you will be presented with the

current benchmark subscriptions for your classes. There is a variety of

information available from this screen (Figure 2). Generally, anything that isunderlined is a hyperlink clicking on the underlined item with take you torelated information.

Figure 2

b. You can view previous months benchmarks the same way by selectingPrevious Benchmarks (Figure 2).

c. By clicking in the yellow Notes icon, you will be presented with selectionboxes that allow you to view all or some aspects of the benchmark questions,including teaching notes (Figure 3).


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Figure 3

d. By selecting the Benchmark title you will initially be taken to that monthsbenchmark assessment (Figure 4). Here you can take the benchmark yourselfto become familiar with the questions your students will be answering that

month. If you do not want to actually take the assessment, just click on thelast question along the bottom. Then select Done.

Figure 4


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e. You will be taken through this process only the first time you click on thebenchmark title. Subsequently, selecting the Benchmark title will lead you

through each benchmark question and show you what percentage of yourstudents chose a particular answer (correct answer in green). (Figure 5)

Figure 5

3. Using Benchmark ToolsThe tools component of the benchmark system allows teachers easy access to several

classroom management functions necessary to ensure all students are able to takebenchmarks at the appropriate time (Figure 6).


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Figure 6

a. Use Change Student Login/Password when a student has forgotten his orher password or the secrecy of that password has been compromised.

b. Use Change My Password to change your own password.c. Student Profile allows you to view basic demographic information on

students in your classes.d. Create or Modify Classes allows you to create of change your class lists if

your district is not using the student information auto-update feature.e. Use Print Class List in order to double-check your student roster as it appears

in the benchmark system, or to review your students passwords.

f. Subscriptions should NOT be used other than to print a list of classsubscriptions if necessary. The system administrator at your school setssubscriptions monthly. If you notice that your class is assigned the wrong

benchmark, please contact your system administrator.

4. Using HelpSelecting Help on the Navigation bar will take you to a list of frequently asked questionsregarding use of the benchmark system. If you are unsure about certain features of the

benchmark system, please use this help function before asking your system administrator.You may save yourself some time!

5. Viewing Benchmark ReportsThere are several ways to navigate through the teacher reports in the Benchmark

Assessment System. These reports allow you to view real-time results for students inyour classes. You can view this months results or view longitudinal results to analyze


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student progress over time. These reports are immediately updated as soon as a studentcompletes a benchmark.

Benchmark reports were designed to support the clickable curiosity of a teacher or

administrator who wants to drill down through a benchmark result to immediately

address instruction for a student or group of students. There is no report list per se,rather by viewing your class as a whole or by viewing an individual student you can clickon areas of interest to you and see the underlying information.

As soon as your students have started taking a benchmark these reports will be available

to you. We suggest you review these results and follow your own path through thebenchmark data. Some basic navigational rules apply.

a. From the main menu, select the Reports marble. You will be presented withthree options (Figure 7)

Figure 7

b. Selecting Longitudinal Report By Subject will give you the mostcomprehensive information on your classes. You can drill into your classes to

view class-wide information across benchmark assessments or drill down into

a particular student to identify individual strengths and problem areas. (Figure8)


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Figure 8

c. You will always see the Navigation Bar from every screen.d. Anything that is underlined has underlying data that you can access with a

click of your mouse. For example, in Figure 6, selecting BRwillautomatically take you to a benchmark review for that month for the selected

class. By placing your cursor on the Benchmark Subject title, you have twochoices of report Student/Subject Longitudinal orClassroom

Strand/Skill.e. From every report screen, you have the option to Return to Reports Menu.f. You always have the option of selecting the Backbutton on your browser to

return to the previous screen.g. A Symbol Key is visible where necessary to help you understand the

information on each report.

h. Once inside a report, you will always be able to select a printable version ofthe report.

The most important thing to remember about reporting is that the system is designed to

let you follow your nose to data that will inform you about the Benchmark assessmentresults you see on the screen. The navigation rules above are designed to make your

journey through the data as easy as possible. There is no set roadmap for getting toreports within the system. Feel free to browse!

Sample navigation through reports is attached.

bench marking assessment system

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