NoRedInk Skills Benchmarks are designed to give teachers across a school or district the data they need to meaningfully drive instruction throughout the academic year.
If your team has decided to leverage NoRedInk Skills Benchmarks, check out the following best practices to learn how to best utilize a Skills Benchmark with your students!
Administration Best Practices
While teachers are often familiar with using benchmarks to measure student growth, there are a few best practices that NoRedInk has seen teachers employ that help the process run smoothly!
- Find the time: Typically, administrators create a 1 to 4-week window for the Benchmark to be administered and completed. Plan to administer your Benchmark early in that window so any absent students can make up the work before the window closes.
- Familiarize students with NoRedInk: Having students' first activity be a Skills Benchmark may not be the most enjoyable experience. Before you administer your Benchmark, have students log in. Consider assigning a Fluency and Fun Quick Write to help students get comfortable with the site!
- Set expectations with students: Many students experience anxiety when approaching content they might not know. Before students begin the Benchmark, let them know that the assignment is meant to help you learn more about their areas of strength and growth so you can support them throughout the year.
Reviewing Benchmark Data
Benchmarks are designed to include a variety of high-priority topics that include standards-aligned writing skills. When reviewing Benchmark data, you'll be able to evaluate the following:
- Class-wide averages allow you to see how students did overall on the Benchmark.
- Topic-specific data allows you to see how students did on individual topics. This data will be the most useful as you plan for your instruction!
After choosing a specific topic to review, you'll be able to see which students fall into each of the four proficiency bands. This information can help you determine how you want to approach these concepts throughout the school year!
Some questions to consider while reviewing topic-specific data:
- How might I use this data to differentiate support for my students?
- How does a student's proficiency impact how long teaching this concept might take?
- How can I use this data to group my students/assign material for future lessons?
Teachers often plan their first unit to be a concept that students already have a basic understanding of as a way to help build confidence in their writing abilities.
💡 Want to learn more about how to use the data from your NoRedInk Benchmark to develop key skills in your classrooms? Check out our pre-recorded webinar!
Tracking Student Growth
Ideally, you'll create at least 4 unit cycles between your first and second Benchmarks as a way of supporting students' growth on grammar, conventions, and writing skills.
We recommend that teachers assign a Unit Cycle for each instructional unit, as shown in the table below.
- Begin with a Unit Diagnostic to track students' strengths and weaknesses on a wider range of topics relating to skills from the Benchmark.
- From there, follow up with Practice to help students develop high-priority skills.
- The unit concludes with a Growth Quiz to track progress over time.
- You can optionally assign a Quick Write at the end of the unit to have students apply the skills in their writing.
| What is it? | Who is it assigned to? | How long does it take? | |
| Assignment 1 | Unit Diagnostic | Whole Class | 10-15 minutes |
| Assignment 2 | Practice | Differentiated | 20-40 minutes |
| Assignment 3 | Growth Quiz | Whole Class | 10-15 minutes |
| Assignment 4 | Quick Write | Whole Class | 10-20 minutes |
💡 If this unit example feels right for you, use Standards & Tests as a way to find and assign standards-aligned content!
If a full unit cycle isn't feasible for each unit, we recommend a lower-lift option.
A lightweight recommendation is to start by providing targeted practice on high-needs skills, then asking students to apply those skills in their own writing, as shown in the table below.
- As you identify areas of need from Benchmark data, you can pre-teach the skill and assign Practice topics to help students improve.
- From there, students can transfer their skills into their own writing in a skill-building Quick Write.
| What is it? | Who is it assigned to? | How long does it take? | |
| Assignment 1 | Pre-teach | Whole Class or Differentiated | 10-20 minutes |
| Assignment 2 | Practice | Whole Class or Differentiated | 30-60 minutes |
| Assignment 3 | Quick Write | Whole Class or Differentiated | 15-20 minutes |
💡 If this unit example feels right for you, use Modules as a way to quickly find and assign concept-based units!