Get started with Writing Benchmarks

On this page

• Administrator Setup
• Benchmark Administration and Supporting Teachers
• Grade Norming and Its Importance
• Reviewing Data
• Supporting Teachers

NoRedInk Writing Benchmarks allow administrators to track student progress towards mastery of standards-aligned writing skills. Benchmarks also give teachers the data they need to meaningfully drive instruction throughout the academic year.

If your team has decided to leverage NoRedInk Writing Benchmarks, follow the instructions on this page to get started and learn more about using NoRedInk to help your students become better writers.

💡 Looking to incorporate our Grading Assistant in your Writing Benchmarks? Check out this article to learn about our Grading Assistant-powered Writing Benchmarks!

Administrator Setup

You'll want to decide if you want to use Unscaffolded Quick Writes or Scaffolded Guided Essays. Quick Writes can be used to serve a range of purposes, from building writing fluency and developing specific writing skills to assessing understanding of course content. Guided Essays support students with scaffolding, exemplars, and tips as they write, freeing up time for you to provide more individualized instruction.

1. Go to Admin Tools
2. Select Writing Growth and then select the "Create new Writing Benchmark" button
3. Choose to use an Unscaffolded Quick Write or a Scaffolded Guided Essay
4. Choose a prebuilt benchmark from the list or create your own

If you're creating a Quick Write, choose Unscaffolded and follow the steps to set up an Unscaffolded Quick Write. If you're creating a Guided Essay, choose Scaffolded follow the steps to set up a Scaffolded Guided Essay.

Unscaffolded Quick Write Setup

1. Update or add a prompt and sources
2. Decide if there should be a minimum length
3. Choose how you want the benchmark to be graded by teachers
   • Teachers will assign 0-100%
   • Teachers will grade on a rubric
4. Click Continue
5. Choose and build your follow-up Benchmark with the same steps listed above

6. Choose schools and click Finalize Benchmark

7. Enter a name
8. Choose grade level
9. Select the benchmark window for the initial and follow-up benchmarks
10. Select the Send to button to send the benchmark to your teachers

Scaffolded Guided Essay Setup

1. Update or add a prompt and sources
2. Choose the Genre
3. Customize the parts of the essay
4. Use the default rubric or customize the rubric
5. Click Continue
6. Choose & build your follow-up benchmark with the same steps listed above

7. Choose schools and click Finalize Benchmark

8. Enter a name
9. Choose grade level
10. Select the Benchmark window for the initial and follow-up benchmarks
11. Select the Send to button to send the benchmark to your teachers

Benchmark Administration and Supporting Teachers

Before teachers administer the benchmark, it’s important that you clarify directions and expectations.

For instance, you’ll need to determine your administration window for your Writing Benchmark.

• We recommend giving teachers two weeks to administer the benchmark plus another two weeks to grade student submissions.
• We also recommend encouraging teachers to have students log in to NoRedInk before completing the Benchmark to ease students' performance anxiety.

Tracking Benchmark Administration

NoRedInk's Admin Tools provide an easy way to see which teachers and classes have assigned and completed benchmarks. The Administration Status tool also allows you to copy the email addresses of your teachers so you can share important information with them.

1. Go to Admin Tools and select Writing Growth
2. Each benchmark shows the administration status

3. Clicking the administration status button shows a detailed list of who has assigned and graded the writing benchmark
4. The Administration Status window allows you to copy the email addresses for all teachers, teachers who have assigned the benchmark, teachers who haven't assigned the benchmark, teachers who have completed grading, or teachers who haven't completed grading. You'll paste the email addresses in the To field of your email application.

Grade Norming and Its Importance

Reliable data to inform instruction across classrooms requires that teachers hold a common understanding of the rubric and how to apply it to student writing. It is important that teacher teams review the prompt and rubric prior to assigning the Writing Benchmark.

To determine how much support to provide teams, consider these questions prior to the grade norming meeting:

• Are teachers familiar with the rubric criteria?
• Does the rubric align with a state or national rubric?
• Do teachers have access to norming documents or guidance aligned with the standardized rubric?
• Have teachers participated in grade norming recommended by a state or national organization?

If the team is using a rubric that does not have guiding documents, consider using this grade norming protocol.

Grade Norming Protocol Agenda

1.  Set aside at least one hour for the teacher team to meet.
2.  Prior to the meeting, ask each teacher to bring copies of three anonymous student samples for each team member to read and score. These samples should represent a proficient, basic, and below-basic paper.
3.  Review the rubric as a group.
4.  Review examples of one of the levels (proficient, basic, and below basic).
5.  Discuss the score rationale for the score.
6.  Develop an example or anchor set for the score.
7.  Repeat the process for each level.

Questions to consider while facilitating the meeting:

• What are the defining differences between proficient, basic, and below-basic samples?
• Which parts of the rubric feel harder or easier to grade against?
• How do the teachers reconcile differing scores?

Grade norming can be a yearly process or one in which teachers engage for each assignment.

Reviewing Data

As an administrator, you'll receive access to data by school, teacher, rubric item, and overall student performance. You can review the results of benchmarks by clicking the "View Results" button.

To ensure you and your teachers can use this data meaningfully to inform instruction, we recommend taking the following steps:

1. Use the results to drive skills practice within the practice engine
2. Talk with students about their writing or schedule writing conferences​​
3. Help students understand how the portfolios can help them monitor their writing growth​​
4. Benchmarks are a snapshot of the current state of student writing
5. Schedule time with your Customer Success Manager to review high-level trends. Validate that benchmarks have been graded before moving on to the next step.
6. Schedule professional development for teachers on how to use Benchmark results to drive instruction.

Plan for professional development to occur between mid-September and mid-October, after teachers have administered their Benchmarks.

Supporting Teachers

Some of the most common mistakes we see administrators making during this phase of Benchmark implementation are in terms of expectation setting and follow-through.

Tracking Student Growth

Ideally, teachers will assign and grade at least 2 Writing assignments between their first and second Writing Benchmarks Benchmarks as a way of supporting students' growth with grammar, conventions, and writing skills.

In between Writing assignments, we recommend teachers:

• Assign regular skills practice by providing targeted practice on high-needs skills.
• Then, ask students to apply those skills in their own writing.

As teachers identify high-need gaps from Benchmark data, they can:

• Pre-teach the skill.
• Then 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	Skill-building Quick Write	Whole Class or Differentiated	15-20 minutes

At least twice during the year, teachers should assign more robust assignments to capture students' progress toward crafting a full essay.

• Students start by planning their essays using one of our graphic organizers.
• After students outline their thoughts, they draft a section of their essays with the support of targeted tips in a Guided Essay.
• Based on student results, teachers provide Practice to help students develop high-priority skills.
• Finally, students revisit their initial Guided Essay, apply relevant feedback, and resubmit.

	What is it?	Who is it assigned to?	How long does it take?
Assignment 1	Graphic Organizer	Whole Class	20-30 minutes
Assignment 2	Guided Essay	Whole Class	40-60 minutes
Assignment 3	Practice	Differentiated	30-60 minutes
Assignment 4	Guided Essay	Whole Class	20-40 minutes

To ensure that teachers are leveraging this data regularly, you should schedule monthly meetings with your Customer Success Manager to review Premium report data.

If there are schools that are not meeting the outlined expectations, you'll need to schedule targeted training sessions for those schools/teachers.

Measuring Progress

The final step in this process is to schedule and administer a follow-up Benchmark. This process will be similar to the steps outlined in Step 1.

1. Create and schedule a follow-up Benchmark that directly aligns with the Benchmark administered earlier in the year(same rubric, genre, etc.).
2. Share Benchmark directions, expectations, and links with teachers (again, we recommend a 2-week administration window plus an additional 2 weeks for grading).
3. Schedule time with your Customer Success Manager to review high-level trends.

Lastly, you may want to capture additional feedback from teachers regarding the process. What went well? What could help this process run smoothly in the future?

One piece of feedback we’ve received is having NoRedInk embedded into pacing guides helped teachers prioritize what content to teach during each semester.