What are Benchmark Assessments and How Do They Work?

These questions are among several considered in a new 44-minute set of podcasts at relnei.org exploring the design, findings, limitations, and implications identified in a REL-NEI Fast Response project that investigated the impact of benchmark assessments on student math achievement in Massachusetts. The project produced two publications released by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES): “Measuring How Benchmarks Assessments Affect Student Achievement” and “A second follow-up year for Measuring How Benchmark Assessments Affect Student Achievement.”

Benchmark assessments are tests administered throughout the school year to give teachers immediate, formative feedback on how their students are performing. Regular use of benchmark assessments is seen by many as a tool to boost student achievement.

Researchers Sue Henderson, Anthony Petrosino, Sarah Guckenburg, and Stephen Hamilton, all of Learning Innovations at WestEd (a REL-NEI partner organization), conducted the study. Henderson and Petrosino are interviewed in the podcasts.

The research team examined the effectiveness of a Massachusetts pilot program in which selected schools use quarterly benchmark exams aligned with state curriculum standards for middle-school mathematics. The researchers measured student test scores at 22 pilot program schools and 44 comparison schools on the eighth-grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) math exam from 2001 to 2007. After two years of program implementation (2006 and 2007), no statistically significant difference in test scores could be found between schools participating in the benchmark assessment pilot program and the comparison schools.

Petrosino and Henderson caution against drawing conclusions about benchmarks assessments based on the project, which could not control for all school variables—including leadership, student motivation, teacher training, and how schools use the benchmark data. They said three to four more years of data collection are needed to accurately measure the effect of the benchmark assessment program on student scores.

Henderson says: “This study we really just see as a foundation, a beginning, a place to start building a body of knowledge around benchmark assessment, formative assessment work.”

Listen to the podcasts.

Related REL Research:

The Predictive Validity of Selected Benchmark Assessments Used in the Mid-Atlantic Region (REL Mid-Atlantic)
Formative Assessment Policies, Programs, and Practices in the Southwest Region (REL Southwest)