During a recent government meeting, officials outlined significant updates regarding educational assessments for grades 3 through 8, emphasizing the introduction of new benchmarks and the timeline for their implementation.

The meeting highlighted that reading benchmarks are currently available for grades 3 through 8, with writing benchmarks set to be released in December. These assessments are optional, allowing educators to choose whether to utilize them. However, interim assessments for writing will not be available this year due to ongoing standard-setting processes, with plans to reinstate them in the 2025-2026 school year.

A key change discussed was the removal of editing language and speaking and listening benchmarks from the summative assessments, which has led to their exclusion from the current benchmark offerings. The writing benchmarks will feature updated prompts and rubrics that align with new educational standards, with a field test scheduled for February and March. This test will not include automatic scoring, as it aims to gather data to train the scoring engine for future assessments.

Officials encouraged participation from districts and individual educators in the upcoming writing benchmark field test, stressing the importance of widespread involvement to ensure effective scoring in future assessments. The meeting concluded with an invitation for questions and a reminder for educators to reach out via email for support.