The impact of academic standards on students’ ability to write is questionable. Some believe that they impede more than enhance effective writing instruction. However, academic standards are part of our current educational life, thus this podcast I will (a) present some ideas for evaluating and assessing academic standards related to writing and (b) describe how you might pragmatically document students’ mastery of them.

We will start by defining our terms. An academic standard defines what you want students to know or be able to do in a general sense.

Benchmarks in education are the products or performances used to determine if students have met a standard. Benchmarks must be measurable or observable. This means it could be a student product found in a portfolio or a measure of that product using a checklist or rubric. Benchmarks are used to help you meet the standard and to document that the standard is being met.