Institutional Research

Each grade in the Middle School develops Benchmark Quest projects that span disciplines. The projects are hands-on, student-led, and use the design thinking process. 

Recently, working with the 6th grade teaching team, we used observation and interview data to:

• Develop a process for creating design thinking units 
• Identify supports needed to successfully implement a capstone project
• Empower teacher leaders to share insights with other grade-level teams

Learn more about Benchmark Quest. 

In line with our goals to support and develop students’ executive function skills, we evaluated the impact of our design thinking process on students’ executive function skills.

Using surveys, observations, and interviews, we learned that Benchmark’s design thinking process supports students’ development in the areas of:

• Planning and organizing
• Maintaining effort and persisting
• Cognitive shift 

Working with our Admissions team and our educators who screen students for summer camp, we evaluated our current literacy assessments used for placing new students.

Based on our findings, we took the following steps:

• Selected a new literacy assessment for incoming students
• Revised our early literacy tasks to collect nuanced information on our youngest learners 
• Revised instructions to improve consistency of test administration

As part of our commitment to helping students reach their full potential, we are evaluating the impact of our instructional program on our students’ progress.

Using a wide range of assessment data from the lower school and middle school, we will be able to better understand the following:

• Paths of student progress across academic years 
• Progress based on varying entry points into Benchmark 
• Factors that contribute to student success
• Academic trajectories after graduation from Benchmark