The First Grade Benchmark Assessments were designed to use current VESD practices (Running Records for ELA) and Focus Standards in math to measure student progress commencing in the 2021-22 academic year.  First grade teachers in the Assessment and Reporting Committee (ARC) designed and approved benchmarks for DRA levels during meeting  6 (September 2019), noting this was a standard practice in the grade level.  Running Record data can be captured using District-supported methods such as DRA or Literacy Footprints. However, all Independent Levels must be converted to the Literacy Footprints Guiding Reading Level letter system to establish a common metric. These converted levels should then be entered into DnA by Renaissance (formally Illuminate) to ensure centralized data storage. Below are the District negotiated Focus Standard(s) they measure, testing windows for the year, and resources for administration, all of which the First Grade ARC team had the opportunity to review and provide input towards.

Online Benchmarks were revised for the 2025–26 school year based on valuable stakeholder feedback, beginning with the Baseline Assessments, which are now aligned to prior year’s standards to better reflect student readiness. Starting in Trimester 1, each benchmark will feature consistent question types, aligned Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels, and focus standards that are directly connected to the Smarter Balanced Content Explorer. To support instructional planning, Benchmark Blueprints will include sample question stems as well as helpful links and resources designed to deepen student thinking and extend learning.

• RI.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

• RF.1.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

• 1.OA.A.1 Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

• 1.OA.C.6 Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 - 4 = 13 - 3 - 1 = 10 - 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 - 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13).

• 1.NBT.B.2  Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones.

• 1.NBT.C.4 Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.