The Second Grade Benchmark Assessments were designed to use current VESD practices (Running Records for ELA) and Power Standards in math to measure student progress commencing in the 2021-22 academic year. Second grade teachers in the Assessment and Reporting Committee (ARC) designed and approved a cumulative math benchmark assessment during meeting  5 (May 2019).  All selected test questions from the team were used in the development of the VESD Math Benchmark Assessment.  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 Second 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.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

• RF.2.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

• 2.OA.A.1 Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem

• 2.OA.B.2 Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.

• 2.OA.C.3 Determine whether a group of objects (up to 20) has an odd or even number of members, e.g., by pairing objects or counting them by 2s; write an equation to express an even number as a sum of two equal addends.

• 2.OA.C.4 Use addition to find the total number of objects arranged in rectangular arrays with up to 5 rows and up to 5 columns; write an equation to express the total as a sum of equal addends.

• 2.NBT.A.1 Understand that the three digits of a three-digit number represent amounts of hundreds, tens, and ones; e.g., 706 equals 7 hundreds, 0 tens, and 6 ones.

• 2.NBT.A.2 Count within 1000; skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 100s.

• 2.NBT.B.5 Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.

• 2.MD.B.6 Represent whole numbers as lengths from 0 on a number line diagram with equally spaced points corresponding to the numbers 0, 1, 2, ..., and represent whole-number sums and differences within 100 on a number line diagram.

• 2.G.A.3 Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc., and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths. Recognize that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape.