Welcome Families!

We’re excited to welcome you and your student to Benchmark Advance and/or Adelante for the new school year. The program is aligned with your state’s standards and the science-of-reading research base, providing engaging learning opportunities for students to grow and thrive.

We’ve created this webpage to share key information about the program and help you support your student throughout the year.

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About the Program

Benchmark Advance is a comprehensive standards-based literacy program. It provides a cohesive framework for the development of literary skills and content knowledge, supporting high achievement for every student. The program received an all-green rating on EdReports, a Best of 2022 Tech and Learning Award, and an Excellence in Equity Award for its texts.

The program builds strong foundations through explicit, systematic, spiraled instruction that is linked to contextualized practice, where learning is set. With a solid foundation, students develop comprehension and critical thinking skills as they encounter grade level complex texts – through read-alouds in Kindergarten and 1st grade and through their write-in consumable magazines in grades 2-5.

Supporting Your Learner

Write-in Student Books

Yes, your students can write in their books! Often called their “magazines,” students receive one for each unit. Each one is a collection of engaging texts organized around a single topic. Students can write inside them as they annotate the text and take notes. This not only supports reading comprehension, but also makes them very engaging!

Ask your student to share their annotations and thoughts with you!

Home Activity Calendars

Not only can students write in the books, they can also keep them as their very own. After three weeks, the book comes home with each student. Look on the back cover of the books. These are activities that will help you continue the learning at home.

Engaging Conversations at Home

Benchmark Advance aligns across Grades K–6 so that siblings learn related topics at the same time. Families can have more connected discussions about schoolwork. Each grade has 10 topic-based units integrating social studies, science, and literary themes.

Benchmark Advance has an aligned program framework across Grades K-6. This means that all elementary students are learning about the same knowledge area at the same time. If you have siblings in elementary school together, they will be learning about related content. Family conversations about school can build on one another.

Vertically Aligned Unit Topics and Texts

10 topic-based units per grade integrate social studies, science, and literary topics with multiple text sets per topic.

Home Connection Letters

The program resources include take-home letters. These come home with the student every three weeks and tell you about the topic and instructional goals for the unit. It will also include activities you can do at home to support the learning in the classroom. These letters are available in the following languages:

English
Haitian Creole
Mandarin
Portuguese
Spanish
Arabic

Digital Access through Benchmark Universe

Your student has access to eBooks, videos, games, and other interactive content on Benchmark Universe! Your learner should have received login information from their school. The system supports many single sign-on methods, so be sure you follow the instructions carefully. Benchmark Universe may also include assignments that your learner may need to access and complete. These are found right on their dashboard!

Benchmark Universe dashboard assignments area

Your student’s assignments area is found on the their Benchmark Universe dashboard.