The English and Communication Benchmarks, Grades 4 – 12 address the content included in the ADP benchmarks (reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, media, logic and literature) with increasingly rigorous expectations from grade 4 through grade 12.

Many traditional standards present lists of skills and knowledge separated into categories (such as vocabulary, reading and writing). These lists may give the impression that literacy skills are acquired in a linear and piecemeal way, not through a cohesive curricular experience. Distinct from traditional standards, the benchmarks presented here are organized in a manner that supports students’ capacity to produce coherent oral, written and visual products, as well as their ability to understand increasingly complex aural, visual and written text.

Because of this emphasis on results, Achieve has organized the English and Communication Benchmarks into grade spans (4 – 5, 6 – 8, 9 – 10, 11 – 12) as well as by strand. (Click here to read a discussion on why these benchmarks have been organized by grade span and here for why they begin at grade 4.)

To view the English and Communication Benchmarks by grade span, please select one of the following options below:

• Grades 4 – 5
• Grades 6 – 8
• Grades 9 – 10
• Grades 11 – 12