Transforming student growth with Ellevation Benchmark

Unlock every student’s potential

District administrators and educators have long faced significant hurdles with traditional interim assessments, which often take away from instructional time, require tedious manual scoring, and lead to student testing fatigue. Many districts have had to rely heavily on outdated summative scores that do not reflect a student’s current abilities, making it difficult to pinpoint instructional needs. Without reliable, real-time data or a manageable testing schedule, it is difficult to target specific domains or effectively monitor student growth throughout the school year.

We spoke with EL Directors and teacher leaders from diverse districts to hear how Ellevation Benchmark has changed their approach. Here is what they had to say about the impact of moving from high-stakes, once-a-year testing to ongoing, targeted monitoring.

Treating assessment as "preventative care"

When educators only receive student growth metrics at the end of the year, they lose the ability to respond to students’ changing needs in real time – when it matters most. Without visibility into progress throughout the school year, it is difficult to tailor instruction in ways that keep students on track toward their unique language growth goals. One EL Director described the shift to Ellevation Benchmark as comparable to "preventative medical care."

Rather than waiting for a single, high-stakes data point, educators can utilize Benchmark data to identify learning gaps early – before they become larger issues. This allows for:

Informed placement decisions at the start of the year.
Mid-year recalibration of instruction.
Opportunities to celebrate incremental improvements that motivate students.

“This data will allow in-the-moment changes to designated ELD instruction based on students’ progress on the specific domains they score low in. Having a beginning, middle, and end of year benchmark will allow us to monitor growth of the student.”

— Tracy, CA

Reclaiming valuable instructional time

The most immediate impact districts report is the recovery of lost time, with one school district reporting that assessments could previously take up 4-5 class periods.

With Ellevation Benchmark’s lightweight, 20-minute per domain format – offered up to three times per year – that dynamic shifts entirely. One partner district noted that the new format is "truly value-added time," allowing them to get reliable data without sacrificing weeks of curriculum.

“It gives us reliable, current data that helps us be far more targeted and intentional in our instruction and planning. Teachers now spend less time guessing and more time teaching.”

— River Trails, IL

Precision through flexibility

One size rarely fits all in education – especially for multilingual learners. That’s why one of the most valued features for our partners is the ability to customize the assessment experience by selecting specific domains (Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking).

This flexibility empowers educators to focus on the areas that matter most for their students at a given moment. Whether they need a full picture of proficiency across all four domains or insight into a select few, they can choose what to administer and when – because we trust that they know their students best.

“Having the choice is great because we don’t always need to test all domains. If students have a high level of proficiency in a domain, we don’t necessarily need to assess that domain.”

— Taunton, MA

Data that drives instruction

The "return on investment" for Ellevation Benchmark isn't just in time saved – it is in the granularity of the data.

With Ellevation Benchmark, educators can see exactly how their students are progressing throughout a school year across all language domains (Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading). This clarity allows teachers to support immediate, in-the-moment changes to designated ELD instruction, ensuring that lesson plans meet the exact needs of the student today, not where they were six months ago.

Partners utilizing Ellevation Benchmark have found that the impact extends beyond just data points; it fundamentally changes the classroom dynamic. By removing the barriers of outdated data, long testing windows, and manual grading, educators can focus on what matters most: helping multilingual learners thrive.

“With past benchmark testing, teachers had to guess at which specific skills were lacking on a weaker domain. They now know exactly which skills to focus their limited instructional time on.”

— Cleveland, TN