Tracking and reporting student progress toward standards doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. jmc’s Standards and Benchmarks module provides a clear, flexible system for organizing standards in a layered structure, giving teachers focused access to the standards that align with their courses through customizable instancing, and defining how proficiency is communicated using result symbols and cutoffs. Together, these tools support meaningful instruction and accurate, standards-based reporting without adding unnecessary complexity.
Log into jmc Office and head to Standards and Benchmarks > Definitions to begin organizing your standards.
Organizing Standards and Benchmarks in jmc
jmc’s Standards and Benchmarks module uses a layered structure to organize what students are assessed on and how results are reported. Subject areas, standards and benchmarks all play a specific role in moving from broad organization to classroom-level assessment and reporting.
Edit Subject Areas: the highest level of organization in the Standards and Benchmarks module.
Edit Standards: the groupings within each subject area that help organize the assessed skills.
Edit Benchmark Groups: a way to differentiate benchmarks within a grade level by student group or level such as "TAG" or "Special Education".
Edit Benchmarks: the specific skills or learning targets that teachers assess in the classroom.
Providing teacher's access to standards and benchmarks
jmc uses instancing tools to control which standards and benchmarks appear in teacher gradebooks and on report cards, ensuring educators see only the items relevant to their courses and students. This focused access supports accurate assessment, simplifies gradebook workflows, and keeps standards-based reporting manageable for teachers.
Edit Standard Instances: a tool for providing teacher access to assess a group of skills
Edit Benchmark Instances: the method for allowing teachers use gradebook tools—such as Scores or Competency-Based Grading—to automatically calculate results for reporting.
Result symbols and cutoffs
Result symbols and cutoffs define how student proficiency is communicated in standards-based reporting. In jmc, schools can customize the symbols teachers use and set score cutoffs that determine how results are calculated, ensuring feedback is clear, consistent, and aligned with local grading practices.
Edit Result Symbols and Cutoffs: the page for associating the letters, numbers and/or symbols used by each subject area in your school for reporting student proficiency of a benchmark.