Kindergarten Benchmarks and Standards

During the first weeks of kindergarten your child's teacher will assess each student's abilities to determine a baseline for his or her growth over the course of the year. Your state department of education sets benchmarks for student learning across content areas that are used to drive curriculum design and classroom instruction.

Below are a few examples taken from Illinois's literacy standards for kindergartners:
Understand that pictures and symbols have meaning and that print carries a message. Demonstrate understanding of concepts about books (i.e., front and back, turning pages, knowing where a story starts, and viewing page on left before page on right). Demonstrate understanding of concepts about print (i.e., words, letters, spacing between words, and left to right).

Since 2009, the the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have been developing and implementing Common Core State Standards. These standards provide a continuous and universal framework of clear expectations for learning that will prepare the next generation of college and career ready high school graduates.

The chart below links to websites of all fifty states' departments of education and their learning content standards and benchmarks pages: