
Policy - General
- Definition. The benchmark year, or eligibility year, for computation purposes is the year in which the number holder attains a specific age or a specific event occurs.
- Retirement Insurance Benefit. The benchmark year for RIB is the year of age 62 attainment (see RS 00605.040A.2.e. ...
- Disability Insurance Benefit. ...
- Survivor. ...
What is a benchmark in education?
What Is a Benchmark in Education? In education, benchmark refers to an assortment of evaluation tests administered throughout the school year in order to find out whether or not students are meeting specified academic standards.
What is a benchmark in stock market?
A benchmark is a standard against which the performance of a security, mutual fund or investment manager can be measured. Generally, broad market and market-segment stock and bond indexes are used for this purpose. Why Benchmarks are Important.
What happens after benchmarking has been carried out?
Once benchmarking has been carried out, goals and performance metrics are set in order to improve performance. These goals are new, more competitive targets for a company but they must be achievable. If goals are unrealistic to achieve teams become demotivated and goals are destined to remain unfulfilled.
What is the difference between the standards and benchmark testing?
The standards tell teachers what to teach in each grade so that each and every lesson should be taught aligned to these Common Core Standards. Benchmark testing coincides directly with Common Core Standards, as benchmark tests allow teachers to see whether or not students are meeting them.

What is a benchmark year and when does it occur?
1. Definition. The benchmark year, or eligibility year, for computation purposes is the year in which the number holder attains a specific age or a specific event occurs.
What is meant by benchmarking?
Benchmarking is defined as the process of measuring products, services, and processes against those of organizations known to be leaders in one or more aspects of their operations.
What is a benchmark study?
A benchmark study measures and compares usability metrics against a baseline study. Such studies are typically run on a regular basis (monthly, quarterly, yearly) and evaluate how a user's experience with your product changes over time.
What is a benchmark standard?
Benchmarking Standard means the standard set forth in a Plan Member's Plan or other coverage document that governs the amount of reimbursement to be made for Out-Of-Network Benefits at less than billed charges (e.g., “reasonable and customary,” “usual, customary and reasonable,” “average,” “prevailing,” “maximum ...
Why is it called benchmark?
The term benchmark, bench mark, or survey benchmark originates from the chiseled horizontal marks that surveyors made in stone structures, into which an angle-iron could be placed to form a "bench" for a leveling rod, thus ensuring that a leveling rod could be accurately repositioned in the same place in the future.
What is a benchmark example?
An example of benchmark is to compare a recipe to the original chef's way of doing it. A benchmark is defined as a standard by which all others are measured. An example of a benchmark is a novel that is the first of its genre. A standard by which something is evaluated or measured.
What are the 4 types of benchmarking?
There are four main types of benchmarking: internal, external, performance, and practice.
Why is benchmark important?
Benchmarking is an important tool that companies can use to stay up-to-date with trends within their industry related to sales, customer service and more. Using the benchmarking process, organizations can determine the best standard of performance based on other companies' success.
How do you do a benchmark study?
8 steps in the benchmarking processSelect a subject to benchmark. ... Decide which organizations or companies you want to benchmark. ... Document your current processes. ... Collect and analyze data. ... Measure your performance against the data you've collected. ... Create a plan. ... Implement the changes. ... Repeat the process.
Why is it important for schools to benchmark on other school?
Benchmarking in schools is a tool that not only allows a school to know where it stands on the global scale, but most important it gives a chance to improve and to measure this improvement. Benchmarking enables: 1. The exchange of experiences and ideas between individual schools and teachers.
What is the difference between benchmark and standard?
As nouns the difference between standard and benchmark is that standard is a principle or example or measure used for comparison while benchmark is a standard by which something is evaluated or measured.
What is a benchmark value?
Benchmark Value of the relevant Class means the hypothetical Net Asset Value starting from the initial Net Asset Value of the relevant Class at inception and assuming a performance based on the Hurdle Rate of the relevant Class.
What is benchmark year?
1. Definition. The benchmark year, or eligibility year, for computation purposes is the year in which the number holder attains a specific age or a specific event occurs. 2. Retirement Insurance Benefit.
When to establish benchmark year without considering insured status?
Establish the benchmark year without considering insured status if you are using age 62 attainment for the benchmark year. Make an insured status determination if you are basing the benchmark year on disability onset or death.
What is the eligibility year for a PIA?
If using a DIB Guarantee PIA to pay survivor benefits, the eligibility year is the year of age 62 or death if before age 62. The DIB Guarantee is a 78 New Law PIA, so Windexing may apply.
Benchmark Explained in Less Than 5 Minutes
Mike Price is a personal finance writer with more than six years of prior experience working in the banking industry. He specializes in writing about investing, real estate and accounting for The Balance. His work has also been featured in other notable financial websites such as The Motley Fool.
Definition and Examples of a Benchmark
Benchmarks are a collection of stocks or bonds used to compare against and gauge the relative performance of a stock, fund, or portfolio. A benchmark is generally an index that includes stocks or bonds of a certain size, industry classification, or geographic location.
How a Benchmark Works
Funds will compare their own performance with a benchmark in their prospectuses as ARKK did above. That’s where your work starts.
What It Means for Individual Investors
Legg Mason fund manager Bill Miller famously beat the S&P 500 every single year from 1991 to 2005. 3 That’s when his performance fell off a cliff. Over the last five years he managed the fund, investor withdrawals slashed its assets under management (AUM) from about $77 billion to $800 million. 4
What is benchmark in English?
English Language Learners Definition of benchmark. : something that can be used as a way to judge the quality or level of other, similar things. See the full definition for benchmark in the English Language Learners Dictionary.
What does benchmarking mean?
business : to study (something, such as a competitor's product or business practices) in order to improve the performance of one's own company.
What is bench mark?
2 usually bench mark : a mark on a permanent object (such as a concrete post set into the ground) indicating elevation and serving as a reference in topographic surveys and tidal observations.
What is benchmarking in business?
Benchmarking is a process where you measure your company’s success against other similar companies to discover if there is a gap in performance that can be closed by improving your performance. Studying other companies can highlight what it takes to enhance your company’s efficiency and become a bigger player in your industry.
Why is benchmarking important for business?
Using benchmarking this way has allowed businesses to gain strategic advantages over competitors and grow industry averages.
Why is continuous improvement important in benchmarking?
This is because the aim of benchmarking is to improve a certain element of a business. This improvement should not merely be something that improves once and is forgotten, but something that improves over time and is continuous.
What is the first step in benchmarking?
Planning. The first stage of benchmarking is the most important in the process. Planning includes highlighting what you want to improve, who you will benchmark yourself against, and how you envisage success. Only once this step has been completed will you be able to move onto the next step as the results of planning will focus on ...
When is it worthwhile to gather and analyze information?
Gathering and analyzing information is only worthwhile when you can implement changes and better the company in the process.
What is the only way to know the efficacy of a change?
The implementation phase will have highlighted metrics and goals for success within a time frame so monitoring these is the only way of knowing the efficacy of the changes.
What is benchmark in education?
What Is a Benchmark in Education? In education, benchmark refers to an assortment of evaluation tests administered throughout the school year in order to find out whether or not students are meeting specified academic standards.
What is benchmarking in school?
Benchmarking is instrumental in measuring students academic growth and in designing custom curriculum to reach each student's learning needs. There are three types of benchmark assessments in a school setting. These are vertical teams, horizontal teams and common benchmark evaluations.
What is benchmark assessment?
Benchmark assessments are used to measure proficiency in areas such as writing, oral reports and even mathematics . ADVERTISEMENT.
When are benchmark tests equal?
When benchmark tests are equal in schools around the country, then theoretically, they will be effective in making sure students reach a college-readiness level that's in line with their peers. Unfortunately, it's not always as easy as it sounds.
What is benchmark study?
A benchmark study is what's happening outside the benchmark testing itself. It's taking a look at the process of benchmarking over a school year at a minimum, which involves instruction, review, practice, testing and finally, evaluation. Students are expected to pass their benchmark tests, otherwise, they may have to return back to the beginning ...
What happens if students don't pass their benchmark tests?
If a number of students are collectively not passing their benchmark tests, then it's clear that something is failing in the system, which is something evaluators can learn from the benchmark study. Likewise, if students continue to do well on their classroom benchmark tests, then it's likely they will also score well on state benchmark tests too.
Why is benchmarking important?
Benchmarking helps to keep students on track for success, and can ultimately raise the standards for education in a classroom, grade level, school or school district. Benchmark tests come in all forms, but generally speaking, they're tests that are given after a certain unit is taught, a grade is completed, or they're given as a subject level ...
Why do teachers use benchmarks?
By using benchmarks, teachers can learn about what may need to be reviewed with each individual student, as well as which students could benefit from being challenged just a little bit more . Benchmarks ultimately allow students in the same class to reach the standards set out by the state or the school district.
Why do we use benchmarks?
If educators want to know whether or not their students are performing up to where they need be, then they can use a benchmark test to make that determination. Benchmarking is the act of creating measurable standards set for learning on which students can be measured. Benchmarking helps to keep students on track for success, ...
Is the New York State Regents exam a benchmark test?
For instance, standardized tests like the New York State Regents Exams are considered benchmark tests, but so are smaller tests given by a kindergarten teacher in Language Arts. Benchmark tests, therefore, need to be the same across the board, in order to have a way to truly understand and compare performance levels among students.

Understanding Benchmarks
- Benchmarks are indexes created to include multiple securities representing some aspect of the total market. Benchmark indexes have been created across all types of asset classes. In the equity market, the S&P 500and Dow Jones Industrial Average are two of the most popular large-…
Investment Industry Fund Management
- The number of benchmarks has been expanding with product innovation. Benchmarks are often used as the central factor for portfolio management in the investment industry. Passive investment funds and smart-beta funds are two strategies that are derived from benchmark investing. Replication strategies following customized benchmarks are also becoming more pre…
Passive
- Benchmarks are created to include multiple securities representing some aspect of the total market. Passive investment funds were created to provide investors exposure to a benchmark since it is expensive for an individual investor to invest in each of the indexes’ securities. In passive funds, the investment manager uses a replication strategy to match the holdings and ret…
Smart Beta
- Smart Betastrategies were developed as an enhancement to passive index funds. They seek to enhance the returns an investor could achieve by investing in a standard passive fund by choosing stocks based on certain variables or by taking long and short positions to obtain alpha. State Street Global Advisors’ enhanced index strategies provide an example of this. The SSGA Enhanc…
Market Segment Benchmarks
- Market segment benchmarks can provide investors with other options for benchmark investing based on specific market segments such as sectors. The State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs provide investors the opportunity to invest in each of the individual sectors in the S&P 500. One example is the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK).
Fundamental and Thematic Benchmarks
- With the challenges of beating the market, many investment managers have created customized benchmarks that use a replication strategy. These types of funds are becoming more prevalent as top performers. These funds benchmark to customized indexes based on fundamentals, style and market themes. The Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Thematic ETF (BOTZ) is one of th…
Active Management
- Active management becomes more challenging with the growing number of benchmark replication strategies. Thus, for investors, it becomes more challenging to find active managers consistently beating their benchmarks. In 2017, the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) is one of the top-performing ETFs in the investable market. Year-to-date as of November 3 it had a return of 76.06…
The Value of Benchmarks
- The value of benchmarks has been an ongoing topic for debate bringing about a number of innovations that center around investing in the actual benchmark indexes directly. Debates are primarily derived from the demands for benchmark exposure, fundamental investing, and thematic investing. Managers who subscribe to the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) claim tha…
Benchmark Error
- Benchmark error is a situation in which the wrong benchmark is selected in a financial model. This error can create large dispersions in an analyst or academic's data, but can easily be avoided by selecting the most appropriate benchmark at the onset of an analysis. Tracking errorcan be confused for benchmark error, but the two measures have distinctly different utilities. To avoid b…
Definition and Examples of A Benchmark
- Benchmarks are a collection of stocks or bonds used to compare against and gauge the relative performance of a stock, fund, or portfolio. A benchmark is generally an indexthat includes stocks or bonds of a certain size, industry classification, or geographic location. The most commonly used benchmark is the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500. There are al...
How A Benchmark Works
- Funds will compare their own performance with a benchmark in their prospectuses as ARKK did above. That’s where your work starts. You need to decide if the benchmark the fund is using is appropriate, or if there is a better option. It’s also important to make sure you have the most recent numbers—the ARKK prospectus uses numbers that are outdated by close to two years. H…
What It Means For Individual Investors
- Legg Mason fund manager Bill Miller famously beat the S&P 500 every single year from 1991 to 2005.3 That’s when his performance fell off a cliff. Over the last five years he managed the fund, investor withdrawals slashed its assets under management (AUM) from about $77 billion to $800 million.4 That’s not the end of the story. After Miller beat the S&P for 15 years and then was near…