Many districts and schools across the U. S. have begun to develop and administer assessments to complement state testing systems and provide additional information to monitor curriculum, instruction and schools. In advance of this trend, the Jackson Public Schools (JPS) district has had a district benchmark testing system in place for many years. To complement and enhance the capabilities of district and school staff, the Stupski Foundation and CRESST (National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing at UCLA) worked out an agreement for CRESST to provide expert review and recommendations to improve the technical quality of the district's benchmark tests. This report (which represents the first of two deliverables on this project) focuses on assessment development and is consistent with the district goal of increasing the predictive ability of the assessments for students' state test performance, as well as secondary goals. (Three appendices are included: (1) Grade 2 Math Benchmark Item analysis; (2) Multiple Choice Item-Writing Guidelines (David Niemi); and (3) Preliminary Analysis of the Jackson School District's First Term Algebra 1 Test, 2005-2006. Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)