Renaissance

Star

Assessments

WHO?

ALL Students in grades TK-11 will be asked to participate in Star assessment.

Grades TK-K: Star Early Literacy only (includes math)

Grades 1-11: BOTH Star Reading & Star Math

WHAT IS THE STAR ASSESSMENT?

Renaissance Star Assessment is a periodic progress monitoring system. Star Enterprise software serves two primary purposes. First, it provides quick and accurate estimates of students’ instructional math and reading levels relative to national norms. Second, it provides the means for tracking growth in a consistent manner over long time periods for all students. It is not meant as a “high-stakes” test.

Students will take it three times a year in the fall, winter, and spring.

WHY?

Informs instruction, monitors progress, tracks mastery, and personalizes practice.
Helps teachers get a view of the students' academic strengths and weakness and help provide resources to engage the student's education to encourage success.
Using assessment results, teachers work with parents to develop a personalized learning plan.
Provides opportunity to prepare for state assessments and proactively tracks college readiness.
School-wide assessment data are an integral part of our Local Indicators that aid in our charter renewal and WASC accreditation.

HELPFUL TIPS FOR TAKING THE STAR:

PAUSING THE TEST

If your child needs to take a break, they can pause the test by selecting Stop Test in the upper-right corner of the screen> then Resume Later. When the student logs back in and starts to take a test, it asks you for a monitor password. Please type star. ***A paused test will automatically be erased if not completed within 8 days.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Select a day when your child is well-rested and does not feel rushed. It is important for you to encourage your child to try to do his or her best on the assessment. Advise your student(s) they may come across questions they do not know and that is okay.
Take a break between assessments. Take a few hours or days apart. Please make sure they do not do too much at one time.
Start with the math assessment. It has been observed that when students start with the reading test and then do the math test, they tend to guess on the math questions more.

SHOULD I HELP MY CHILD?

Due to the nature of this style of testing, it is important for your student to take this on their own without any help or coaching. If you are sitting with them and know they are just guessing and don’t know the answer, it is better to mark the wrong answer. That way, the program will not escalate the difficulty of questions.