Renaissance Star Assessments

We use the assessment suite in grades K-8 and are currently looking to expand to 9-12.

I do not feel that the questions are difficult enough for the state standards. I think district levels need to have a cut score at 80% or better districts should only be able to choose 80% or higher for the cut score.

Star Assessments are great for the early grades teachers because it provides very detailed knowledge about how to help readers grow. Not only does it give a specific reading level, Grade equivalent, Instructional reading level, it also gives a lot of good diagnostic information. This helps to plan instruction, communicate with parents, and differentiate instruction for the fundamentals of success in reading.

Teachers are able to get real data in 20 minutes. They can use this data immediately to set their students up into groups. The Record book is useful but I think it needs to include appropriate lessons to teach the skills identified by the assessment. It is great that it tells you what skills the student needs to learn but how to teach that skill would be helpful so teachers could easily set up groups and materials to run stations in class for all groups.

I have been very happy with the support. By phone or email I have found the support very good and they get back to me quickly. This survey however is wa6 overdone, expecting me to come up with 50 words on each question. It becomes very repetitive and very laborious.

It is great when students first start the school year as they are able to understand what type of reading books they should look at and understand their ZPD levels.

During the beginning of the year, I feel that the Star Reading needs to be read to to the early childhood students. This way they can still answer questions without having to guess or feel overwhelmed. I love the CBM letter and sounds assessment for easy determining of where students are as a whole.

I feel that it is extremely suited to see the progress of the students throughout the school year. I think that taking this kind of assessment at least three to four times throughout the school year makes it even more useful for reading the data of students progress throughout the school year. I think this data is useful for both the students and the teachers involved with the program.

The data that is generated from these assessments are so thorough and accurate. I use these tests alll year to group the students and then work on what the data says I should continue to work on. I have seen the students grow incredibly after starting tongues these assessments and highly recommend!

It is well suited for any educational institution that needs to collect updated data to inform decision-making. The tools are easy to use and efficient. The reports generated are clear and easy for teachers, students, and parents to understand.

With a transient student population, Renaissance Star Assessments provide a quick and easy way to assess students. The reports are varied and in-depth allowing teachers to "see" the scope of student ability) and provide a much-needed "snapshot" for class achievement. The data helps teachers drive instruction and create a classroom focused on success.

Renaissance Star Assessments are great for teachers and the resources are aligned to effectively provide practice for students on a differentiated level.

My district is currently using them for our benchmark testing. As far as scenarios, as an elementary school- not a business- the question does not really apply. All scenarios are made to work as it is a benchmark test.

Everything has gone well.

Renaissance Star Assessments [is] a wonderful support resource for monitoring your students' growth over time.

STAR is well suited to identifying reading strengths and weaknesses. It also is good at providing an accurate independent reading level, using the ATOS system. Screening assessments include a regular literacy test for those reading at a (strong) 1st grade level through the end of 12th grade. For those students who are not strong readers yet, weaker 1st grade readers and younger, and Early Literacy test is available to gauge reading readiness. A new unified scale is used to level students, so no matter which test they take, you can see their reading level. Diagnostic reports also highlight skills likely mastered as well as identifying skills that need to be a focus for instruction. STAR Custom assessments are teacher assigned and assess individual reading skills as needed. STAR CBM assessments are more foundational and are a new addition to the platform. If you already use a phonics/sight word/ORF screening tool, then STAR CBM may not be the most useful to you at this point. As of Spring 2021, CBM data was not included in diagnostic recommendations, but there were plans to incorporate this data in the future.

Star Assessments are well suited for most students to use with minimal support. Most students take the Star Assessments in their classroom with little assistance. Other students perform better in a smaller, quieter setting. Our RTI and Special Education students tend to perform better when pulled into a classroom with few students and less distractions. Some students do best individually so they can read the tests aloud with a teacher near.

Renaissance Star Assessments [is] well suited for progress monitoring students throughout the year. It is a great tool to quickly assess student's knowledge. The reports provide instructional planning for teachers to use with their students. It is not beneficial to use the product as often as once a month. The instructional planning will most likely not change within a month's timespan.

Works REALLY well to help organize and drive small group time. When all students have completed the assessment, you can group like achieving students and have a focus area. By noting focus skills needed, you can guide instruction at those levels first. If you also purchase Freckle the assessment scores dump into there and the student is automatically placed in an academic area that is accurate based on test performance.

Renaissance Star Assessments are easy to administer to students. They are also time-efficient, which is always a priority in the classroom. Progress monitoring and tracking are made easy with the reports available to teachers and administration. However, reports are not easy to find or customize from the teacher dashboard in the program.

Our county has tons of support in place for Renaissance. There are multiple training opportunities and continued learning experiences through our instructional facilitators and professional development days. Help can also be found through the Renaissance website. They have helpful FAQ pages with videos and tutorials. They also have a great training program called Renaissance Royals.

I like that [Renaissance Star Assessments is] available in English and Spanish.

Renaissance Star 360 is really well suited in all classroom realms. It can benefit the below-average, average, and advanced learners. It is a great tool for individualized instruction.

The entire support team with all Renaissance programs is top notch!!!!!!!!!! It is a great tool for individualized instruction. Their staff is very knowledgeable!

Renaissance STAR Assessments are most appropriate when reviewing student progress and growth over time. These reports can be shared with students and families. The results can be used to guide instruction.

After using the product for multiple years, I am very pleased with the assessment administration and report options. I use STAR Assessment data regularly and review the different reports to guide instruction. There are many different report options to help meet the needs of the teacher and student. STAR Assessments are a valuable assessment tool for the classroom.

One of the big problems with standardized testing is time allotted for testing. Our school's population has so many different needs that students experience and there is also a high percentage with IEPs and 504s. It is helpful that Star testing can test such a wide range of skills across so many students' ages.

Renaissance Star Assessments helps us find students who are not making growth and need further investigation. However, it is unreliable-- some of the questions do not relate to current curriculum standards. Students don't take the test all that seriously because it is unlike the curriculum set up they are used to.

I joined the Renaissance online community so that has given me lots of ideas. However, I still have to search through tons of posts and discussion threads to find what I need. Online help is available to teachers to find what you are looking for but it is often hard to explain in a chat bubble what you need exactly. I think teacher support is lacking.

Well suited to quickly assess students and for teachers to quickly get a basic report to detail the results of a specific class or student in their class. Good for a teacher checking their specific class and student in their specific class or grouping students within their class. It is less well suited for school and district level use where specific data is not exportable, student results are deleted and not retrievable immediately after they leave the school/district, you want school-wide groups, or you need info on a specific student out of many classes and you must go to the teacher and then a class to get the info on a student and not directly to a student.

Their chat feature is very nice and convenient and I get an immediate initial response. Unfortunately, their first line personnel are often not very knowledgeable and either can't help or give incorrect or incomplete information. On major issues or when I requested it, however, they have passed the inquires on to more senior technical or customer service personnel and they have been very good at resolving those issues.

It is great for giving fairly accurate grade equivalency. I think some of the vocabulary is a little hard for our extremely rural students.

Each time I have used support, I have always had my questions answered courteously an accurately.

It is great as a progress monitoring test. It is also useful to give it at the beginning of the year as a measure of where students are starting and what they already know.