Testing Rigor
In our district, we use Renaisance Star Assessments to look at ZPD and the instructional level. We use it to measure what the students …
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What is Renaissance Star Assessments?
Star Assessments are a suite of assessments for reading, math, and early literacy, in both English and Spanish, boasting users among over 30,000 schools. Star Assessments helps educators to gain accurate insights into student learning, growth, and achievement—so they can…
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What is Renaissance Star Assessments?
Star Assessments are a suite of assessments for reading, math, and early literacy, in both English and Spanish, boasting users among over 30,000 schools. Star Assessments helps educators to gain accurate insights into student learning, growth, and achievement—so they can help all learners reach…
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What is Renaissance Star Assessments?
Star Assessments are a suite of assessments for reading, math, and early literacy, in both English and Spanish, boasting users among over 30,000 schools. Star Assessments helps educators to gain accurate insights into student learning, growth, and achievement—so they can help all learners reach their full potential. The full Star Assessment suite includes the computer-adaptive Star Reading (K–12), Star Math (K–12), and Star Early Literacy (pre-K–3) assessments; a formative assessment tool, Star Custom (K–12); and Star CBM, with curriculum-based measures for reading (K–6), lectura (K–6), and math (K–3).
Renaissance Star Assessments Features
- Supported: Renaissance Star is supported by 93 scientific research studies and reviews on its reliability and validity.
- Supported: Student Growth Percentile (SGP) is Renaissance Star 360’s® measure for growth data, even as summative exams and benchmarks change. SGP gives a view of student growth over time by comparing a student’s previous test scores to current test scores, then measuring that growth alongside academic peers’ growth.
- Supported: Renaissance Mastery Model automates the tracking and reporting of student data from a wide variety of sources, and converts that data into a unified measure of mastery, helping educators make timely and informed decisions about all students’ learning.
- Supported: Renaissance Star Reading, Star Math, and Star Early Literacy are available in Spanish to help determine the best instruction to meet the needs of Spanish-speaking English Learners.
Renaissance Star Assessments Competitors
- FastBridge Learning
- NWEA MAP Suite
- Lexia PowerUp Literacy
- Scantron
- Pearson aimswebPlus
- MasteryConnect
- DIBELS Next
- Cognia (formerly Measured Progress and AdvancED)
Renaissance Star Assessments Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
FastBridge Learning, NWEA MAP Suite, and Lexia PowerUp Literacy are common alternatives for Renaissance Star Assessments.
Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.
The most common users of Renaissance Star Assessments are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
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Valuable Information and Alignment: Many users have stated that Renaissance Star Assessments provide valuable information about students' reading levels and progress over time. They appreciate that the assessments are aligned well with what they are said to be measuring.
Adaptive Tests for Customized Assessment: The adaptive tests feature of Renaissance Star Assessments has been praised by users. It adjusts the difficulty level of questions based on students' performance, providing a customized assessment experience.
Integration and Tracking with Other Platforms: Users find the data synchronization feature of Renaissance Star Assessments with platforms like Freckle and Nearpod to be helpful. This allows for seamless integration and tracking of student performance, as well as assigning lessons tailored to each student's needs.
Missing Features: Several users have expressed their desire for various improvements to the software, including a live view of students testing and the ability to flag questions answered too quickly. Some users also want to see results without having to refresh the form and suggest a trend line starting from the second test. Additionally, users would like to share improvements or problems with students and have a breakdown of data by strand.
Difficult Navigation and Reports: Users have found it challenging to navigate the reports page and suggested a step-by-step manual to explain the data. Some users feel that it takes too many steps to get the desired report and want similar reports for Spanish as are provided in English. They also mention that different reports show inconsistent data, making it confusing for them. Furthermore, they find the graphs inconsistent and confusing to read.
Technical Issues: Many users have reported technical issues with the software, such as slow performance, frequent hang-ups, and difficulty creating PDFs or exporting data to Excel. Some users have experienced crashes that resulted in the loss of an entire class's results. These technical difficulties not only impact user experience but also hinder productivity when using the software.
Users commonly recommend the following regarding Renaissance Star Assessments:
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Periodically retaking the test to gather progress data: Users suggest regularly administering the assessments to monitor and track students' progress over time. By periodically retaking the test, educators can gather valuable data on how students are advancing in their learning.
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Taking advantage of the reports: While some users find the reports in Star Assessments tricky to master, they emphasize their value and usefulness with experience. These reports provide educators with detailed insights into students' strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
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Applicability for diverse student populations: Users find Star 360 to be a versatile tool suitable for students of all ages, grades, and abilities. They highlight its ability to provide real-time information based on national standards and district achievements, allowing educators to tailor instruction and support to individual student needs.
Overall, users highly recommend Renaissance Star Assessments as a practical and effective tool for educators to monitor student progress and help them achieve their highest potential.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
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March 03, 2022
Renaissance 360 is 360 degrees of amazing
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
This program is an amazing resource for both students and teachers to see the progress of the students throughout the school year. The data is extremely accurate and very close to the individual's achievements in their math progress. I am very curious to see how close my students projected Parcc scores are when they come out in the spring being this is my first year using this program.
- Data management.
- Teacher incentives such as rewards.
- The tests are easy to monitor.
- More prizes.
- Fewer reports and more detailed response to the tests.
- More training on how to use all of the different reports.
February 28, 2022
Star Assessments: Our Key to Success
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Renaissance Star Assessments are used quarterly to assess our elementary-aged students. We use both STAR Math and Reading to determine student placement and chart student growth.
- Provides baseline data.
- Provides student achievement data allowing us to track student improvement.
- The reports are in-depth and well organized allowing teachers to focus on areas the class needs support with.
- No suggestions.
February 03, 2022
Effective education starts with Renaissance Star
We use the Renaissance Star Assessments for our benchmarking and progress monitoring. We love the reports and data as a result of the assessment, it is very helpful for teacher instruction, school wide data decision making and assessing our programs.
- Reports
- resources
- communication
- Star custom reports for details at a grade level view
- streamlining the rostering process
December 08, 2021
Renaissance review
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Star assessments for benchmarks 3 times a year. We also use the star programs for progress monitoring students. We use the data to guide instruction and group students. It works well with the Freckle program.
- Grouping students.
- Clear reports.
- Easy use.
- Does not take up entire screen on Chromebooks.
- The testing well well- no suggestions.
November 22, 2021
Star Assessments Rock
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use [Renaissance] Star Assessments to progress monitor my students in math. [Renaissance Star Assessments] help me understand what skills my students have not yet mastered. Star also helps me place students in groups and work on focus skills. I can set student goals. Students can watch their own progress as they work toward their goals in math. I am also able to check their math fluency rates with addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
- Tracks student progress
- Targets skills that need to be mastered
- Notifies me of skills students have already mastered
- I need the Star CBM to be text to speech Spanish
October 25, 2021
STAR Assessments shine bright in the classroom.
We use STAR assessments to determine reading level and growth. STAR assessments are given at the beginning of the school year and then at the end of each quarter to guide instruction and inform decisions concerning RTI and small group formation. STAR also helps pinpoint areas of weakness and skills that are both lacking and mastered, so instruction can be more focused. STAR assessments are used school-wide in our district.
- Assesses and assigns reading level, factoring in vocabulary, context clues, and reading strategy skills
- Pinpoints skills areas that are weak, and suggests focus for instruction
- Identifies skills that have been mastered, or most likely mastered
- Assigns ATOS independent book ZPD levels
- STAR test adapts to student performance to zero in on reading level
- Unified scale across assessment platforms (Early Literacy and Literacy)
- Some training required to get full benefit of program
- More information in a "parent format" would be nice
September 24, 2021
Star Assessments = Star Students
The School District of Colfax has been using Star Reading for 16 years. We have used Star Math for over 10 years and Star Early Literacy for 3 years. We have all students take this test monthly and students receiving RTI support take it more frequently. The benchmark testing windows of fall, winter and spring allow us to look at the students and identify students who need additional support for reading or math. Monthly testing allows students to demonstrate growth over time. The RTI students are watched closely for their growth by using Star tests.
- Star Assessment reports can provide valuable data as we monitor all of our students.
- Star Assessments are simple to administer and are quick to complete.
- Star Reports can predict how students will perform on our state assessment.
- Star Assessment reports can be modified in many ways so we can focus on different areas with our students.
- Star Assessments identify areas where students may need additional instruction and support and provide resources to meet those needs.
- I would like to have a function at the bottom of a report that will directly take me to the top of the page rather than having to scroll up manually.
- It can take a lot of time for the PDF to be created. It is better than when you first began.
- I receive error messages that a report cannot be created at this time and to come back later. Sometimes I need the information right now.
August 24, 2021
Renaissance Star Review
Renaissance Star Assessments is used across the district, with students in grades K-12. It addressed instructional planning and progress monitors students throughout the school year.
- Quickly assesses students
- Provides reports for teachers
- Communication between their employees
- Reports at the district level
- Streamlined program for users across districts/states
May 31, 2021
Star assessments offer inclusive reports
We use the Renaissance Star Reading and Math Assessment school-wide for all students 2nd-6th grade at our school. As a STAR champion, I support our staff with any questions they may have regarding the administration of the assessment, troubleshooting, and advice on reports to run. We use the data to help drive our instruction - finding focus skills that are lacking, and instructional levels for achievement.
- Detailed reports for parents
- Detailed individual reports
- Detailed classwide reports
- Detailed schoolwide reports
- Not let students speed through the assessment.
May 03, 2021
Star Assessments Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Renaissance Star Assessments are used across our county in schools K-8. We use Star Assessments to measure and track the growth of our students in math and reading. Students are expected to take it at least every nine weeks, sometimes twice a nine weeks to allow for more data points to track struggling students.
- Ease of testing students
- Lots of reports available for teachers
- Increased time limit on math assessments
- Ease of navigation on teacher dashboard
April 02, 2021
Great literacy program!
Renaissance Star Assessmentes are being used across the district and we implement it across our campus.
- I like [that] it times students in the assessments.
- I like that it gives them questions in different levels in the assessments, so it can determined their reading level.
- I like that we can read that data and administer the assessments every 6 weeks, or BOY, MOY and EOY, depending classroom needs.
- Create an assessment that equally assess students reading level (ZPDs) in their second language (in this case, Spanish).
- I would like to see some of the data that is available in English, also in Spanish.
- I would like for students to be able to test their reading books by letting them go back to their book just as they are able to go back to their standardized state testing reading passages.
April 01, 2021
Renaissance Star 360...A Complete Program in One
Renaissance Star 360 is a complete mathematical and reading program that is used district-wide. We use the data that it provides to help steer assessment, to document student growth, and to guide instruction. With the program being aligned to the Oklahoma Academic Standards, we are able to document our coverage of the standard material. GREAT TOOL!
- Renaissance Star 360 encompasses all the new Oklahoma Academic Standards which is helpful in documenting the requirements.
- Renaissance Star 360 allows for immediate data and feedback on where the teacher should start with intervention techniques and strategies.
- It illustrates a student's growth pattern for the teacher, administration, and parents. It takes away the guessing game of where a child is performing.
- It is a great tool for individualized instruction.
- There is a lot of data to filter through.
- The online reports could be combined.
- It is a great tool for individualized instruction. I would like to keep the AM tho.
June 17, 2020
Student Growth with Renaissance STAR Assessments!
Renaissance STAR Assessments are used in our schools to monitor student growth and progress. We are able to identify areas of academic strength and growth for each student. STAR Assessments are used by our whole school and this helps create consistency across grade levels. This platform is easy for teachers and students to use.
- Renaissance STAR Assessments provide multiple reporting options for student data.
- Renaissance STAR Assessments are easy to administer.
- Renaissance STAR Assessments provide a consistent and predictable format for students during testing.
- I would love to see an RTI progress monitoring option available in the platform.
- I would enjoy students being able to select from a choice of pre-calculated goals before testing.
- I think it would be awesome for STAR to provide student-friendly graphs of their progress over time.
May 24, 2020
Great for Differentiation
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Star testing 3 times per school year to track student growth. Since it is a progressive test we can use the data obtained to inform differentiated instruction. The students have a 95% plus participation rate, which is for kindergarten through high school. That's impressive, especially for the older students who are so much less likely to participate.
- Progressive questions
- Reasonable test length
- Quick results
- Aligning state standards to test content reports.
- Individual reporting for targeted student instruction.
March 19, 2020
It provides some general info.
Renaissance Star Assessments is a screener to determine students' reading levels. Classroom teachers normally use the data as a snapshot or first glimpse of their students. It provides a general idea of where your student stands as far as their reading level. Teachers have the option to dive deeper into the results to target instruction after the first assessment.
- Provides approximate reading level
- Class reports
- Easy student access
- Very confusing layout
- Too many steps for one report
- Dashboard has sooo many options!
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Renaissance Star Assessments is used across the district as a benchmark assessment. It satisfies the state's Benchmark assessment requirement as well as the "read by grade 3" law assessment requirements.
- They assess without requiring excessive amounts of time, leaving more time for actual learning and instruction.
- There are a variety of reports available for different needs.
- Their norm data and percentile measures are statistically adjusted for weeks of instruction/ date the test is taken in relation to the norming study.
- The program is often slow and hangs up. It spins endlessly in a loop, frozen and requiring a refresh, when trying to create a pdf a great deal of the time.
- The reports can be made into a pdf, but unfortunately not an Excel/csv export--Unlike most other testing programs like NWEA/Map or iReady. The full data export that you can do is, big, slow to create, and missing information found in the reports--requiring me to make Excel programs to find and create/calculate the information (like summary data) already found in the Star reports but not exportable in csv form or to bring up in a report and manually enter the data (and the reports themselves do not lend to easily copy and pasting into excel directly from the screen, so no work around).
- You cannot easily create groups made up of students from various classes and teachers to share then share with other teachers. The system is more designed to create groups from within a single class. My district needs to make groups from across teachers, classes, etc., needs to have the groups available as source/student selections for all reports, and then needs to be able to easily be shared--even if the group is made up of students a teacher (or person the group is shared with) does not normally have in a class. The groups you can make are also not available to choose as source students for most reports. ALL reports need to be able to be comprised of students from a group, and not just from teachers and classes.
- When a student leaves the district, the RDI system not only removes the student from teachers/classes/groups, but deletes them and their records from the entire system. We often need to look back to check scores for State reporting or to forward to an old student's new district, and Renaissance/Star360 does not have anything available; the student and all their information is gone. I have to constantly take and save full csv exports, and when I need an old score, I have to try and search to find the right export, then search through the huge, messy export to find the required information. Once a student is removed, Renaissance/Star360 seriously needs to just remove them from classes, schools, groups, etc. but still have their information/previous testing results available to lookup
- If you need to find testing information quickly on a single student, you cannot just go to the student and see their score. You have to know the teacher, class, and grade they are in, then go to the teacher, then go to the class, before you can get to the student to get their information. As a school/District level person, I have the student's name and grade, but often have NO idea of exactly which teacher and class they are in. I then have to first waste my time looking the student up in my district's SIS (PowerSchool) to get all the needed information just to look them up. Seems like it would be an easy solution to keep all the same, but add an ability to get a basic report on a student by looking the student up directly under "Users" (a simple report like you get when you click on an individual student in the Record book). This is where you could tie in the ability to look up historical information on student who left the district during the school year and solve the previous problem/missing functionality as well!
January 22, 2020
Star Assessments Review
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Star math assessments are given to monitor students with their math progress. It allows me to see how they are doing in a variety of comparative situations.
- It is easy to see what standards the students need help with.
- It is easy to see progress or areas where students are at risk.
- There is room for improvement accessing the discussion portion of the site.
- It would be great if there was a step by step manual of some sort that explained what the data means so it would be easier to sift through.
December 31, 2019
Great Progress Monitoring Tool
Star Assessments are a great tool to use for progress monitoring. In our building, we use STAR assessments in our language arts and math lab settings. If we believe a student should be placed in a lab class, we will often have them take STAR to have another piece of data to review. STAR assessments are used by our SPED and lab teachers. We are looking to add it as a resource for all of our Tier 2 students as part of our data for MTSS.
- Breaks down assessment proficiency by skill.
- Tracks progress and helps students create new goals.
- Grade equivalency scores are not accurate, great for progress monitoring but not for actual ability level.
- No area to score writing - Would like to see it look more like state standardized tests.
December 06, 2019
Renaissance Star 360 is an excellent product.
All of the teachers in our district use Star 360. It is our student growth data measurement system districtwide. We use it to guide intervention and monitor student progress toward the standards in both Reading and Math. Having a reliable metric that is comparable to other schools in the state and nation gives us a good picture of how we're doing.
- It's very convenient to use.
- It gives extremely reliable, clear data.
- It allows us to track progress easily and clearly at different levels within the organization.
- The home page can be confusing. The icons don't clearly indicate that they have multiple sub-menus.
- I would like to see more ability to compile data in graphical form. A picture is worth a thousand words.
- The help is not very good. It returns results that are only vaguely related to the query and returns too many results.
May 15, 2019
Reaching for the stars with Star 360
We use Star 360 school-wide in our K-6 building. We use the Star Reading and Math assessments to give us an idea of the strengths and weaknesses for our students. This helps us to plan strategic interventions to help them be successful. We also use this information to help us place students in interventions to help them grow.
- The reports are easy to understand for both teachers and parents.
- The assessments provide more than just a score. The data can be broken down by standard to really target interventions.
- Star 360 is easy for students to use. The user platform is not complicated or distracting.
- It always seems that once I know where something (i.e. report) is located, that they move things around.
- It would be nice if teachers had more control over certain settings for their students, rather than an administrator who may not know a group of kids.
- It would be nice if there were features for students to adjust the content on their screens (color, size, etc.) like we have on state testing to make it more consistent.
April 30, 2019
Great Data!
Renaissance Star is used to evaluate the reading and math levels and progress of our 7-12th-grade students.
- The user reports are great for tracking individual progress.
- It is easy to organize the students according to class.
- It would be nice if you could run a report for each student in all areas instead of only being able to evaluate one subject at a time.
April 22, 2019
Renaissance Star 360 is awesome!
I am an educator, and we use Star for AR tests and reading quizzes. I am working on pulling it into my day-to-day curriculum.
- I love the immediate feedback!
- I like the different reports that I can print off
- I like being able to chart my student's growth and teach them how to chart as well
- I struggle with finding the correct form I need when I need it. I am constantly having to look through different reports to find the one I want.
- There are some AR tests that aren't on there that I think should be.
- I have absolutely nothing else to say. I love this product!
April 20, 2019
Renaissance Star Early Literacy 360 makes teaching easy!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
STAR Early Literacy is an online assessment program developed by Renaissance Learning for students in grades PK-3. The program uses a series of questions to assess a student’s early literacy and early numeracy skills through a simple process. The program is designed to support teachers with individual student data quickly and accurately. The test is easy to administer on an iPad and takes a student 10-15 minutes to complete an assessment. reports are available immediately upon completion. All district kindergarten children take the test at least three times a year. Some teachers progress monitor students monthly using the test.
There are four parts to the assessment. The first part is a short demonstrative tutorial that teaches the student how to use the system. The second part is a short practice component designed to ensure that the students understand how to manipulate the mouse or use the keyboard correctly to answer each question. The third part consists of a short set of practice questions to prepare the student for the actual assessment. The final part is the actual assessment. It consists of twenty-nine early literacy and early numeracy questions. Students have one and a half minutes to answer each question before the program automatically moves them to the next question.
- Reports are available upon completion of the test.
- Various reports help with instruction planning.
- Written explanations and results are provided to explain results to parents.
- New website design
April 19, 2019
Renaissance STAR 360 Review
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Renaissance STAR 360 is used district wide to monitor student progress.
- Renaissance STAR 360 gives an accurate reading level for students, which helps with differentiated instruction.
- Growth reports show growth over several years; we need a report that shows growth for the current year.
- It is very hard for some students to stay focused on the test.
April 18, 2019
Star 360 testing gets a gold star
Our entire school uses Renaissance Star 360 for testing. We use the program to assess our students and determine their independent reading levels. We then have the students select library books based off their reading levels to help them select materials. This has really helped because it prevents students from becoming frustrated trying to read texts that are too difficult for them to understand.
- It gives students their current reading level.
- It allows teachers to see where students are performing.
- It helps students select future reading materials.
- I like the program the way it is!