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 …
Overview
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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- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
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.
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Reviews
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April 22, 2024
Testing Rigor
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
In our district, we use Renaisance Star Assessments to look at ZPD and the instructional level. We use it to measure what the students still need help with while allowing them to check out books from our library using the ZPD that is recommended. We test our students 3 times a year BOY, MOY and EOY. The growth is used to measure teacher input at the end of year with other state assessments.
- Easy to use
- Staggered question rigor
- Reminders
- Give a bit more time
- Need a bigger time up reminder
- Pictures for ELLs
April 16, 2024
GREAT PRODUCT!!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The Renaissance Star Assessment is being use in our district especially with the elementary sector. Our students gets tested at the beginning of the year, middle of the year and at the end of the year. Our campus would retrieve the scores and teachers will gather the information and modify their small group instruction to ensure those skills are being taught. In regards to the business problems the product addresses, I cannot provide any information since we are not part or have access to any product or business problems.
- Access to reports
- Easily administered
- Quick results
- The star assessment can be more animated for lower grades students such as kindergarten and 1st graders
January 26, 2024
Love Renaissance
In my organization we use the Star Assessments to assess the VPK children three time a year. The best thing about the Star Assessments is how easy it is to use and how accurate the answer can be. The only issue I have with the assessment is with the students that are not proficient in English. Sometime I am sure the student knows the answer to a certain question but the student gets the question wrong because of understanding.
- Multiple examples
- Continue the progress individually
- Children can work at the own pace
- How to help second language learners
- Is the assessment available in other languages
- What other languages can the assessment be taking
November 27, 2023
Star Assessment and Renaissance make Students, Teachers and Parents Partners in Literacy Success!
In 2016, I piloted Star Early Literacy Assessment with Kindergarten students to convince my district that this standardized assessment was the one to use for the grade level. Star Early Literacy and Star Reading has been used since 2016. The assessment is required in Fall, Winter and Spring and is optional at any time a teacher needs achievement information.It tells use the exact skills that children are ready to work on for mastery, helping teachers to group students for literacy skill work. Many report types are available and are teacher and parent friendly to understand. I am able to retrieve an individual student report which tells me which skills to work on for mastery and create small work groups at the click of the mouse. Star is linked with Nearpod, so teachers are able to find appropriate lessons to use to teach assessed skills. The initial testing session begins with a kid friendly how-to tutorial and practice questions. Each testing session thereafter begins with a practice session as a how-to reminder. The assessment itself is 27 questions which includes about 24 literacy questions and 3 math related questions. The questions are read to students with an option to listen to the question again by clicking the bunny icon. If students score 875 or higher on the Early Lit test, it is recommended they take the Star Reading test. Support is always available from Renaissance for teachers and administrators.
- provides usable, easy to understand teacher and family reports
- tests required grade level standards
- links assessment with Nearpod lessons
- provides individual company support
- easy and fast to administer during a busy day school day
- provides an opportunity to pause the test if needed
- remove the clock icon from the top of the screen/ increase time available to answer questions
- ability for teachers to see the exact questions the student missed
- ability to see the progression of questions during the test to see when the questions asked became more difficult or easier
- separate the literacy and math questions in Early Lit so there is a separate math test
October 30, 2023
Renaissance Star Assessments is Out of This World
I use Renaissance Star Assessments to monitor reading and math progression in our students. I am a Title 1 Reading Teacher and Dyslexia Specialist, so I work with students who struggle with reading and some who struggle with math. After teaching specific skills to my students for a period of time, usually after 6 weeks or so, I will look to see if my teaching strategies are helping them or not.
- Renaissance Star Assessments gives me a look at each student as an overall reader.
- Renaissance Star Assessments shows me the areas of which my students are struggling.
- Renaissance Star Assessments is linked with Nearpod, so I can assign lessons based on what each student needs.
- Star CBM helps me see whether my students' fluency is improving or not.
- When looking at the record book, I would like to see a comparison of all tests instead of just a couple at a time. I would like to see Star Reading, Star Early Literacy, and Star CBM simultaneously.
- I would like to have a test for my 4th through 6th grades that could act as a dyslexia screener. I use Star Early Literacy for k through 3rd grades.
- I wish we didn't have to pay for each test separately. I would like there to be one prices for a suite of resources. One price for Star Reading, Star Early Literacy, and Star Math.
October 08, 2023
Great Tool
This is an assessment suite for our Grade 1-2 class and it is used at minimum three times a year to measure academic progress.
- Reports are easy to utilize
- Assessments fit into a manageable timeframe
- Questions are aligned well with what they are said to be measuring
- The "read aloud" function for accessibility in math doesn't seem to read the question but might say something like 'solve the problem'
- The measurement tool that tells whether a student is guessing could be improved
- The interface could use an easy "pause" button
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our district uses STAR assessments as benchmark assessments at the beginning of each school year, and then we give them throughout to year to monitor student progress. Depending on the teacher and/or students, they are given every 2 to 3 months throughout the school year. We have 540 students at our elementary school that use STAR Early Literacy, Reading, and Math assessments.
- Efficient use of questions
- Text to speech for math questions
- Great reports for multiple uses, including student progress, parent reports, and how student skills compare to state standards.
- Give an option for reading all math questions aloud for some students.
- Give an option for some students to have unlimited time to answer questions.
- Give an option for reports for math and reading to be accessed on the same page for individual students.
April 07, 2023
Renaissance Star Assessments is hands down the best!
I use Renaissance Star Assessments in my classroom to adequately assess students at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. I am able to utilize Renaissance Star Assessments to obtain data regarding student strengths and weaknesses; I am also able to take those strengths and weaknesses and build a plan tailor for each individual student.
- Utilization of data
- Data analysis
- I would like to see a percentage numerical value of how my class does as a entire unit and individual in growth.
March 30, 2023
Renaissance Star Assessments Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use it 3 times per year for assessment as well as in between for progress monitoring if needed.
- Predicts grade equivalency.
- Offers guided skill practice.
- It would be great if Early Star had two separate tests for reading and math.
- I wish Star had its own built-in remedial program and placed students based on the skill deficiency.
March 21, 2023
Renaissance Star Assessments Are Great!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Renaissance Star Assessments in the classroom. We give students the Renaissance Star Assessments several times during the year to assess their progress and growth. The results show areas where students need further help and review. There are detailed reports to help address these weaknesses and adjust our instruction accordingly.
- reports
- adjusting questions
- reading aloud
- number of questions given
March 20, 2023
STAR Assessments Are Super!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are a high-poverty school that consistently scores in the 'significantly exceeds expectations' category on our state report card with almost no gap between our students impacted by poverty and their more affluent peers. We firmly believe that the Renaissance Star Assessments tools that have helped us use data to motivate children to set goals and work hard to meet them are a huge part of our success.
- Offers updated data.
- Offers reports that identify which standards students need practice in.
- Allows up to make student grouping decisions.
- The products are great but they are very expensive.
March 13, 2023
My New Renaissance Star 360 Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use this program school wide. The Star test that the student takes helps us to have a better understanding of where the student is on his reading comprehension, their level and other useful information for us to better help them. The information is easy to find and readily available. This program has many tools that we can take advantage of so that we can improve the performance of each and every student.
- Reading Level
- Readily available
- Easy to use tools
- Available on multiple platforms
- Test needs to be more precise
- Timer needs to be increased
- Questions need to be relatable
March 13, 2023
Your students can be stars with STAR Assessments!
Our District is using Renaissance Star Assessments for benchmarks and progress monitoring.
- It shows the score immediately.
- Students can navigate the website easily.
- The teacher "side"/data is easy to navigate.
- The graphs for each subject are not consistently the same. (ie. some graphs are by 5s and some are by 50s.) It's very confusing to read them.
- The questions are not rigorous enough for state standards.
- Different reports will show data that does not align. If 'state' is chosen, then all reports should show the same data. The Parent Report will show the child in 'green', but every sub-skill is in 'red'. That is super confusing for parents and teachers.
- All reports should be based on the same score, but they are not. It is like comparing apples to oranges on the same child.
February 09, 2023
Renaissance Star Assessments for Accessing Reading Levels
We use Renaissance Star Assessments initially to measure our students' reading levels. Then, about every 6 weeks, students retake the test to measure growth in their reading levels. Our district uses Renaissance Star Assessments in grades K-5th. We align our library and in-class library to match the AR levels from the Renaissance Star Assessments tests.
- Assessing students' reading levels
- Assigning students to reading levels
- Leveling and up down--it is a "smart" test
- Reading questions to beginning readers
- I don't know what to do with the Star Early Literacy Test information
- Have a break in the middle--about question 15. The test is 33 questions.
- I wish every AR test could be read to students.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Star Assessments to monitor reading progress and diagnose areas where students need additional instruction. The Star Assessment is easy for students to take and student results can be generated into several different types of reports based on what is needed. I personally use the Instructional Planning report the most because it identifies specific areas of instruction that each of my students need. My parents like the Star Parent reports because it gives a quick snapshot of how their children are progressing.
- The Star Screening Report gives a quick snapshot of students who are below a set goal.
- The Instructional Planning Student Report gives specific learning needs for each child.
- The Star Family Report helps parents see the progress their children are making.
- The site is easy to use and can generate a multitude of reports.
January 06, 2023
Once you learn it use it !
We use the Early Literacy testing as a tool to help understand the learning gaps. We have a wide range of scores and it really helps the instructor to focus and customize the learning for the students. It is easy to understand, there are a lot reports available and tools to help both the instructor and the parent.
- Placement
- Customized learning
- Parental engagement
- Learning curve in the beginning.
- Hard to reach assistance
November 03, 2022
Star Assessments Review
We use the Star Assessments as a placement tool to help decide which levels of Math students should be placed into. We also use it to measure learning lost over the summer and then growth throughout the year. The data is also used to work with Freckle and suggest adaptive pathways for each student based on their strengths and weaknesses.
- Data
- Synchronization with Freckle
- Adaptive Tests
- More reports
- Control of adding students
- Cut scores in relation to state scores/levels
October 21, 2022
Reviewing of Renaissance Star Assessments
I have been a part of the Renaissance Learning family for many years. This is an assessment tool that I can completely trust. Renaissance Star Assessments Reading and Math assessments help in showing growth, any potential concerns, and success in the subject area. At one point, I was a part of a Renaissance Lighthouse School-this training was implemental in our school's success rate.
- Progress Monitoring
- Growth Proficiency Chart
- STAR Parent Report
- Making sure that teachers in the classroom have access to every tool available.
- Some of the options for reports are harder to access than others.
- I do miss the old format used up until 2 years ago-was easier to access.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our district has used Star Math as a screener for nearly 30 years. We use Star to assess how students are succeeding compared to their national peers, and apply information for intervention needs. Results from Star are used for determining students needing Tier 1 and 2 support at each grade. This has helped with supporting students as they work through our support. We also use Star to identify and confirm that high-functioning students who are challenged and in 7th grade are offered opportunities to accelerate in math class selection.
- Identify students who are excelling in math
- Identify students who are struggling in math
- Provide long term growth reports over multiple grade levels
- Enable prescriptive items for students to work on to improve their score
- Link areas needed for growth to common HQ curriculums
- Enable students to complete assessments beyond the standard 34 items
May 25, 2022
Great!
Renaissance Star Assessments help educators see if students are at, behind, or ahead of where they are supposed to be based on their grade level. It is a progress monitoring platform that shows if a student improves or falls lower than their initial or previous test. It helps educators see which students need intervention in specific areas and those that need harder work in other areas.
- Progress Monitoring.
- Show what students master or need improvement in.
- Show students how they have improved and what level they are currently in.
- Showing actual grade level equivalent instead of Lexiles, etc.
- Explain what students should know and what needs to be retaught.
- Give students their scores in real-time.
As a district, we utilize Renaissance Star 360 in grades K-8 as a universal screening tool. We’ve depended on Renaissance to provide reliable and valid screening and growth data for many years. The easy to access and read reporting suite allows the district as well as schools and teachers to make informed decisions based on data. The assessments are computer adaptive and can be administered remotely should that ever be needed. With the pandemic, it was nice to still be able to gather data to monitor achievement and progress even when not in the school buildings. Renaissance is continually improving and adapting to the changing needs of schools.
- We have the flexibility to set our own benchmark windows. We set three as a district that are mandatory (BOY, MOY, and EOY). Then we add two more optional windows between the benchmarks for schools that need more data on specific students and/or grade levels. However, if needed, teachers can administer an assessment to students at any time of year to gather individual student data, even outside the windows.
- Renaissance is continually improving and adapting to the changing needs of schools. They have recently added Curriculum Based Measures for the elementary grades. These progress monitoring probes track students’ developmental growth with short one minute measures (i.e. letter sounds, oral reading, rapid automatic naming, numeral recognition, addition, subtraction, and multiplication). Item level scoring and reports provide teachers with specific skill insights to determine appropriate next steps.
- The easy to access and read reporting suite allows the district as well as schools and teachers to make informed decisions based on data. With the Star Screening Report, it’s easy to see which students are on track and which students may be at risk in reading, math, and early literacy. The Star State Performance Report is also another favorite because you can easily see which students are on track to meeting state proficiency requirements.
- In addition to the Star assessments, Renaissance has also created an extremely large library of resources that connect the assessment with instruction giving teachers immediate access to instructional resources aligned with their students’ data.
- We also utilize Renaissance’s Custom Data Integration services. It’s an automated process that populates student/staff/class data into Renaissance by syncing directly with our SIS. This means when a student moves in/out, it automatically syncs and no need to add/delete student accounts.
March 23, 2022
Star Assessment
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Star Assessments 4 times a year in my 1st-grade classroom. I love it as I can use it to make my reading groups, create personalized reading plans, and get diagnostic feedback on how to help all levels of my readers. I use it to inform parents where their kids are strong in reading and where my kids are in need of assistance.
- Diagnostics
- Informed Instruction
- Personalized Reading Levels
- More Training
- Deeper communication
- More detailed instructions
March 17, 2022
Star reading creates Star readers.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Star assessments 3-4 times a year. All students take the Star assessment and we use the data to set students up with books at correct level. Goals are set for each student based on the Star assessment. We track the Star results over time to monitor progress and use the data to create interventions.
- Finds student reading level
- Provides ZPD
- Tracks student progress over time
- Uses close format mostly
- Does not listen to student reading for accuracy
- Track fluency
March 09, 2022
The best
We use this twice a year, to gauge where the students are at and if they made any growth. Obviously, this could never be 100% as students may rush through the test or may not be focused.
- Evaluate student growth.
- Easy to review data.
- Allows students to understand their levels.
- The test is formatted [boringly] and students don’t find it entertaining.
- They don’t give easy access for parents to understand the results.
I use Star Assessments in my kindergarten classroom throughout the school year. We use Star CBM, Math, and Reading at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. We use it to track growth and help students make gains in all areas of learning. The reports help us tremendously by breaking down the individual needs of students.
- Categorizes standards
- Separates students by needs
- Separates students by gains
- The reports page is extremely difficult to find things in.