Star Renaissance
Our district uses Renaissance Star Assessments are used three times a year. The students are tested at the beginning of the year, middle …
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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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- 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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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
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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
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 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.
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!
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.
February 19, 2019
Versatile Tool for Student Achievement
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Renaissance Star 360 is used by our K-8 school to assess students' reading and math abilities. We use both the reading and the math to chart growth and identify areas of weakness within a students' knowledge base. These scores provide us with the necessary tools to identify students needing additional help and also to identify which standards need to be addressed during instruction.
- Renaissance Star 360 provides detailed reports to help in diagnosing student needs within the math and reading standards. This is great because these reports can aid in working on an educational plan for students.
- Renaissance Star 360 allows for teachers to tailor reports to the individual needs of the instructor. These reports can detail the testing data in very specific formats.
- Renaissance Star 360 provides teachers with plans and activities that meet the benchmarks and standards for reading and math. This is truly a time saver for teachers.
- Renaissance Star 360 should allow teachers to modify information included in reports. Sometimes teachers and administrators need information presented in a different way from the standard reports given.
- Renaissance Star 360 should allow for students to increase their ZPD each time they take the STAR rather than only basing it on the initial score.
- Renaissance Star 360 should give teachers an analysis of types of questions missed so that teachers can assess testing issues with the students.
August 21, 2017
Reading With Renaissance
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Every classroom uses Renaissance Star 360. All teachers have been trained in its use, but one of the problems is that classrooms use it differently. Some use it to enhance individual students' reading levels, while others use it for comprehension grades on class novels. Also, it is difficult for teachers to get new training mid-year when Renaissance makes changes in the middle of the school year.
- Wide variety of book titles
- Many graphs for teachers to choose how to view data
- User-friendly for both students and staff
- Mid-year changes are difficult to keep up with, especially when the changes were made in May when many schools were trying to receive data graphs that were no longer there
- Be more competitively priced - they are more expensive than other reading comprehension on-line programs
April 13, 2017
STAR 360 for Secondary Use
My school district currently uses Renaissance Star 360 as part of the admission process and for all current students. Students take the assessment at least three times a year in order to determine needs for interventions and to measure reading growth. The assessment takes approximately 20 minutes to administer, does not require any special training to administer, and produces a tremendous amount of data to inform instruction and share with students and parents.
- The Star assessment is not time consuming to administer. It is appropriate for a base-line measure of secondary students.
- The assessment is on the computer. Secondary students answer 34 multiple choice questions. It is a 'smart' assessment that adjusts what questions will be asked based on whether or not the previous question was answered correctly. Students rarely see questions repeated.
- The data produced by STAR is presented in an easy-to-understand format that is clear when presented to parents and students.
- The Star assessment focuses on two main reading skills: vocabulary and comprehension; however, all of the questions are done through multiple choice. While unlikely, students can 'guess' the correct answers, and this does impact the data.
- Some students will deliberately throw the test because it is used to develop goals within the Accelerated Reader program; while the students' choices aren't indicative of a flaw in the program, it is a detracting factor when the test is administered 3+times each year and connected to the reading practice portion of the program.
- Each question in the program is individually timed. This function does allow for a basic measure of fluency, however it can be tricky for students to maintain focus throughout the entire assessment, especially when answering questions about longer passages.