Renaissance Star 360 Shines
April 11, 2017
Renaissance Star 360 Shines
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Renaissance Star 360
For 2016-2017 [school year], Caldwell County Schools purchased Renaissance Star for educators to monitor their students' growth in reading and math. Star Reading's Scale Score is recognized by North Carolina as a providing a "good cause exemption" for students who may be targeted for summer school. In addition, the school where I work has always provided Star Math in addition to Star Reading. The program has been so successful at our location that our county now pays for both the reading and the math program for all schools in the county.
- There are many things that make Renaissance Star a valuable resource. One is that I can see if a student has rushed through a test thereby invalidating his or her score.
- To help students grow, Renaissance Star provides student grouping suggestions. I can also create my own groups based on personalities and what I know my students need.
- Another great aspect of the program is its ability to project whether or not a student is on target to pass the end of grade test. This is great information not only for me but also for my parents. The graph projects a trend line for success and shows where the student falls in relation. And for my Latino students, the reports can be printed in Spanish!
- One thing I would like is a live view of my students testing, and include some way to flag me if 3 questions were answered too quickly.
- Also I'd like to not have to refresh the form to see results as students finish their test.
- I'd like a trend line, even if it is not trustworthy, to begin with the second test. I'd like to share improvements or problems with my students who could be motivated to move their trend line toward the star.
- After receiving testing data, I would like a breakdown of data by strand. i.e., the percentage of geometry questions asked and answered correctly. While grouping students by strand is useful, I'd like more information to dig deeper.
- As a teacher, I can't speak to the return from a financial perspective. For me, it's all about the investment in our students. I like that the tests can be done in one hour, which do not stress our students. We always talk to our students about the importance of doing their best and how the test information will provide a guide on what we need to focus on in class. After all, we wouldn't want to bore anyone by teaching what is already known.
- Most importantly, the data gathered helps guide decisions about students who may need additional support within and outside of the classroom.
- Because the Star Reading and Math tests are given throughout the year, students with test anxiety learn to relax and find that taking a test is not as upsetting as they once thought. The ability to not experience overwhelming test anxiety is an invaluable asset when so much actually does ride on the students' end-of-grade test results.
I am not familiar with other products like Renaissance. While we've used other programs that test students (Moby Max, iReady, Study Island) Renaissance Star is unique in the information and trajectories it provides. As far as ease of use and data provided, it really can't be compared.