Item: Renaissance Star Assessments
Rating: 10
Author: Kimberly Medin

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

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.

Most Important Features

Efficient assessments
Text-to-speech
Variety of reports available

Return on Investment

Our positive impact has been the amount of information gleaned on student skills.

Alternatives Considered

Renaissance STAR Assessments give the same information (more information, actually) using fewer questions. Our school selected these assessments in order to be able to get benchmarking information on students in an efficient manner and then to monitor progress easily throughout the school year. Students usually finish these assessments within 30 minutes, instead of the hour or more that it took them to finish the NWEA assessments. This makes using STAR a quick and easy way to gain information on student academic achievement.

Key Insights

Do you think Renaissance Star Assessments delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Renaissance Star Assessments's feature set?

Yes

Did Renaissance Star Assessments live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Renaissance Star Assessments go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Renaissance Star Assessments again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Our school used to use NWEA MAP assessments, which took a lot longer to administer and were often overwhelming for my students. STAR assessments are shorter (usually 34 questions) and cover the same information. As a special education teacher, the variety of reports available for my students is so helpful! I can use the information to develop IEP goals as well as to give parents specific information on their child's academic skills.

Renaissance STAR Assessments are easy to implement and give great information!

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Renaissance Star Assessments