Technical Manual - Renaissance Learning

More documents

Recommendations

Info

$Accelerated Math for Interventionâ¢ - Renaissance Learning$

IntroductionDesign of STAR Early Literacy Enterpriseachievement longitudinally, facilitating the kind of growth analysis recommendedby state and federal organizations. Renaissance Learning Tier 2 programs includeSTAR Early Literacy Enterprise, STAR Math, STAR Math Enterprise, STAR Reading,and STAR Reading Enterprise.Tier 3: Summative AssessmentsSummative assessments provide quantitative and qualitative data in the form ofhigh-stakes tests. The best way to ensure success on Tier 3 assessments is tomonitor progress and adjust instructional methods and practice activitiesthroughout the year using Tier 1 and Tier 2 assessments.Design of STAR Early Literacy EnterpriseSTAR Early Literacy Enterprise is the latest version of STAR Early Literacyassessments. While it improves on previous versions in a number of ways, it alsoretains many features of the previous versions. One of the fundamental designdecisions concerning STAR Early Literacy involved the choice of how to administerthe test. The primary advantage of using computer software to administer STAREarly Literacy tests is the ability to tailor each student’s test based on his or herresponses to previous items. Paper-and-pencil tests are obviously far differentfrom this: every student must respond to the same items in the same sequence.Using computer-adaptive procedures, it is possible for students to test on itemsthat appropriately match their current level of proficiency. The item selectionprocedures, termed Adaptive Branching in STAR Early Literacy, effectivelycustomize the test to each student’s achievement level.Adaptive Branching offers significant advantages in terms of test reliability, testingtime, and student motivation. Reliability improves over paper-and-pencil testsbecause the test difficulty matches each individual’s performance level; studentsdo not have to fit a “one test fits all” model. Most of the test items that studentsrespond to are at levels of difficulty that closely match their achievement level.Testing time decreases because, unlike in paper-and-pencil tests, there is no needto expose every student to a broad range of material, portions of which areinappropriate because they are either too easy for high achievers or too difficultfor those with low current levels of performance. Finally, student motivationimproves simply because of these issues—test time is minimized and test contentis neither too difficult nor too easy.Another fundamental design decision concerning STAR Early Literacy involved thechoice of the content and format of items for the test. Its content spans threedomains and ten sub-domains of early literacy skills and abilities, ranging fromgeneral readiness to vocabulary, and includes four of the five key areas of readingSTAR Early LiteracyTechnical Manual4
IntroductionDesign of STAR Early Literacy Enterpriseinstruction recommended by the National Reading Panel report: phonemicawareness, phonics, vocabulary, and text comprehension. The format of its testitems is engaging to young children, using graphics, animation, and digitized voiceto present instructions, practice, and the test items themselves.For these reasons, STAR Early Literacy Enterprise’s test design and item formatprovide a valid procedure to assess pre-reading skills and sentence andparagraph-level comprehension and to identify a student’s literacy classification.Data and information presented in this manual reinforce this.Test InterfaceThe test interface for STAR Early Literacy Enterprise was designed to be simple,appealing to young school children, and effective. Every test question begins withdictated instructions by means of digitized audio recordings. Additionally, everyquestion is presented in a graphic display format. The student can replay theinstructions at will; instructions will replay automatically after a measured timeinterval if there is no action by the student. All questions are in multiple-choiceformat with three response alternatives.Students select their answers by:If using the keyboard, students press one of the three keys (1, 2, or 3) and thenpress the Enter key (or the return key on Macintosh computers). If using the mouse, students select their answers by pointing and clicking themouse.In April of 2013, the STAR Apps on iPad® was released, allowing students to take aSTAR Early Literacy test on an iPad®. Students tap the answer of choice and thentap Next to enter the answer.Pretest InstructionsPrior to the test session itself, a brief demonstration video introduces STAR EarlyLiteracy Enterprise to the student. It presents instructions on what to expect, howto use the mouse or keyboard, and how to answer the multiple-choice testquestions.Hands-On ExerciseTo ensure that every student understands how to use the mouse or keyboard, ashort hands-on exercise precedes the assessment. The tutorial tests one of twoabilities:1. The student’s ability to move the mouse pointer to a target, and to click themouse pointer on the target orSTAR Early LiteracyTechnical Manual5
Page 1 and 2: STAR Early LiteracyTechnical Manual
Page 3: ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . .
Page 8 and 9: STAR Early LiteracyTechnical Manual
Page 10 and 11: IntroductionOverviewEnterprise inco
Page 14 and 15: IntroductionDesign of STAR Early Li
Page 16 and 17: IntroductionTest SecurityRepeating
Page 18 and 19: IntroductionPsychometric Characteri
Page 20 and 21: IntroductionPsychometric Characteri
Page 22 and 23: IntroductionSTAR Early Literacy Ent
Page 24 and 25: Content and Item DevelopmentThe STA
Page 32 and 33: Content and Item DevelopmentItem De
Page 44 and 45: Core Progress Learning Progression
Page 46 and 47: Psychometric Research Supporting ST
Page 52 and 53: Reliability and Measurement Precisi
Page 62 and 63:
Reliability and Measurement Precisi
Page 64 and 65:
ValidityRelationship of STAR Early
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
ValidityPost-Publication Study Data
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
ValidityConcurrent Validity of Esti
Page 88 and 89:
ValiditySummary of STAR Early Liter
Page 90 and 91:
ValidityValidation Research Study P
Page 92 and 93:
ValidityValidation Research Study P
Page 94 and 95:
ValiditySTAR Early Literacy Enterpr
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
ValidityThe Validity of Early Numer
Page 102 and 103:
ValidityThe Validity of Early Numer
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
NormingSTAR Early Literacy Enterpri
Page 110 and 111:
NormingDevelopment of Norms for STA
Page 112 and 113:
NormingData AnalysisTable 49:Gender
Page 114 and 115:
NormingGrowth Normswere smoothed us
Page 116 and 117:
Score DistributionsScaled Scores: S
Page 118 and 119:
Score DefinitionsFor its internal c
Page 120 and 121:
Score DefinitionsEstimated Oral Rea
Page 122 and 123:
STAR Early Literacy Enterprise in t
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
AppendixTable 61:STAR Early Literac
Page 162 and 163:
AppendixTable 61:STAR Early Literac
Page 164 and 165:
ReferencesAdams, M. J. (1990). Begi
Page 166 and 167:
IndexAAbsolute growth, 134Access le
Page 168 and 169:
IndexScaled Score norms, 100Scaled
Page 170:
IndexTest item design guidelinesans
show all

Technical Manual - Renaissance Learning

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?