Technical Manual - Renaissance Learning

Content and Item DevelopmentItem Development: STAR Early Literacy EnterpriseUS word “flashlight” is referred to as “torch” in the UK, so developers willavoid using “flashlight” or “torch” in items.A decision was made to replace all offensive graphics: kill, kiss, etc. However,in some instances the word graphics were allowed. The thinking is that thesound of the word is less offensive when the concentration is on its soundrather than on its meaning.Only healthy foods will be represented in current and future development.All new items moving forward should contain either gender-neutral orcross-stereotypical situations. Girls will be shown participating fully in life andboys will be shown studying or reading or entertaining or caring for youngerchildren.Readability GuidelinesATOS GLE and word counts will be tracked in metadata and used as guides fordeveloping content. The readability levels for each script within each item shouldnot exceed the grade level of the STAR Early Literacy Enterprise item. Words usedin scripts should be appropriate for the intended grade.The content in STAR Early Literacy Enterprise is leveled to address pre-readers andbeginning readers (generally children of ages 3 through 9).Items in each of the sub-domains were designed to range from easy to difficult.This was achieved through the use of different combinations of audio and graphicelements, such as named pictures, unnamed pictures, named letters and sounds,unnamed letters and sounds, named words, and unnamed words, sentences, andparagraphs. The level of difficulty for each question was controlled through theuse of graphical, textual, and audio support.Generally text at this level follows the following guidelines (which applied to theservice edition of STAR Early Literacy and applies to STAR Early LiteracyEnterprise):Table 6:Maximum Sentence Length/GradeItem Year GroupPre-Kindergarten–Grade 1Grades 2–3a. Including missing word blank.Maximum Sentence Length a10 words12 wordsEvery effort should be made to present age-appropriate vocabulary as well.STAR Early LiteracyTechnical Manual33