Technical Manual - Renaissance Learning

Psychometric Research Supporting STAR Early Literacy EnterpriseItem CalibrationLevel A forms were designed for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, Level B wasdesigned for students in first grade, and Level C was designed for students insecond and third grade.Because all STAR Early Literacy test items include computerized graphics andaudio, these calibration test forms were all computer-administered. Over 46,000computer-administered calibration tests were given to a nationwide sample ofstudents in pre-kindergarten through grade 3.Over 300 schools in the United States participated in the Calibration Study. Thecalibration sample did not need to be nationally representative, but it did requirea wide range of student abilities at each grade or age level. Candidate schools forthe recruitment mailing were selected from the MDR (Market Data Retrieval)database based on the availability of grades in the grade span of pre-kindergartenthrough grade 3. These candidate schools were set up in a recruitment matrix ordatabase, and segmented into cells by geographic region, per-grade districtenrollment, and socioeconomic status information.Table 8 compares certain sample characteristics of the students participating inthe Calibration Study against national percentages of the same characteristics.Table 8: Sample Characteristics, STAR Early Literacy Calibration Study, Fall 2000(N = 32,493 Students)StudentsNational % Sample %Geographic Region Northeast 20.4 7.8Midwest 23.5 21.8Southeast 24.3 41.5West 31.8 28.9District Socioeconomic Status Low 28.4 30.9Average 29.6 43.4High 31.8 16.3Non-Public 10.2 9.4School Type and District EnrollmentPublic< 200 15.8 24.3200–499 19.1 23.0500–1,999 30.2 29.1> 1,999 24.7 14.2Non-Public 10.2 9.4STAR Early LiteracyTechnical Manual38