Technical Manual - Renaissance Learning

ValidityRelationship of STAR Early Literacy Scores to Other TestsFigure 6:Scatterplot of STAR Early Literacy and STAR Reading Rasch Ability Scores(N = 3,043 Students; Correlation = 0.78)As the shape of the scatterplot suggests, the degree of correlation was substantial:overall, the correlation between STAR Early Literacy scores and STAR Readingscores was 0.78. This suggests that there is a strong relationship between theliteracy skills measured by STAR Early Literacy and reading proficiency asmeasured by STAR Reading. Because the contents and formats of these two testsare quite dissimilar, the high degree of correlation between them supports theposition that STAR Early Literacy measures skills that are highly related to thedevelopment of reading ability in the early grades.Validation Study DataAs part of the original Validation Study, participating teachers were asked toprovide students’ scores from a variety of other tests. Renaissance Learningprovided the teachers with a special worksheet to record such scores. In additionto reading test scores, scores on a number of other tests were obtained for manyof the students participating in the Validation Study. These tests included othermeasures of early literacy as well as tests of readiness, social skills, and otherattributes.Usable scores were received for over 2,400 students on 20 different test seriesadministered in the fall or spring of the 2000 school year or the spring of 2001.Most of the reported scores were either NCE scores or Scaled Scores. In a fewcases, letter grades were reported; these were recoded into numbers in order toperform correlation analyses. From the usable data, 61 correlations with STARSTAR Early LiteracyTechnical Manual59