Early Childhood ISTAR-KR Assessment Handbook - Indiana ...

visible on the assessment pages if the assessment items had been rated in an earlier assessment
period.
Who is responsible for adding/editing student names to ISTAR-KR?
A student can be added to ISTAR through any account that has access to the school where the
student is associated. The student’s record will “belong” to the account that initially added the
record until it is reassigned. Some school systems find it easier to have the teachers initially add
and subsequently reassign the students from one caseload to the next. Other corporations place
the students in the teacher accounts as a first step each year and set the demographic data.
The management style is a local decision and the software is designed to work with either plan.
However, it is ultimately the responsibility of the school leadership to ensure completion in an
accurate and timely manner.
If a student is already added to the list of a different account, the user of this account must
“reassign” the student to the receiving user.
How do I add a student to my ISTAR-KR caseload?
On a nightly basis, the ISTAR/ISTART7 system is updated with the most current student
information from the STN (Student Test Number) system. Therefore, continuous and proper use
of the STN Lookup system is all that is required to populate the ISTAR/ISTART7 system with
accurate student data.
The process of adding a student to the ISTAR assessment system is simply a matter of finding the
correct student using the “add new” feature. All of the identifying data from the STN system will
populate the student data fields.
How are Student Test Numbers associated with given schools and school corporations?
All students must be assigned a Student Test Number (STN) in order to be assessed with ISTAR-
KR. The Student Test Number has no substantive meaning in isolation. There is a protocol that
local data administrators use to assign STN’s to students, and this is for the sole purpose of
creating a unique identifier.
The STN of an early childhood student is not associated with Average Daily Membership (ADM)
or Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) calculations. It is used for reports to the state that count
children in early childhood programs and measure evaluation timelines. Security access and the
ISTAR-KR data table require that all students be assigned an STN that technically belong to a
“school”. Schools may assign an STN number from the building in which the student’s early
childhood program is located. If the student’s early childhood program is not in a school
building, the STN may be assigned from the school building in which the student’s Teacher of
Record is located or by the neighborhood school that the child may attend later. As Part C
agencies join the system, more specific instructions will be provided for this purpose.
The important requirements are:
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