(not in use) Local Assessment Information for Teachers / Star Reading and Star Math Assessments

Background
On April 1, 2014, the SLUSD Board of Education approved the redesign of the district’s strategic intervention courses in English Language Arts and Mathematics at the secondary level. The Mathematics and English Language Arts Companion Courses were redesigned to one semester courses now named, English Language Arts and Mathematics Labs. Some of the goals of the newly redesigned English Language Arts and Mathematics Labs include:
Providing strategic support for students developing skills towards the Common Core State Standards
Allowing greater flexibility and opportunity for students to move out earlier, thus allowing greater access to elective courses
Having multiple data points that use real time data to inform entry and exit
Utilize real-time assessments, allowing students more flexibility to exit out and take electives

Action
In order to create one of our multiple data points for English and Math Lab, we are requesting that the STAR Reading Assessment and the STAR Math Assessments (not CSTs, but rather Renaissance Learning’s “STAR” Assessment Tool) be given to all 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade students by Friday May 30, 2014, in their respective classes. These computer adaptive assessments will take less than one class period to administer (15-20 minutes actual testing time) on a Chromebook and do not require you to grade them.

Resources
General information about the Star Reading Assessments can be found at: http://www.renaissance.com/products/star-assessments/star-reading
General information about the Star Math Assessment can be found at: http://www.renaissance.com/products/star-assessments/star-math
We have done all of the background work by loading student information and creating user accounts and password for both students and teachers. Unlike the SBAC, teachers do not have to login to a computer to administer the assessment. In broad terms, the steps to administering this assessment include:
Understanding the Reading pretest guide: https://www.dropbox.com/s/23lou30mnt0lsde/Star%20Reading%20Info.pdf
Understanding the Math pretest guide: https://www.dropbox.com/s/393i2wmarahmxue/Star%20Math%20Pretest%20Info.pdf
Directing students to the correct website to take the assessment: https://hosted354.renlearn.com/281506/
Providing each student with their user name and password (We will deliver this to your school mailbox at your site on Friday)
Ensuring a proper testing environment
Examine the results for your students by logging into https://hosted354.renlearn.com/281506/
Some additional resources can be found at:
STAR Enterprise™ Report Tour for videos and specific sample reports.
http://www.renaissance.com/products/star-assessments/reports
The Getting the Most out of STAR Enterprise™ guide explains how to use STAR data to make good decisions about instruction and intervention.
http://doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R0054548E2365AA2.pdf

I do not take using valuable instructional time at the end of the year lightly and apologize in advance for not giving you greater notice about this assessment. However, it is necessary to provide multiple data points to screen students for the newly redesigned English and Math Lab classes. Thank you in advance for your flexibility and understanding.

We predict that teachers will appreciate the efficiency and effectiveness that this newly adopted assessment tool as it will provide us with meaningful information about out students’ performance levels.

Best Regards,

Rabinder (Rob) Mangewala
Director Technology Integration, Assessment, Research and Evaluation/Education Services
SLUSD