Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment STAR testing

Aha. DS took his math with his class, likely setting his test at early 4th. Now to figure out if his scores matter. Likely yes since there's another compacted class coming up.

Thanks again for your time and expertise, aeh.

apm, at what points did your daughter take STAR reading over the past year? If a student has not taken the test in over six months, the system automatically resets the start point to 1-2 grades below the grade placement. If a student has taken the test more recently (that is, within the same school year), the start point is based on the last assessment. It is possible that her start point for this year was re-set low enough that she was not able to make it back up to 12th grade in 25 items (34 if the Enterprise version).

AEH, thank you. This is very helpful.

DS7's STAR report came back very odd: giving an overall recommendation of a 6th grade instructional level in reading, but all the goals listed in detail in the report are 8th and 9th grade curriculum goals. I assume the 6th grade instructional level comes from the cap, and if they started him higher, might change.

The math results are beyond strange-- they say he's substantially ahead, but then the subscores don't show that at all, leaving me wondering what if any relation the subscores bear to the overall scaled score and recommendations. I can't quite see how we will get to rational recommendations for instruction from here.

Thanks--
DeeDee

Aeh, they won't change it and say she will be retested later. We've been having a lot of issues so far this year.

apm, so sorry to hear that.

I don't think STAR has enough discrimination to be useful in any way. 25 items across many grade levels just doesn't give enough information. The test took about 10 minutes, and scores were wildly inaccurate returning >12.9 level for reading and math for many second graders in the class.

Disappointing not to get much useful information, but I wouldn't base placement or instruction on STAR results.

That sounds like a valid explanation especially if the do only beginning of the year testing or beginning and middle. After all since someone would have noticed brain trauma they got one of the assessments wrong.

That's helpful to know. I'm not sure exactly when she last took the test, but it was in the spring. So it was probably within 6 months, but maybe not. As I said before, she scored higher on it at the beginning of the last school year, so I think she must have just been distracted or rushing. I'm feeling really frustrated with them for an assortment of issues, including this one. At least she still enjoys the reading work most of the time; the math is a larger problem as she just draws all over the worksheets because she says they are too boring to face. She has been doing mastery tests for over a month now just to show she is capable of starting where she left off last spring and seems to have just had enough at this point. I think they make all of the kids start at the same point regardless of where they left off, so she had to start off showing she could add when she left off last spring getting ready for algebra. She's supposed to be working through fractions now, but is doing art instead. I'm trying to get a meeting scheduled and this information on the STAR will be helpful (for one thing, it sounds like the math version won't even show the right level).

Considering they made her restart at the beginning for math, I wonder if they deliberately reset the STAR to start at grade level?

I think star is only helpful in certain scenarios ...tracking the progress of someone at risk, and deciding who you don't have to worry about (tic). Also, it was helpful to allow ds full acess to any level book in the media center.

This is good to know. It is true for both reading and math? At our first meeting at DD8's new school they said they were planning to assess with the STAR to determine levels for her, but it if starts 1-2 levels below grade and caps at 3 above starting, that won't be useful at all.