Star Preschool Literacy is a browser-based digital assessment tool for screening and progress monitoring students who are one and two years before kindergarten. This assessment was designed for preschoolers, so it supports the youngest learners best with the most age-appropriate content.
Star Preschool Literacy uses Item Response Theory, a test construct based on high-precision mapping of student ability via Rasch modeling of item difficulty. We paired this work with empirical standard setting to identify those students making, or not making, adequate progress toward long-term goals. This approach supports universal screening and determination of At/Above Benchmark (Tier 1) status versus On Watch or Intervention status (Tier 2/3) of student proficiency, with additional support for progress monitoring as desired.
In the Star Preschool Assessments Dashboard, on the English Literacy tab, you can administer literacy assessments and view student benchmark scores.
How to Get to This Page
If your Home page has tiles like this example, select the Star Preschool tile under "Assess Students," then select Assessment Dashboard & Assessments in the menu that opens.
If you have Renaissance Next instead, select Star on the left side of the Renaissance Next page. Then, select Star Preschool and select Assessment Dashboard & Assessments.
The Assessments Dashboard will open. You can choose to see the dashboard in either English or Spanish using the language toggle links at the top of the page.
Selecting the School and Class
At the top of the page, use the drop-down lists to choose the school and/or class. Each drop-down list is only available if you have more than one item to select; if not, the school and/or class that you have access to will be shown, and you won't have a drop-down list.
Starting Assessments
The table on the English Literacy tab includes a row for each student and a column for each literacy assessment for the student's age. If you have both Early Education (EE) and Pre-K students in your class, you'll see separate tables for each age level; you can use the Grade drop-down list to choose to see only students in one grade. Early Education (EE) students are two years before kindergarten; Pre-Kindergarten (PK) students are one year before kindergarten.
If you see a note saying that a student cannot be assessed because they need to be assigned a valid grade level, the grade for that student has been set to “Other.” To change the grade, edit the student’s information.
All assessments in the table are recommended for each student. To start with the first assessment, select Start in the first column for the student. Once you administer the first assessment, you'll have the opportunity to continue with the next one or to administer the next assessment later; this continues through all assessments available for the current screening window and grade level. You will have the opportunity to show students brief, engaging animations between assessments as you make notes about the previous assessment and get ready to go on.
If you prefer to start with a different assessment, select the three dots in the column for that assessment and the row for the student. Then, select Start Assessment.
For more on administering assessments, see Administering Star Preschool English Literacy Assessments.
If some of your students have been tested and others have not, in the Status drop-down list, you can choose to see only students who are ready to test so that you can focus on students who still need to take assessments.
If some of your students require accommodations during the assessments, see Star Preschool Accessibility and Accommodations.
All students should take every assessment for their grade and the current screening window unless a qualified individual deems one or more of the assessments is inappropriate for a child due to a disability. Demonstration and practice items will determine developmental readiness. For help supporting students with IEPs, 504 plans, or other accommodation needs, see the Accommodations Guide. If you want to exempt certain students from some of the assessments in a screening window, select Assigned Assessments in the class summary. For more information, see Star Preschool Assigned Assessments.
More About the Assessments
The assessments available depend on the grade of your students. Screening assessments have 15 scored items (some also have demonstration or practice items at the beginning). Assessment difficulty is based on the student's grade in the screening window or on the ability the student demonstrated in previous assessments.
| Grade | English Literacy Assessments Available |
|---|---|
| Early Education (EE) |
|
| Pre-Kindergarten (PK) |
|
Oral Language (EE and PK)
In Oral Language assessments, in some items, you show pictures to the student that they name out loud. In other items, students are asked to identify the correct picture from three choices.
Alphabet Knowledge I (EE)
In Alphabet Knowledge I assessments, the student identifies letters aloud. In some items, students also choose the correct letter from three choices, and in others, students identify the letter that is oriented the right way; for these items, the students may tap the correct answer, or the teacher may select the student's indicated answer.
Phonological Awareness I (EE)
In Phonological Awareness assessments, the student hears words spoken aloud that are separated into phonemes. The student taps or selects the picture on the screen that matches the word that they hear; students will see two or three choices.
Alphabet Knowledge II (PK)
In Alphabet Knowledge II assessments, the student sees three or four letters; after hearing a letter sound, the student taps or selects the letter that makes that sound.
Phonological Awareness II (PK)
In Phonological Awareness II assessments, the teacher identifies a picture and then two or three additional pictures. The student selects the picture whose name rhymes with the first picture.
Comprehension (PK)
In Comprehension assessments, students select the picture that doesn't belong from a set of three or four pictures.
Phonological Awareness III (PK)
In Phonological Awareness III assessments, students see pictures and hear them identified; then, they are asked to point to the picture of the word that begins with a specific letter sound.
Scores and Benchmarks
After you've administered assessments to students, you will see what benchmarks their scores are in for each assessment. For more about the benchmarks, see Star Preschool Benchmarks.
means the score is At/Above Benchmark. The student appears to be on track (Tier 1), making the developmental progress needed to meet long-term goals to be successful in Kindergarten.
means the score is in On Watch. More information is needed. Consider this result plus other observations and data to determine whether extra instructional/intervention support is needed. (See Screening and Progress Monitoring below.)
means Intervention. The child’s score is significantly below benchmark. Consistently offer Tier 2 or Tier 3 instructional/intervention support. Progress monitoring is recommended. (For more about progress monitoring, see Screening and Progress Monitoring below.)
means the assessment was Discontinued, either because the student couldn't answer the practice items correctly or because the teacher stopped the assessment because the student was struggling. Continue to work with the student and try again during the next screening window. For more information, see Discontinued Star Preschool Assessments. Note: For Oral Language and Alphabet Knowledge I, assessments aren't discontinued if the student answers the practice items incorrectly.
not assigned means you have chosen to unassign that particular assessment for a student in this screening window.
By default, the table(s) are sorted by the student's last name. You can reverse the order by selecting the EE Students or PK Students column heading. If you'd like to sort by scores or test date for an assessment instead, select the column heading for the assessment measure, then select a sort option. You can sort by score (low to high or high to low) or test date (oldest to newest or newest to oldest).
To see the actual Scaled Scores for a student and assessment, select the icon in the row for the student and the column for the assessment measure.
In the window, you will see the student's most recent benchmark for the measure, the Scaled Score, and the date the assessment was taken. If the student has taken progress monitoring assessments for the measure in this screening window, you will see the scores for those as well. If an assessment has notes, you will see the notes icon after the Scaled Score. (If you see "No longer assigned" in the popup window, the assessment was unassigned after the student took the assessment.)
Below the score(s), you will see the benchmark placement for the student's latest assessment score for this measure.
If you want to see a list of all of the student's scores, test dates, and notes for the screening window, select View Scores & Notes. You can also add or change notes on the page.
To go to the Student Details page and see charts and scores for all of the student's assessments, select View Chart.
Seasons/Screening Windows
Star Preschool screening is based on three screening windows:
- Fall: August 1 or the school year start date (whichever is earlier) to November 30.
- Winter: December 1 to March 31.
- Spring: April 1 to the school year end date (or July 31).
Students are expected to take the screening measures shown in the tables every screening window. If progress monitoring is needed, a student may take additional assessments.
Screening and Progress Monitoring
Screening
In each screening window, students are expected to take all assessments that are available for their grade level (as shown in the table for the grade). Each screening assessment has 15 items. These are the screening measures for each grade:
| Grade | Fall Screening Assessments | Winter Screening Assessments | Spring Screening Assessments |
|---|---|---|---|
| EE | Oral Language Alphabet Knowledge I Phonological Awareness I |
Oral Language Alphabet Knowledge I Phonological Awareness I |
Oral Language Alphabet Knowledge I Phonological Awareness I |
| PK | Oral Language Alphabet Knowledge II Phonological Awareness II Comprehension |
Oral Language Alphabet Knowledge II Phonological Awareness II Comprehension Phonological Awareness III |
Oral Language Alphabet Knowledge II Phonological Awareness II Comprehension Phonological Awareness III |
If there is a reason why some students should not take certain assessments, select Assigned Assessments at the top of the page and uncheck the assessments for those students; then, save your changes. For more information, see Star Preschool Assigned Assessments.
The summary at the top of the page shows how many students have been fully screened (how many have taken all assigned assessments). In the example below, 6 out of 14 students have been fully screened for the screening window.
In the Assessments Dashboard, scores for the current screening window are shown by default, and the screening window and dates are shown above the table. Use the links above the table to go to the next or previous screening window where possible.
Progress Monitoring
Students whose scores are in the Intervention or On Watch benchmark categories for an assessment are automatically placed in progress monitoring. If you select the benchmark icon in the cell for the student and assessment, in the score popup window, you will see that the Monitor Progress box is checked as in the example below. For scores in Intervention, you'll see "Recommended" after the check box; for scores On Watch, you'll see "Use your judgement" after the box since the teacher should judge whether progress monitoring is required. If the box is checked and you prefer not to administer progress monitoring assessments, remove the check mark.
Progress monitoring is not available for Phonological Awareness I.
When Progress Monitoring is selected, three weeks after the student's last assessment, you will see a Test Now icon for the assessment. To start a progress monitoring assessment, select the icon, then Start Assessment.
Unlike screening assessments, progress monitoring assessments have 25 items. When you have finished administering the assessment, the icon for that assessment will reflect the benchmark category of the student's new score. As long as the Monitor Progress box is checked, the Test Now icon will appear again 3 weeks after each assessment until the screening window ends or the student has taken 5 progress monitoring assessments (whichever comes first). You can discontinue progress monitoring for this screening window at any time by unchecking the Monitor Progress box.
At the top of the page, you will see how many students are in progress monitoring in the current screening window.
Viewing Student Details, Including Charts for Each Measure
To view all of a student's English Literacy scores and charts of those scores, select the student's name on the Assessments Dashboard to go to the English Literacy tab on the Student Details page. On the Overall tab of the Student Details page, you can also see the student's scores for past school years if any are available.
Printing or Saving Results
To print the Assessments Dashboard, or to save it to a PDF, select Print or Save under the table(s). Then, choose a printer, or choose the option to save as a PDF.
Downloading/Exporting Results
To download your assessment results to a file that can be opened in spreadsheet programs, select Download Data. A .csv (comma-separated value) file will be downloaded to your computer.
For each assessment taken for the class, the file includes this data:
- client ID for your site
- school name
- class name
- teacher name
- student ID
- student name
- student grade
- activity name (Star Preschool Literacy Enterprise Activity Type)
- measure
- purpose (screening or progress monitoring)
- screening window (fall, winter, or spring)
- benchmark (At/Above Benchmark, On Watch, or Intervention)
- scaled score
- time taken (in seconds, not including practice items)
- activity date
- test mode (online)
- teacher notes
- activity ID
- application (Star Preschool)
- tested at school (yes indicates in person, no indicates remote)
Reports
To see each student's score in all three screening windows for a specific measure, select Reports at the top of the page and select Class Growth. For more information, see Star Preschool - Class Growth.
To see comparisons of student results by measure, school, or class, or lists of students in a category at any of these levels, select Comparisons & Growth. For more information, see Star Preschool - Comparisons and Growth.