For Print assessments, both the teacher and the student are using printed forms. The teacher marks incorrect answers and the last item attempted, and writes notes on the teacher form. The student uses the form to answer questions verbally. After the assessment, the teacher enters the scores in the software.
It's a good idea to read through the instructions for the assessment on the teacher form before you begin these steps so that you don't need to do so at the beginning of the assessment.
Star CBM assessments can be administered by any adult who has some experience working on academic material with students — current and retired teachers, para-educators, academic subject-area coaches, administrators, or experienced volunteers. The only requirement is that the adult can read the instructions aloud to the student and score responses as correct/incorrect as described in the instructions for each measure. No special training is required.
Who can do this with the standard user permissions?
District Level Administrators, District Staff, School Level Administrators, School Staff, Teachers
Follow the steps below to administer a printed assessment. (For Encoding assessments, the steps are different; see the separate instructions for those assessments.)
- If the cell for a student and measure has three dots and no score, this is the student's first assessment on the measure in this school year. Select the cell; then, select Start or Print Assessment. You can select the recommended screening measure or another measure.
If the cell already shows a score, when you select the cell, you will see the student's past scores from this school year. Select Start or Print Assessment in the popup window.
If you want to administer Rapid Automatic Naming assessments, you must select Encoding, Rapid Naming above the table to find and start assessments for those measures.
- The next page lets you choose the assessment format: Online, Mixed Format, or Print. Select Print.
If you are administering a Passage Oral Reading assessment, check the grade level of the passage selected in the Passage Level drop-down list. If you need to assess the student on a different grade level, use the drop-down list to change it. (Benchmarks are only available for the student's designated grade level; a note will remind you of this if you choose another grade level.)
For Sight and High-Frequency Words assessments, use the Word Level drop-down list to choose the grade level of the words on the assessment. The student's grade is selected by default. Note: The student can only take one Sight and High-Frequency Words assessment at their grade level each season. Once the student has taken that assessment, their grade level is not available in the drop-down list until the next season. Progress monitoring isn't available at the student's grade level, but students can take multiple assessments at other grade levels.
- Click Next >.
- The Student and Teacher Forms message will open:
If you have preprinted both the student and teacher forms (see Preprinting Star CBM Forms), find the student and teacher forms with the form identifier shown in this message (LS: Form 17 in the example above). (Note:If you mark scoring information on the teacher form, you may need to print that form again.) Then, select Got It and continue with the next step.
If you do not have the printed forms, select Print Forms. The forms will be downloaded as a PDF file; make sure popups are allowed so that the file downloads properly. Open the PDF file and print the forms. If you are printing forms for Rapid Color Naming or Rapid Picture Naming, use a color printer. Note: If the student is using braille files, you will see different options; see Braille Assessments for more information.
When you're done printing, in the Student and Teacher Forms message, select Got It.
Phoneme Segmentation does not have a student form; you only need a teacher form for Phoneme Segmentation assessments.
- You will go back to the Star Record Book and the CBM Assessments tab, where you will see the words "Enter Scores" for the student and measure.
- For Phoneme Segmentation and Rapid Automatic Naming assessments, note the practice questions that are in the instructions on the teacher form. Have the student try the practice before starting the actual assessment.
- Have a timer ready for the assessment. When you are ready to administer it, start the timer and administer the assessment to the student using the paper forms. Stop the assessment after 60 seconds (or 90 seconds for Rapid Color Naming only) if the student has not answered all questions. If the student answers all questions before time runs out, note the time. (Accurate times are important for accurate scores.) Be careful to mark each error the student made and make any notes you would like to record.
- After the assessment, select Enter Scores for the student and measure. Note that the form identifier is once again shown for the assessment in case you need to confirm which form was used. Select Enter Scores again in the popup window to begin scoring.
- The scoring page will open. First, check the date to the left. By default, today's date will be shown. If you administered the assessment before today, select
next to the date field and select the date when you administered the assessment.
- Next, enter the time the assessment took. In most cases, unless the student answered all questions before time ran out, the time will be the default - 60 seconds (90 seconds for Rapid Color Naming only). Be careful to note the time accurately; incorrect times (especially very low times) will cause inaccurate scores.
- For most assessments, click any items that the student answered incorrectly. The item will be shaded in red and will have a red X under it.
Enter any notes that you have about the student's performance in the Notes field at the top of the page (error trends, observations, effort, etc.).
For Receptive Nonsense Words only, click the student's answer to each question. The software will mark the answer correct or incorrect. - After entering the date, time, and notes and marking or entering answers, select Next.
- Next, you will be asked to click the last item the student attempted. Click the item.
- Select whether the assessment was administered in person (with both the teacher and student in the same location) or remotely (with the teacher and student in different locations using an internet meeting). This information is available when you export data later if your school or district requires it.
- If braille was generated for the student assessment, choose the braille format that was used (or "Print" if the generated braille files were not used). The choices will vary depending on the formats available for the assessment.
- Verify the information you have entered. When you're done, select Save at the top of the page.
If you are administering Passage Oral Reading to a student in grade 4, 5, or 6, and you chose to administer an extra passage, you will see a Save and Continue button instead of Save. When you click Save and Continue, you can enter the scoring information for the second passage as described above.
- You will go back to the CBM English Assessments tab in the Star Record Book. At first, you will see "Score Pending" with a refresh icon where the student's score will be.
After a few minutes, the score will be available. You can selectto refresh the view to see if the score is available yet.
When the score is available, you will see it in the Record Book.
If you select the score, you can see the date the assessment was taken. The popup window shows you the scores and dates for the student's last four assessments for this measure during this school year. Select Details for an assessment to go back and see the items answered incorrectly, your notes, and the time taken for the assessment. Select the progress link at the bottom of the window to see a graph and table of all results for the student and measure in this school year.