Mixed Star CBM Assessments – Star Help

For Mixed assessments, only the teacher uses the computer. The student uses a paper form and answers questions aloud. The teacher sees instructions in addition to the form, and the teacher can start a timer, mark incorrect answers, mark the last item attempted, and enter notes.

It's a good idea to read through the instructions for the assessment before you begin these steps so that you don't need to do so at the beginning of the student assessment session.

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 mixed assessment:

If the cell for a student and measure has three dots and no score, this is the student's first assessment for this measure during 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 first. 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. (Encoding assessments are print only and have different steps.)
the Encoding, Rapid Naming option

The next page lets you choose the assessment format: Online, Mixed Format, or Print. Select Mixed Format.
If audio recording is allowed by the district Star CBM - Audio Recordings preference and the student Star CBM - Record Audio preference, after you select the Mixed format, you'll see a check box below the format. If you want to record audio of the assessment from your computer (the teacher's computer), check the box. (Note: Make sure that your browser settings and operating system settings allow access to the microphone and audio recording; some browsers may ask permission to use your microphone each time.)
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 Passage Oral Reading in grades 4 through 6, you'll also see an Extra Passage drop-down list. If you choose Yes, please! in this drop-down list, your student will get an additional passage (this one non-fiction) that is being tested for future inclusion in Star CBM Reading, and in step 4 below, you'll receive two different student forms. Administrations of these passages help Renaissance evaluate their reliability and validity. Once you enter results, you will not see the score for the extra passage in Star CBM since the passage is still being evaluated.
example of the Extra Passage drop-down list

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.
the Word Level drop-down list for Sight and High Frequency Words

Click Next >.
The Student Form message that opens gives you a few choices.

Print Form

If you do not have the printed form, select Print Form. The student form 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 form. 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.

After printing the file, in the Student Form message, select Begin Assessment or Assess Later.

Begin Assessment

If you have preprinted all forms, use the form number shown in the message (POR-G1: Form 18 in the example above) to find the student form that will be used for this assessment (see Preprinting Star CBM Forms to preprint forms). Then, select Begin Assessment.

Note: For Phoneme Segmentation, select Begin Assessment; Phoneme Segmentation does not have a student form.

Assess Later

If you don't want to begin the assessment right now, select Assess Later. You will return to the CBM English Assessments tab in the Star Record Book, and you will see the words "In Progress" for the student and measure. When you're ready to administer the assessment, select In Progress. Then, select Start. (Note that the form ID is shown in the popup window in case you want to use a preprinted form.)
select In Progress in the grid, then Start in the popup

Phoneme Segmentation and Rapid Automatic Naming assessments require student practice before the assessment; see the instructions below. For other measures, go on to step 8.
For Phoneme Segmentation, read the instructions, then select Begin Practice. Ask the student the practice questions. If the student has finished the practice successfully, select Continue to Full Assessment. (If you want to cancel instead, select Cancel Assessment in the top left corner.)
For Rapid Automatic Naming assessments, you will be asked to have the student practice with the first five items on the form before you start; refer to the instructions, and if the student cannot pass the practice, cancel the assessment.
Read the instructions for the assessment. Often there are instructions to read aloud to the student before the assessment. The instructions also include tips on how to prompt the student if necessary and when to mark items incorrect.
If you have chosen to record audio, and you have not recorded a Star CBM assessment before, follow these steps to test your microphone:

Select Test your microphone just below the Begin button.
A test window will open. Select the red microphone icon to begin recording; then, ask your student to count to 5. When you're done, select the red stop icon.
Then, press the play button and listen to your recording (your browser's controls may look different from the example below). If the recording is acceptable and you want to continue, select Done. If you want to try another test, select Test Again. If you decide not to record audio, select Do Not Record.

Note: Test recordings are not saved in the software.

When you're ready to continue, select Begin.
After a 3-second countdown, the assessment will begin, and the timer at the top of the page will begin counting down.
If you've chosen to record the assessment, you'll see "Recording" under the timer.

For most assessments, when the student answers or pronounces an item incorrectly, you click that item. The item will be shaded in red and will have a red X under it.

For Receptive Nonsense Words, click the student's answer to each question. The software will mark the selected answer correct (green) or incorrect (red).

If you need to pause briefly for any reason during the test, select Pause next to the timer or press the space bar.
the Pause and Cancel Assessment options
If you need to stop the assessment, select Cancel Assessment under the student name and measure name in the top left corner of the page.

Have the student continue to answer the items until the time runs out. 5 seconds before time runs out, the time will turn red and a red border will flash around it. (If the student finishes all items before the time runs out, select Finish when the student is done.)
example of the red text and border when time is almost up

When time runs out, you'll hear a bell. After this, you will be asked to click the last item the student attempted. Click on the item.

After you select the item, you will see the assessment details, including the items you marked incorrect.

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.
If you want to change the items marked incorrect, select Edit (see Editing Scores).
If you want to enter notes about the student's assessment session (error trends, observations, effort, etc.), enter them in the Notes field to the right.
If you chose to record audio, you will see a "Processing audio" message on the left until the audio is done. To ensure that audio is saved, wait for audio to finish processing before you go on to select Done. (If you select Done before then, you'll see a message telling you that audio processing has not completed.) When processing is done, you'll see your browser's audio controls, and you can play the audio (or remove it using the icon).

Note: If audio processing takes longer than 1 minute, a message will let you decide whether to save the assessment results without the audio or to continue waiting for processing.
When you're done checking the information and entering notes, select Done.

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 Done. When you click Save and Continue, the second passage will begin; repeat the steps above to administer it.

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 select to refresh the view and 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 (the link is not available for Field Test assessments).