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.
For most assessments, after you choose to begin an assessment for a student, you will be asked to choose how you plan to administer the assessment.
If you are administering a Passage Oral Reading assessment, use the Passage Level drop-down list if you need to change the grade level of the passage for the assessment. (The default setting is the student's grade.) 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 level is selected by default. Students can only take one Sight and High-Frequency Words assessment at their grade level during each season; after that, you cannot select the student's grade level until the next season. (Progress monitoring is not available at grade level for Sight and High-Frequency Words, but the student can take more than one assessment per season at other grade levels.)
Choose the method that you want to use to administer the assessment to the student; see the descriptions below. For complete instructions for administering an assessment, see one of the following:
For Encoding assessments, the options are different, and only print assessments are available. If you are starting the assessment for one student, you can choose the Word Level from a drop-down list before selecting Next. (For grades K-3, note that the student can only take one assessment at grade level per season, and afterwards that grade is not available; however, you can assess students at other grade levels multiple times per season.) If you are starting the assessment for an entire class, you will see a list of students who will be tested at each grade level.
For Mixed Format and Print assessments, make sure popups are allowed in your browser so that PDF files will be available.
Online
For Online assessments, both the teacher and the student are using a computer or tablet. For most measures, the student simply uses the computer to see the form while providing answers orally. For Receptive Nonsense Words, the student chooses the answer on that form. Teachers also see the student form, but in the teacher view, teachers see instructions, and they can highlight the row students should be viewing (reflected on the student screen), select items that students answered incorrectly, select the last item attempted, enter the time, and enter notes. Only the teacher sees the information that the he or she enters; the student, however, does see the teacher highlighting. Note: Teachers and students can be in different locations (remote administration) as long as they can communicate with video and audio; see Administering Star CBM Remotely and the related Family Guide.
If you choose "Online," you'll see one or more check boxes below the Online option.
- If you want to record the audio of the assessment, check Record audio using student device. This option may not be available if the Star CBM - Audio Recordings preference or the Star CBM - Record Audio preference do not allow audio to be recorded. For more information, see Audio Recordings of Student Assessments.
- If you want the student to be logged out after the assessment, make sure the Log student out after assessment box is checked; if not, remove the check mark so the student will be returned to the Home page instead.
When you're ready to begin, ask the student to log in to the software. Then, select Begin Assessment.
Mixed Format
When you select Mixed Format, teachers see the form on their computer and have the same scoring options that they have in the Online format. Students, however, use a paper form that you print. Note that each student is assigned a different form - be sure to use the selected student's form as described below.
If you select "Mixed Format," you may see a check box below the option; if you want to record the audio of the assessment from the teacher's computer, check the box. This option may not be available if the Star CBM - Audio Recordings preference or the Star CBM - Record Audio preference do not allow audio to be recorded. For more information, see Audio Recordings of Student Assessments.
After selecting "Mixed Format" and choosing whether to record audio, select Next >.
The Student Form message that opens gives you a few choices (note that the options are different for braille assessment forms).
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.
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 ID shown in the Student Form message to find the student form that will be used for this assessment (POR-G1: Form 18 in the example above; 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.
Print: When you select Print, both teachers and students use printed copies of the form; the teacher copy includes instructions for administering the assessment and marking incorrect answers. The form also includes blanks for student and assessment information and notes. The teacher writes down information to enter into the software later. The teacher uses a timer to time the test. Note that each student is assigned a different form - be sure to use the forms for this student's assignment as described below.
Select Next >.
The Student and Teacher Forms message will open (this message offers different options for students using braille assessment forms):
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). 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.
In the Student and Teacher Forms, select Got It.
Phoneme Segmentation does not have a student form; you only need a teacher form for Phoneme Segmentation assessments.