Products: Accelerated Reader, Star CBM, Star Early Literacy, Star Math, Star Reading
Platform: Macintosh, Windows
Last Updated: 4/11/2022
Issue
Tips on using your Renaissance software during summer school
Note to Custom Data Integration (CDI) users: If you have arranged for this service, our Data Integration Specialists have set up CDI on your Renaissance database server to automatically link your student information system (SIS) data to the Renaissance database. Contact a Specialist to discuss how to set up your Renaissance database for summer school. Do not follow the steps in this article since most of them are not necessary.
Resolution
Most districts consider summer sessions to be part of the previous school year. If this is the case for you, wait until after all summer sessions are over before setting the school year dates for the new school year. This is especially important if you will be testing students in the Star programs over the summer, since norm-referenced scores are based on a student's grade placement (a calculated value that includes the student's grade and their percentage of completion of the school year when they took a test). When you move ahead to the new school year, all students' grades will go up by one. Learn more about grade placement and how Star Assessments taken in the summer months affect a student's fall SGP score.
Adjusting your school year and marking period dates
If students will be using Renaissance software during the summer, simply create a new marking period to keep the records separate for reporting purposes. For example, perhaps your 2024-2025 school year ends on 5/22/25, and students attend summer school from 6/2/25 to 7/25/25. You could extend your current school year to end on 7/25/25 and create a new Summer Session marking period with the dates 6/2/25 to 7/25/25.
TIP: If you use any of the Date and Time Restrictions preferences, you'll want to check those at each school to make sure the dates include your summer session.
Setting up new classes
The existing classes can be used for summer school, but you may find it more convenient to add new classes since the student enrollments and teacher assignments will probably change.
NOTE: Adding additional school enrollments may also mean that additional capacity will be claimed unintentionally. Renaissance suggests creating new summer school classes in schools where the students are already enrolled as mentioned above to avoid duplicate capacity consumption.
When you are ready, learn how to accurately set the dates for this school year and the next one.