We know that STAR provides excellent information for a teacher regarding their students’ and classes’ particular strengths and weaknesses and suggestions as to what are the next instructional steps to take on both levels. However, a question pops up at times regarding whether the instructional directions implied by an analysis of STAR results will optimally benefit the student and school …
“A BAD NUMBER IS WORSE THAN NO NUMBER AT ALL” A short story: On a trip to London, I throw caution and budget to the wind and head into the shop of one of the finest tailors on Seville Row to have a new suit made. After the initial pleasantries, the tailor asks me what my color and style preferences …
Starting with the 2022-23 school year Renaissance will only reference the Unified Scale score for SEL, SR and SM Assessments (English and Spanish). Imagine School will transition to the use of the Unified Scale Score as the default scale score for all reports for the 2021-2022 school year. What does that mean to me? First: What will NOT change on …
As part of the steadfast support that we provide our family of 55 campuses across the country, the Imagine Schools National Organization partners with various groups to provide our schools with proven solutions that accelerate student learning. One such partnership is with Renaissance and STAR Assessments. Since 2014, Renaissance has provided our teachers with the critical data needed to assess …
Previous studies conducted on the results of the STAR spring window assessments and the various state tests have demonstrated a high and consistent relationship in all of the states in which Imagine has a presence (see my first blog post“ How Optimizing Performance on STAR Relates to State Assessments”). Therefore, the issues discussed in this blog post will be based …
This question really cuts to the core of our understanding of computer adaptive assessments such as STAR as well as the instructional use and interpretation of grade level standards. Computer Adaptive Tests (CAT): The assessment tool adopted by Imagine Schools (STAR by Renaissance Learning) is a CAT. This means that it is designed to adjust the level of difficulty of …
Imagine has been using the concept of student growth for many years as an integral part of its educational philosophy and the basis of its school and teacher evaluation and accountability program. Indeed, Imagine has been a leader in the trend away from relying solely on static performance measures to utilizing measures of student gain. The structure of the learning …
The subject of Growth and Proficiency has been coming up in the literature a lot lately. This may be a good thing for us, as Imagine has been leading the call to focus on student growth rather than proficiency for a long time now. Matt Barnum, in a recent article in the74million.org, took the opportunity to explain why the growth-versus-proficiency …
