No Data is Better Than Bad Data

National Academic and Character Team Databits

This concept, underlying the Potential Outlier Report and the recent Alerts associated with the report, has inspired a lot of productive conversations regarding assessment and the meaning and use of the results. When we have predominately good data to work with, assessment results are used to provide instructional recommendations, group students, make judgments regarding progress to date, plan for the …

Is STAR Helpful in Increasing my Student’s Performance on the State Test?

National Academic and Character Team Databits

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 …

Renaissance Unified Scale

National Academic and Character Team Databits Leave a Comment

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 …

Red, Green – Why are colors showing differently on various reports?

National Academic and Character Team Databits

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 …

Students raising hands in classroom

STAR and State Assessments for Individuals and Groups

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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 …

Why do students see items on STAR that they are not prepared for?

National Academic and Character Team Databits 11 Comments

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 …

Learning Gain and Student Growth Percentile

National Academic and Character Team Databits 4 Comments

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 …