What Students KNOW

The Growth & Achievement prism uses STAR Assessment data to display a student’s current achievement and potential for growth. This display informs educators not only of student performance and growth over time, but also of how much growth is required to reach or maintain proficiency.

As a student takes STAR Assessments during the school year, his/her scaled scores display against a backdrop of cut scores associated with the proficiency categories on the end-of-year state achievement test. (Cut scores were determined by linking STAR scaled scores to scaled scores on state summative tests.)

STAR scaled scores relate to a given Student Growth Percentile (SGP). STAR SGPs compare a student’s growth to that of his/her academic peers from the same grade nationwide and reflect data from 12 school years and millions of students. SGPs operate on a 1 to 99 point scale, with 50 representing typical growth. In the prism visual, the yellow band represents growth possibilities between 35 and 65 SGP — a band identified by many states as indicating a range of typical growth. Scores in the red band indicate below typical growth (SGPs between 5 and 34). Scores in the green band indicate above typical growth (SGPs between 66 and 95).

The prism visual—originally created by Dr. Damian Betebenner (National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment)—is in use in several states and was adapted for use with STAR. Betebenner also first developed SGPs, in partnership with the Colorado Department of Education.

What Students LIKE

The data for What Kids Are Reading comes from an annual survey of student reading habits. The survey is based on the Accelerated Reader database, which includes book-reading records for over 9.8 million students from 31,633 U.S. schools who read more than 330 million books during the 2013–2014 school year. For ease in searching, book search results are capped at the top 100 books that meet the selected filter criteria.

How Students LEARN

The Learning Progression comprises a continuum of expected learning, beginning with emergent reading and early numeracy skills and progressing to the level of competence required for college and careers. Educators may use this tool as a road map to chart skills a student has mastered and explore those the student is ready to learn next.

Within the Learning Progression, skills are interconnected and related, formed from requisites and prerequisites, and represent how students typically advance their learning in a subject area. “Learning progressions that clearly articulate a progression of learning in a domain can provide the big picture of what is to be learned, support instructional planning, and act as a touchstone for formative assessment” (Heritage, 2008, p. 1).†

It should be noted that skills in a learning progression are not meant to be taught sequentially; rather, a student’s placement on a learning progression begins with a student’s score from a standardized test of achievement, such as a STAR Assessment. This information then helps orient student and teacher to where the student has been, where the student is headed, and the skills with which they may need guidance in order to arrive at their destination successfully.

^† Heritage, M. (2008). Learning progressions: Supporting instruction and formative assessment. Washington, DC: Council of Chief School Officers. Retrieved from Learning_Progressions_Supporting_2008.pdf