1. Formative Assessments Director, Assessment and Accountability
Repeat Testing
Cathy C. McNeal, Ed.D.
Director, Assessment and Accountability
May 1, 2014

2. Formative Assessments Two Primary Purposes
Formative assessments provides educators with quick and accurate estimates of students’ instructional levels relative to national norms.
Formative assessments provides the means for tracking growth in a consistent manner over long time periods for all students.

3. Formative Assessment’s unique powers of flexibility and repeatability provide specific advantages for various groups:
For students, formative assessments provides a challenging, interactive, and brief test that builds confidence in their math and/or reading ability.
For teachers, formative assessments facilitates individualized instruction by identifying students’ current developmental levels and areas for growth.
For administrators, formative assessments provides regular, accurate reports on performance at the class, grade, building, and district level, as well as year-to-year comparison.
For district administrators, formative assessments furnishes a wealth of reliable and timely data on student growth at each school and throughout the district.
It also provides a valid basis for comparing data across schools, grades, and special student populations.

4. Formative Assessment Test Length
Star Formative Assessment is 25 items
The length of time to complete the assessment varies by student.
Half of the students at every grade will complete the assessment in less than 9 minutes
The slowest grade (grade 1) 95% of students finish in less than 15 minutes.

5. Adaptive Branching Effectively customize the test for EACH student’s achievement level
“Paper-and-pencil test” = one test fits ALL
Adaptive Branching
Testing time decreases
Using computer-adaptive procedures, it is possible for students to test on items that appropriately match their current level of proficiency.
The use of Item Response Theory (IRT) permits more accurate calibration by adjusting item difficulty to the responses of the individual being tested while striving to minimize test length and student frustration.

6. Dawson 4th Grade Student STAR Benchmark and Progress Monitoring for 2013-14
Current Grade
Student Assessment ID
Assessment Date
Grade Placement
Screening Category
Window Name 4
Dawson 4th Grade Student A
9/9/ :51
4.02
At/Above Benchmark
Fall Sept 9, 2013
10/4/ :19
4.11
At/Above Benchmark – Progress Monitoring
10/21/ :04
4.16
11/1/ :48
4.2
11/15/ :38
4.24
12/10/ :28
4.33
1/8/2014 8:38
4.42
Winter Jan. 6, 2014
2/21/ :44
4.56
3/13/ :21
4.64
4/3/ :15
4.7
4/16/2014 8:46
4.75
Spring April 14, 2014

7. What is Student Growth Proficiency
What is Student Growth Proficiency? Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) are a norm-referenced quantification of individual student growth derived using quantile regression techniques. An SGP compares a student’s growth to that of his or her academic peers nationwide.

8. Test Repetition
The frequency with which the assessment is administered depends on the purpose for assessment and how the data will be used.
Huntsville City Schools Benchmark is 3 times a year.
Teachers who want to monitor student progress more closely or use the data for instructional planning may use it more frequently (as frequently as weekly for progress monitoring purposes).
STAR keeps track of the questions presented to each student from test session to test session and will not ask the same question more than once in and 90-day period.

9. STAR Test Administrator Standardized Assessment Procedures
Students may be retested during BENCHMARK Assessment Window, if the STAR Building Test Coordinator approves the retesting reason.
Multiple testing of a student during a test window usually lowers the student’s score.
STAR assessments will remain in the database for 24 hours.

11. Sample of Repeat Testing in STAR Math during a Benchmark Window
Current Grade
Student Assessment ID
Assessment Date
Grade Placement
Grade
Scaled Score
Time to take the STAR Math Assessment 4
Student 1
4/15/ :03
4.74
795
12 minutes 47 seconds
4/15/ :30
794
10 minutes
54 seconds