Renaissance Star Reading

SubscalesⓘList of subscales (if applicable)

Single test covering word reading, vocabulary and comprehension.

Publisher

Renaissance Star Assessments

Test source

http://www.renlearn.co.uk/star-reading/

Guidelines available?ⓘAdministration guidelines available to the review team

Yes

Norm-referenced scores

Yes

Age rangeⓘSpecific population and age range that publisher states the test is intended/​suitable for. 

6 – 8 years

Key Stage

Key Stage 1

UK standardisation sample

Yes

Publication date

2019

Re-norming date

N/​a

Additional information about what the test measures

Reading comprehension

Are additional versions available?

This is the 3^rd version of Star Reading. It is the first to be designed as a standards based test to align to UK national curriculum.

Can subtests be administered in isolation?

N/​a

Administration Group Size

Small group, Whole class

Administration duration

15 – 30 minutes

Description of materials needed to administer test

Computer or tablet

Any special testing conditions?

No

Is any prior knowledge/training/profession accreditation required for administration?

No

Is administration scripted?

N/​a

Rating Construct

Does it reflect the multidimensionality of the subject?

Generic literacy

Construct validity comments (and reference for source)

The technical manual indicates strong face validity (content validity) — constructs are based on UK national curriculum, TIMSS data, US curricular documents etc. Item Response Theory was used during development. Items that do not correlate well are excluded. Structural validity is indexed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, which indicate excellent fit with single scale for Years 7 – 13. Concurrent validity estimates with the Suffolk reading scale ranged from 0.74 to 0.89 with a median of 0.85 for the total scores, from 0.76 to 0.86 with a median of 0.81 for the standardised scores and from 0.77 to 0.89 with a median of 0.85 for the reading age scores. In the same study, the authors reported overall correlations of 0.83 across years between Star Reading and teacher-created reading assessments. Discriminant validity is confirmed as correlations with Star Maths are generally lower than correlations with other reading measures (e.g. Suffolk Reading Scale), but they are still moderately high, ranging from 0.58 to 0.68.

Rating Reliability

Summarise available comparisons

The technical manual reports multiple measures of reliability with very large UK samples. Internal (generic) reliability calculated by using conditional standard error of measurement statistics. Estimates ranged from 0.94 for Year 1 same to 0.97 for Year 13. Split half reliability estimates showed a range between 0.93 for Year 5 children and 0.97 for Years 12 and 13. Correlations between two different forms of the test (note questions are different every time so this reflect equivalence reliability more than test-retest reliability) taken between 74 and 125 days apart. Year 1: 0.87; Year 2: 0.85; Year 3 0.84; Year 4 0.86; Year 5 0.86; Year 6 0.86; Year 7 0.85; Year 8 0.86; Year 9 0.86; Year 10 0.87; Year 11 0.87; Year 12 0.90; Year 13 0.89. Total 0.90. IRT testing with children in the US stratified to be close to a nationally representative sample. Children took 44 item tests. 2100 items were tested. Items with item correlation with overall score <.30 were discarded. So were items too easy or too difficult, or not showing a Rasch curve. Also items where a distracter showed a positive discrimination.

Sources

Renaissance (2019). Star Assessments for Reading: Technical Manual. London, UK: Renaissance Learning, Inc. Sewell, J., Sainsbury, M., Pyle, K., Keogh, N., & Styles, B. (2007). Renaissance Learning Equating Study. Report.