How do I get to this page?
- Log in to Renaissance.
- On the Home page, select Star Reading; in the drop-down menu, select Manage Targets & Benchmarks.
- On the Targets & Benchmarks page, select Set a Target.
Who can do this with default user permissions?
- School Network Level Administrators: can work with targets for all students in the school network
- School Level Administrators: can work with targets for all students in their own school
- Teachers: can work with targets for their own students
Targets are set at the individual student level. When you set a Scaled Score target for Reading, you set a target Scaled Score that you want the student(s) to reach and a time frame for them to achieve that target.
Scaled Score (SS) and Student Growth Percentile (SGP)
Scaled Scores (SS) are calculated based on the difficulty of questions in a student's test and the number of correct responses. They can be used to compare student performance over time and across years. Star Reading Scaled Scores range from 0–1400.
Student Growth Percentile (SGP) compares a student's growth to that of his or her academic peers nationwide. Lower numbers indicate lower relative growth, and higher numbers indicate higher relative growth. SGP scores range from 1–99.
For more information, see Star Reading on the Unified Scale and What are Student Growth Percentiles?
- On the Set a Goal page, use the School , Class , and Students drop-down lists to choose which students to set the goal for.
- You can only choose a single school or class at a time; if you only have access to a single school or class, you will not need to make a selection.
- For students, you can use the Select All / Clear All link at the bottom of the drop-down list to tick or un-tick all the students at once.
- In the "Type of target" section, use the drop-down lists and select Reading for the target category and Scaled Score Unified for the target type.
Once you have selected a Scaled Score target type, you will see a Target-Setting Wizard on the right side of the page. This wizard will provide you with guidance on the duration and name of your intervention target and how to get more information about students' assessment results and research. Use the buttons in the wizard to step through the information, and watch it for tips as you complete the target-setting steps.
- After you make those selections, the "Set target options" section of the page will open. Select the Target start and end dates drop-down list and choose the marking period during which the students should be working towards this target (the dates for the marking periods are also shown next to their names).
If you choose a marking period, the target time period will be tied to that marking period; if changes are made to the marking period, the target time period will change with it.
- Enter a name for the target or intervention .
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Initially, you will set a single target level for all the selected students (but you will be able to change individual student targets later if you wish). Select one of the levels presented here: Moderate (50 SGP), Moderately Ambitious (65 SGP), or Ambitious (75 SGP) .
- Once you have set the target options, select Apply .
- At the bottom of the page, you will see a table with all the selected students—each student's Scaled Score (from their most recent test) is shown, along with a calculated target (based on the level you chose and the date you want the student to reach the target by —students who have not taken a test yet will still have a calculated target, but it will be based on a Scaled Score that a student in that year would typically have at the start of a school year instead of an actual Scaled Score).
The Scaled Score target levels (calculated based on the target levels you selected earlier) are already entered in the Target fields —you can keep these values or change them if you wish. For guidance in choosing a Scaled Score, see “Unified Benchmarks and Cut Scores” for Star Reading.
If the selected target level is below the Scaled Score from the student's latest test, a Below latest test message will appear in the Target column, indicating that a higher target needs to be set for that student.
Students who already have a Scaled Score Unified target set for a time period that overlaps this one will appear in bold in this table, with an asterisk following their names, and a separate table below will list the overlapping targets for those students.
You can still set new targets for these students, or, if you prefer, you can go back and edit or delete the existing targets on the Targets & Benchmarks page. If you do not want to set new targets for these students or change the existing ones, choose Change Selection at the top of the page and deselect the students who have overlapping targets.Scaled Score target calculations are not supported for all years; if you calculate a Scaled Score Unified Target for a student who has not taken a Star Reading assessment yet and the calculated value of the target is 1, that student’s year is among those not supported.
Have the student take a Star Reading assessment before setting a Scaled Score Unified Target. The target will be based off the student’s test score instead of their year.
- Once you have set Scaled Score targets for all the students, select Save Targets (or select Cancel to leave this page without saving these targets).