1
Accelerated Reader and
STAR 360 Report Instructions
Also go to:
for ideas on effective implementation and to access a Dropbox of shared AR resources for all grade levels.
Jenny Angelo –Executive Director of Curriculum & Instruction
My user name is: ______
My password is: ______
The Basics of Logging In
On a district computer, type net/ar in the address line at the top. Look for the blue link with the paper icon next to it --- that is the one to select to get to the log in page for our district intranet.
Do NOT type net/ar in Google or click the search magnifying glass at the end of the address bar. It will bring you to a server other than BISD's (for example, Laredo's server) which looks identical to ours other than the server number. On many occasions, teachers and students will claim their log in "isn't working," but 99% of the time it is because they are logging in on a home page that looks just like ours.
Alternate method:
Here is the direct address for our district server to get to the AR/STAR log in:
See that number at the end of the address line? (234989) That number is only for the BISD Renaissance Learning server. If there is a different number showing in the address bar, then you have accessed the server of another district, and your log in information will not work.
Suggestion: Type it in once on your computer at home and save as a Favorite.
At any time if you find yourself locked out of your account because you can't remember your password, there should be someone on campus who oversees this program (such as a CC, librarian, lead reading teacher), and they can easily unlock you.
STAR 360 -- What is it??
STAR 360 is a set of nationally norm-referenced screening tools for reading, math, and early literacy.
We are requiring three universal screens throughout the school year in reading and math. The dates for the 2018 - 2019 school year are as follows:
- Beginning of Year: Aug. 20 - 31
- Mid-Year: Jan. 8 - 25
- End-of-Year: May 1 - 22
Ideally, the universal screening window should be no longer than two weeks in length, meaning that all district students would screen in reading and math, grades K - 8 within that window. This allows us to have an excellent collection point of data which can be easily compared to prior and current year screens.
With STAR 360, you can also progress monitor identified students. The recommendation would be to progress monitor all Tier III students every three weeks and Tier II students every nine weeks. However, you are welcome to monitor them more frequently.
What does STAR 360 have to do with Accelerated Reader?
STAR 360 ties in seamlessly to Accelerated Reader to give you guidance in setting student reading goals. Using the screening data, along with the information put in by the teacher (the grading period dates and the number of minutes of required daily reading), an individualized reading goal for each student will be generated as a guideline to begin conferencing one-on-one with students.
It is important that students have ownership in the goal-setting process. This should occur within on-going student conferences to review progress toward goals, adjust goals if needed, provide guidance to students, and as an opportunity to discuss student reading challenges and successes.
ZPD - Zone of Proximal Development This is the range at which a student will be most successful reading independently.
The screening assessment determines a student’s reading level against nationally norm-referenced data and places the student in one of four categories:
At/Above Benchmark (reading at or above 40th percentile)
On Watch – close to grade level but not yet there – below 40th percentile)
Intervention – (below 25th percentile)
Urgent Intervention (below 10th percentile)
Checking STAR 360 Screening Results
1. Sign in to the Renaissance Learning dashboard.
2. To check on the STAR Reading screen results, click on the blue Reading Assessments square.
3. Click on Reports and then Screening. Click on the Grade Level.
4. Select the screening window from the drop down menu.
5. Click all the colored boxes as well as the Not Tested box so they each have check marks.
6. Click View Report. This will show you many things --
- You will see a colored graph showing where the students in that grade level placed on the screener. This is important to monitor throughout the year. We want the red and yellow areas to continually diminish as instruction occurs throughout the year. If reading instruction is effective, you will see this occur gradually with each universal screen (for example, when comparing the Sept. screen to the Dec. screen).
- You will then see the list of students in that grade level who are placed in Urgent Intervention, Intervention, On Watch, and At/Above Benchmark based on the screen. You will use this data, as well as other pieces of data such as prior year STAAR scores and other screening results, to implement the Response to Intervention process with the identified students.
- You will see a list at the end of the report showing how many students have not been tested in this grading period. This is important to know as it will impact the integrity of your data. ALL students who have a sight vocabulary of at least 100 words should be tested with STAR Reading so their progress can be monitored. Those students who are considered non-readers would need to select the Early Literacy assessment as their screen. You would then need to ensure that these students are tested within the testing window.
STAR 360 - Quickly See How Close Your Campus Is to Completing a Screen
When we are in the middle of a screening window, it would be beneficial to see which grade levels are complete and which are not.
1. Go to either the blue Reading Assessment or Math Assessment box on the home page.
2. Click on Screening, Progress Monitoring, and Intervention.
3. Be sure you are on the Screening Status tab. It will indicate how close to completion each grade level is during a universal screen window.
4. You will also need to do this with the Early Literacy button, particularly at the lower grade levels. Otherwise, it may show that you are lacking in results for 1st grade, for example, in the regular STAR Reading screening when actually it may be that you have a significant number of students who needed the Early Literacy screen instead due to their lack of reading skills.
STAR 360 - Class or Individual Student Diagnostic Report
To acquire a detailed diagnostic report on how the student scored in each domain of the screener:
1. Go to either the blue Reading Assessment box or Math Assessment box on the home page.
2. Click Reports. Click Diagnostic.
3. To select an individual student, click on the Student link, then checkmark the student(s) whose reports you wish to view.
4. Click Save Selection, and allow the report to generate.
Please note: This is also a great report to pull because in the upper right hand corner, it will tell you how long it took the student to complete the screen. This can be helpful in determining if the results are accurate or if the student rushed through the test. On the average, the screen takes between 15 - 20 min. to complete; some students who are proficient or higher make take a little less time. A student who only takes 6 minutes, for example, and scores in the red or yellow, may need to be retested.
STAR 360 - Instructional Planning - Whole Class Groupings
Teachers are able to group students within a class based on their screening results. This also shows an administrator the varied levels within a classroom so you can better monitor if differentiation is in place to meet those varied needs.
1. Click on the Reading Assessment or Math Assessment box on the home page.
2. Click on Reports. Click on Instructional Planning - Class.
3. Select the teacher's class, then let the date default to today's current date.
4. You should then see all students in that class and their most recent screening results.
5. The teacher can then group these students, click Preview Report, and see an instructional plan generated for each grouping.
To create an Instructional Plan for just one student:
1. Go to the blue Reading Assessment or Math Assessment box on the home page.
2. Click Reports. Click Instructional Planning - Student
3. Select a student using the blue Student link, check next to the student or students.
4. Click Save Selection, then View Report.
To Acquire Instructional Resources to Address the Needs of Each Student
1. Go to the blue Reading Assessment or Math Assessment box on the home page.
2. Click on Resources.
3. You will see a vast array of resources to help you better understand the STAR 360 program.
4. Click on Enter Core Progress.
5. Choose a domain along the left, scroll to the grade level you want, then click on the skill in that grade level.
6. Click on View Instructional Resource to see the offerings.
Accelerated Reader (AR 360) -- What is it??
AR 360 is the computerized book quiz program that our district has been using for years. Our goal is to implement this program with fidelity on each campus as it has been proven to increase student reading engagement and positively impact reading levels if it is implemented correctly.
AR 360 includes an additional component -- an instructional library of informational texts. Teachers can assign informational text articles to students. The students can then access the articles on a computer, tablet, or iPad. Activities are embedded within each article where students are able to respond to prompts in a text box using text evidence, highlight key concepts, and take a short quiz over the text information. This is a terrific addition to a reading or ELA classroom and would also be a great tool for tutorial sessions.
Accelerated Reader Reports and Tracking Tools
Setting and Checking Point Goals
*Remember, you must first administer the STAR Universal Screen in order to accurately generate individualized, attainable goals for each student.
This is where you will be able to input goals at the beginning of each nine weeks and modify a student's goal if needed.
1. Click on the orange Accelerated Reader square on your AR teacher home page.
2. Click on Records Books and Goals. Choose the class period and then Reading Practice Goals.
If you are inputting goals for the first time in a nine weeks, do the following:
- Choose a Marking Period – go to the Select Marking Period link, select the current nine weeks, then Save
- Select the Average % Goal (85%)
- Select the Minutes of Daily Reading – for example 25 minutes --- you can adjust this for individual students; selecting 20 min. would decrease the goal slightly.
- Click - Update all students
- Review the report generated at the bottom which shows –
- Suggested ZPD (zone where they can read comfortably; you may allow students to go above or below this zone at your discretion)
- We want them to strive to get 85% or better on quizzes
- Under Points, you will see a Goal column – this is where you begin the conference/negotiation with your student. AR is telling us that based on the STAR assessment, this is what they should be able to earn comfortably in a grading period if they read 25 minutes per day.
For example, at a middle school campus, the standard “homework reading” might be to complete 100 min. of outside reading every week – can be broken up to best fit the student. That would equal 4 days of reading, 25 min. per day. Add to that the two in-class SSR reading sessions they would get on Tues/Thurs which is two more 25 min. sessions = total of 6 days @ 25 min. per day = 150 min. of potential reading time. Reading level gains will not be seen unless campuses, students, and teachers commit to making reading a priority.
3. Once you conference with your student at either the end of a grading period or the beginning of one, you write down the agreed-upon goal on their reading log and adjust the points goal into the Goal column then Save. Many teachers have found that printing out the goal page before conferencing with students is helpful. It gives you the student names and suggested goals for that class, and you can then write on it, make goal adjustments, etc. for each in the class. When done, you would go through the goal setting page and input/update goals all at one time for the grading period.
Student Record
This report will show you everything that the student has read this year (or any other year). You will be able to see the book title, book level, the score the student made on each quiz and how many points earned.
This report is great for verifying the book titles read and points earned in a grading period and is one to print when having parent conferences so the parent can see exactly when and what was tested over.
1. Click on the orange Independent Reading square on your AR teacher home page.
2. Click on Reports and then Reading Practice. Click on Student Record.
Within this report, there are several things you can do. First of all UNcheck everything but English Reading Practice Quizzes in the Quiz Type section (most teachers don't use any of the other activities; if you do, then only check the ones you want to have on the report).
3. Next, pick the data parameters for your report. You can make the report start in 2014 or whatever year you choose in order to see what the student has read over the last few years. You can set the date range for just a certain nine weeks or for a week ago; it just depends on what info you need. For progress report time, for example, you would set the date range as the first day of the current nine weeks and the Friday that ends the progress report grading period -- pull that record, and you can see what the student has accomplished in that time period.
4. Select the class period you wish to view, or allow it to show you all class periods at one time.
To generate a Student Record for a particular nine weeks, go to the Report Period section and click on the drop-down menu. Choose a nine weeks and then click View Report to see it.
Diagnostic Reading Practice
*You must first enable and set student goals for the grading period before this will be a useful report.
This is the report to use when you want to see how many points a student has earned, how close they are to their Point Goal progress, and their quiz average grade. You will generate this report to find the grades to input into the grade book.
Parents check the gradebook online frequently to see what the current AR grade is for their child, so it is important to update that information regularly (many campuses have a guideline to update at the end of the 2nd week of the grading period and then weekly after that). DO NOT wait to input AR grades until the end of the grading period as this doesn't give the student time to rectify the problem if he/she has not been reading.
For example: Your campus has a policy that students are required to read ____ minutes per week or per night at home. If three weeks has gone by and the child has earned no AR points yet, that is evidence of NO outside reading; therefore, no homework is being done (the exception is for a highly proficient reader with a long book that would take more than three weeks to finish). This should be indicated in the AR grades so parents can see that this task is not being accomplished.
1. Click on the orange Accelerated Reader square on your AR teacher home page.
2. Click on Reports and then Reading Practice. Click on Diagnostic - Reading Practice.
3. Select a class period in the Select Students section. Click on the dates for the report. To generate grades for a current grading period, select that grading period from the drop down menu. This is important, or it will not accurately show the goals and progress toward them.
*If a student takes quizzes in two different classes, for example in a regular Reading class and a Dyslexia class, checking the box next to Use Only Quizzes for a Specific Class will ONLY show you the quizzes that students have taken under your name for your class. If you leave this unchecked, it will show you ALL the quizzes the students have taken in your class or in any Reading Improvement/Dyslexia class they may be taking.
How do I give grades for this? (Be sure to follow your campus policies for using grades with Accelerated Reader. What follows is a suggestion that could be adapted as a campus policy.)
Create a separate AR column in your gradebook and weight it according to district guidelines.