Scoring Vocabulary Guide

Grades 2-8

In January, your student took his/her STAR Reading and STAR Math computer-adaptive test. This letter helps explain the vocabulary from the Parent Report.

As with any test, many factors can affect a student’s scores. It is important to understand that these test scores provide only a snapshot of how your child is doing in school.  If you have any additional questions regarding your child’s STAR assessment please feel free to contact your child’s teacher or the learning specialist.

Reading Parent Report:

PR: Percentile Rank-(Norm Referenced) The Percentile Rank score compares your child’s test performance with that of other students nationally in the same grade.  The range is from 1-99 and indicates the percentage of other students nationally who obtained scores equal to or lower than the score of a particular student. For example, a student with a percentile rank score of 85 performed as well as or better than 85 percent of other students in the same grade.

Percentile Rank Range (PR Range) indicates the statistical variability in a student’s percentile rank score. For example, a student with a percentile rank range of 32–59 is likely to score within that range if the STAR Reading test is taken again within a short time (i.e., four to six weeks).

IRL: Instructional Reading Level-

The Instructional Reading Level (IRL) is a criterion-referenced score that represents the highest reading level at which your student is at least 80% proficient at recognizing words and comprehending reading material without assistance.

ZPD: Zone of Proximal Development-

The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the reading level range from which the student should be selecting books for optimal growth in reading. It spans reading levels that are appropriately challenging for reading practice.  Professional judgment should be used to adjust the range to fit the ability level of each student, especially with respect to content of books in the ZPD range.

Math Parent Report:

SS: Scaled Score– A scaled score is calculated based on the difficulty of questions and the number of correct responses. Because the same range is used for all students, scaled scores can be used to compare student performance across grade levels. STAR Math scaled scores range from 0 to 1400.

PR: Percentile Rank-(norm referenced) the Percentile Rank score compares your child’s test performance with that of other students nationally in the same grade.  The range is from 1-99 and indicates the percentage of other students nationally who obtained scores equal to or lower than the score of a particular student. For example, a student with a percentile rank score of 85 performed as well as or better than 85 percent of other students in the same grade.

Percentile Rank Range (PR Range) indicates the statistical variability in a student’s percentile rank score. For example, a student with a percentile rank range of 32–59 is likely to score within that range if the STAR Math test is taken again within a short time (i.e., four to six weeks).

NCE: Normal Curve Equivalent- Similar to percentile ranks, but based on an equal interval scale.  This type of data is useful for grant writers/researchers when comparing between different achievement tests.