STAR English Language Proficiency 3

Question 1

How can a teacher use STAR benchmark data to set appropriate English literacy growth goals for an ELL student?

Accepted Answer

Compare the student's current Scaled Score to grade-level benchmarks and set a target score that reflects both expected growth norms and the student's language acquisition stage

Answer

Assign all ELL students the same growth target regardless of their starting point

Answer

Use only the student's vocabulary score to set all literacy goals

Answer

Set the goal at the maximum possible Scaled Score for any student at that grade level

Question 2

A school receives STAR Early Literacy data showing that ELL students as a group score significantly lower in the Sentence Reading domain than non-ELL peers. What does this suggest at the program level?

Accepted Answer

ELL students may need more explicit instruction in sentence-level reading within their language support program

Answer

The STAR assessment is invalid for ELL students

Answer

ELL students should be assessed only with home-language assessments

Answer

The school should discontinue language support services since they are not working

Question 3

What role does STAR Early Literacy play in identifying ELL students who may have a learning disability in addition to language acquisition needs?

Accepted Answer

By tracking growth over time, STAR data can reveal whether a student's literacy difficulties persist despite strong instruction, which may warrant further evaluation

Answer

It diagnoses learning disabilities directly from the scaled score

Answer

All ELL students with low scores should be referred for special education immediately

Answer

STAR data cannot be used for any decisions related to ELL students with possible disabilities

Question 4

Why is it important for teachers to monitor STAR English language proficiency growth data alongside home-language literacy data when available?

Accepted Answer

Comparing home-language and English literacy data helps distinguish between language transfer needs and true learning difficulties

Answer

Home-language data is required by law to be collected for all students

Answer

English-only data is always sufficient and home language data is irrelevant

Answer

Monitoring two sets of data doubles the teacher's workload without benefit

Question 5

An ELL student's STAR Reading Scaled Score grows from 385 in the fall to 430 by spring. How should a teacher communicate this progress to the student's parents?

Accepted Answer

Explain that the student gained 45 Scaled Score points, which represents meaningful literacy growth, and describe what skills the student has developed

Answer

Tell parents the student is still far below grade level and will not catch up

Answer

Use only percentile ranks when communicating with parents and avoid mentioning Scaled Scores

Answer

Inform parents that the STAR test is not appropriate for ELL students

Question 6

Which STAR assessment metric is most useful for an English Language Learner's teacher when reporting annual progress to a district ELL coordinator?

Accepted Answer

Scaled Score growth from fall to spring benchmark

Answer

The student's raw score on the most recent test

Answer

The student's performance on a single vocabulary question

Answer

The number of tests the student completed during the year