Audio Support for STAR Math™ Enterprise FAQ
What is Audio Support for STAR Math™ Enterprise?
Audio Support is a feature that can be enabled for students whose math ability outpaces their reading ability. It
takes away the reading barrier for students that may be inhibiting performance on the math assessment to
provide more accurate data on a student’s math ability. Audio is provided in various forms for all items in the
math assessment.
Why was audio added to SME?
Previous research suggested that reading the assessment aloud for students whose math ability outpaced their
reading ability didn’t impact reliability and validity, thus the practice was frequently used by educators. This is
a time-consuming practice so audio became a frequent request from customers. The decision to add audio
followed a review of research supporting the use of audio accommodations in math assessments. Empirical
Support for Provision of a Read-Aloud Accommodation on the STAR Math Test We also engaged experts in the
field to establish guidelines and best practices for adding audio support without compromising the reliability
and validity of the assessment.
What guidelines were established and followed for adding audio to SME?
STAR Math™ Enterprise Audio Support Guidelines were developed after reviewing samples scripts and
evaluating item reliability and validity. These guidelines are the basis for the development of the audio
component to ensure each question was treated with consistency and fairness:

Provide audio support for items that involve reading.

Avoid reading information contained in graphs or tables.

Provide audio support for answer choices that are phrases or sentences that would pose significant
difficulty for struggling readers.

Do not provide audio support if doing so would necessitate the use of words that are not part of the item
and that would change the construct of the item.
Is audio available for all items in STAR Math Enterprise?
All items in the STAR Math Enterprise item bank have audio support available. The following are examples of
the types of audio support provided:

Audio support will be available for items in which the question (or stem) involves reading or for items with
difficult words. If a stem is a simple equation, for example, 2+1=, the audio will state, “Choose the best
answer.”
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
Labels and information in tables and graphics will not be read aloud. Text above or below a graphic or
math expression that is part of the stem will have audio.

Answer choices will be read if they contain a text that would pose significant difficulty for struggling
readers. However, if the answer choices contain a difficult word, for example, domain or range, that
students have already heard in the stem, the answer choices will not have audio.

For items that require labeling an object, the stem may not be read aloud. That’s because, in some cases,
use of the correct name gives students hearing the audio an advantage. For example, if a stem asks, “A
(image of a dime) is the same as ___?”, the audio support would simply be, “Choose the best answer.”
Which students are most likely to benefit from use of audio support?
Renaissance Learning worked with a consultant who researched read-aloud accommodations and protocols
and audio guidelines and best practices published by a range of testing organizations. These findings include:

Audio support is most likely to benefit younger students or students with lower reading ability.

Audio support was shown to be most effective for struggling readers when it is used for difficult items
with difficult reading.

Audio support was found to be least effective when it is used for easy items or items with easy, little, or no
reading.

For students with little content knowledge from the beginning, providing audio support was shown to
have little impact on performance.
What are things to consider when using audio support?

Because this is a feature that will need to be enabled in the software in order for the student to use it, how
will students needing the accommodation be identified, and who is responsible for enabling audio for
those students?

Are headphones available for the students who will be using the accommodation?

Is there an audio jack on the testing computer or device?

Will there be a designated area in the lab for students using the audio accommodation, or will those
students be tested at a separate time?
What is the student experience when using audio?
When a new question is presented to the student, the audio begins playing automatically. The student does not
have to wait for the audio to finish before answering a question; answers can be entered at any time. While
audio is playing, the user can click the “pause” symbol to stop the audio. To resume the audio at the same point
where it was paused, the user can click the “play” symbol. The student can also replay the audio by clicking the
“play” symbol to have the question repeated.
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Do students using the audio accommodation perform better than they would
have without it?
Yes, preliminary analysis of STAR Math test records with and without the accommodation indicate that on
average, students who took STAR Math with and without the accommodation in close proximity scored better
when they used the accommodation. This is to be expected and was the intent of providing audio to those
students for whom reading or language inhibits their performance on math assessments.
Does using the Audio Support feature of STAR Math affect the data?
The general recommendation for STAR Math is to allow the audio support feature for students who need it,
based on professional judgment. The intent in providing an accommodation is one of “differential boost:”
raising the performance of students with reading difficulties while not impacting the performance of students
who do not have reading difficulties.
The primary purpose of providing a read-aloud accommodation on a math test is to level the playing field for
students with reading difficulties. Research has found that students with reading difficulties received differential
item boost when they were permitted to take math tests using read-aloud accommodations, and that the
provision of the accommodation gave a better index of their math skills.
There is no evidence that the use of a read-aloud accommodation has an adverse effect on the technical
adequacy of math assessments, including STAR Math. A scaled score, which is criterion-referenced, is a valid
indicator of what students can do in math, even when a read-aloud accommodation is used. The audio support
feature for STAR Math can be used for progress monitoring because scaled score is the primary metric for that
purpose.
Because audio was not used during the norming of STAR Math, the impact of a read-aloud accommodation on
norm-referenced scores is less clear. Technically, a test taken with a read-aloud accommodation constitutes a
non-standard administration, and, strictly speaking, the norms may not apply. However, we expect any
distortion in the norm-referenced scores from a read-aloud accommodation to be negligible. We advise that
decisions regarding this should be left to educator discretion.
.
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How is audio support enabled for students?
Audio support can be enabled by clicking on “Preferences” under STAR Math Enterprise and then scrolling to
“Student Preferences” and selecting “Edit”.
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respective companies and organizations.
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