Setting Progress Monitoring Goals
Why set goals in Star Assessments™?
Teachers set progress monitoring goals for computer-adaptive Star Assessments to track a student’s overall
performance in reading, math, or early literacy. By setting a goal and administering Star Assessments as often as
weekly, you can compare a student’s scaled score to the desired performance level. Renaissance Star Reading®,
Renaissance Star Math®, and Renaissance Star Early Literacy® provide goal options to help you set a reasonable,
appropriate target for students.
Who needs a progress monitoring goal?
Set progress monitoring goals for students when you need to closely monitor student growth toward a target. Most
of the time, goals are set for students who have scored below benchmark and are receiving additional instruction or
intervention to help them catch up. Once in a while other goals are set for other reasons, like to check the effect of a
new instructional approach on a student’s overall reading or math achievement or check students are advancing. If
a student isn’t meeting growth expectations, setting a goal can help monitor performance and improvement.
As you decide who to set goals for, consider how often you will assess students, review results, and respond to data.
Setting progress monitoring goals makes sense if you plan to administer a computer-adaptive Star assessment weekly
or monthly while in intervention and track student progress tied to that intervention. If this is not the case, another
option is to evaluate student progress using dashboard data or other Star reports.
How do Star goals fit within a Response to Intervention framework?
Star Assessments are a valuable tool when implementing an RTI or MTSS intuitive—especially for setting and tracking
performance toward data-based goals. The graphic below shows how goals may fit in to your RTI framework.
Screen
Use a Screening
Report to identify
students below
benchmark to
target for
intervention
Set Goal
Set a goal and
intervention for
each student
needing
intervention
(see page 3)
Intervene
Supplement or
enhance
instruction for
targeted
students
Monitor
Progress
Assess target
students with a
Star assessment
periodically
(up to weekly)
View Progress
Run a Student
Progress
Monitoring
Report to check
progress
toward goals
Adjust
Modify the
duration,
intensity, or
scope of the
intervention as
needed
What are the benefits of setting goals for Star Assessments?
Goal setting helps you put the power of data behind your decisions about student performance.
• Choose a growth options based on Student Growth Percentiles (SGP). Dr. Damian Betebenner’s well-known SGP
model compares the growth of students with a similar score history to provide research-based goal options.
• Set goals related to state proficiency (when available). Review goal options specific to a student’s state
proficiency category and your expectations for growth—“catch up” to reach proficiency, “keep up” to remain
proficient, “move up” to a level above proficiency, or “stay up” to maintain a higher proficiency level.
• Track progress within interventions. Evaluate the effectiveness of multiple intervention or instructional strategies
by comparing actual growth to expected growth.
• View student progress with a statistically calculated trend line. Computer-adaptive Star Assessments statistically
calculate the slope and position of the trend line based upon student scaled scores and displays it on the report.
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How do you access the goal-setting page in Star Assessments?
The Screening, Progress Monitoring & Intervention link directs you to some of the common uses of Star
Assessments for RTI.
1. Click the Screening, Progress Monitoring &
Intervention link under the Star Reading, Star Math, or
Star Early Literacy assessments tab.
2. Select the Progress Monitoring
and Goals tab if needed.
3. Search for the student you
want to set a goal for. Choose to
search by Name, ID, Grade or
Class.
4. Click the name of the student to
see scores from recent tests. The
student’s benchmark category and
percentile rank for the most recent
test are shown, along with any
information from previous goals set.
5. Click Add Goal to set a goal for the student.
Instructions for setting a goal continue on the next page.
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How do set goals in Star Assessments?
Follow the steps below to record information about the intervention and set a goal.
1. Name the intervention as you want it to appear on reports. For instance, you might enter the
name of the intervention program, a description of the intervention (“After-school tutoring 30
minutes daily”), or the skill the student is working on (“Recall of multiplication facts”).
2. Set the goal end date for the intervention period. Choose a date close to the
end of the school year, term, or length you anticipate the intervention will last.
Edit the end date later if needed. Allow at least enough time for the intervention
to work (experts recommend no fewer than 8 weeks), but you may also set the
goal end date to coincide with the end of the school year or testing period.
3. Select the test date closest
to when the intervention started
(if more than one test is
4. Click Calculate Goal below.
5. Select the goal type,
or the rate of growth you
anticipate the student
can maintain during the
intervention period. For
information when
selecting a custom goal,
see pages 4 and 5.
4. Click Calculate Goal
to view the scaled
scores per week and
ending scaled score
for the intervention
period related to each
goal type available.
6. Click Save
when
satisfied with
your choices.
Note: Catch up/Keep Up and Stay
Up/Move Up goal options are not
always available for students
depending on the availability of state
cut scores for the student’s grade
level and where the student scores
in relation to proficiency categories.
Moderate Goal: Based on national data for
same-grade students with a similar score
history, expect 50% of students to reach or
exceed this rate of growth.
Moderately Ambitious Goal: Expect 34% of
students to reach or exceed this rate of
growth with this goal option.
Catch Up/Keep Up Goal: For students
estimated to be below state proficiency, this
option reflects the growth needed to reach
proficiency within the next 3 years (“catch
up”). For students estimated to be at or above
state proficiency, this option describes the
growth needed to maintain their proficiency
category within the next 3 years (“keep up”).
Move Up/Stay Up Goal: For students
estimated to be within the state proficiency
category but below the next higher category,
this option shows the growth needed to move
up to the higher category within the next 3
years (“move up”). For students who are
already estimated to be in the category above
proficient, this option shows the growth
needed within the next 3 years to remain in
this proficiency category (“stay up”).
Custom Goal: Define a custom goal if none of
the other goal options seem appropriate. The
goal may be a growth rate (SS/week) or an
ending SS or PR. See additional information
on the next page.
Considerations when choosing a goal:
1. What do you know about the student? What does his or her educational history indicate about motivation and desire to
learn? What has been his or her learning rate prior to the intervention?
2. How intensive is the intervention you are implementing? Specifically, how much time per day will the student receive
additional instruction? Is the student part of a large-group, small-group, or individual intervention?
3. What is your history with this intervention? Have you implemented this intervention before? How have other students
responded to this intervention? Is this a research-based, effective intervention that will be implemented with integrity?
You may decide to edit this goal later if the growth rate you originally selected was not a realistic choice.
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How could I set a custom goal?
Educators may set a custom goal if the other goal options provided do not meet their needs. Custom goals can be set
by scaled score or percentile rank. Looking at growth and achievement metrics can help you set a reasonable and
appropriate custom goal for students.
Projected growth
Projected growth is a data-based estimate of how much
improvement a student or group of students should experience
between the current date and a future date based on Star test
results to date. The Instructional Planning - Student Report
provides teachers with a student's projected growth scaled score
(SS). The Show Projected Growth customization option predicts
how much growth you can expect from students by a target date.
When customizing this report, use this option to choose your
target date:
• End of year: This is the default setting, which uses the last day
of your Renaissance Place school year as the date.
• Custom date: Enter a date in the blank field, or use the calendar button to choose one.
Example of custom goal based on projected growth:
Joel’s latest test score is 229 SS. The teacher sets up an intervention and goal to track Joel’s progress throughout the
first semester.
If the teacher wants to set a goal based on scaled score, the teacher
selects Scaled Score from the drop-down list, enters the score Joel
should reach (for this example, 292 SS), and then clicks Calculate
Goal. The number of SS points Joel's score needs to increase by each week will be displayed (2.9 SS/week), as well as
the PR score that is equivalent to the goal of 292 SS (54 PR). Edit this goal later if you want to use a different growth
rate than originally selected.
State proficiency
While the catch up/keep up and move up/stay up goals allow you to
view incremental achievable growth towards a goal of state
proficiency within the next three years, it may also be helpful to view
current school year proficiency cut scores in order to establish an
informed goal for your students.
To view the proficiency cut score for the time of the state test: View
state benchmarks within the Screening, Progress Monitoring, and
Intervention area of the software. You can also view the proficiency
threshold reported on the State Performance Report.
Example of custom goal based on state proficiency:
If the teacher wants to set a goal based on within-year state proficiency, the teacher selects Scaled Score from the
drop-down list, enters the SS necessary for the student to reach the estimated threshold for proficiency by the time of
the spring state test (for this example, 531), sets Goal End Date to
the spring test date, and then clicks Calculate Goal. The number of
SS points the student’s score needs to increase by every week will
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be displayed (3.3 SS/week), as well as the PR score that is equivalent to the goal of 531 SS (81 PR). Edit this goal later
if you want to use a different growth rate than originally selected.
Maintaining percentile rank (PR)
Joel’s teacher is trying out some new strategies and wants to track his
performance for a short period of time to see that he doesn’t fall behind.
She decides to set a custom goal that displays the score needed to at least
maintain his current PR for the next 4 weeks.
Example of a custom goal based on maintaining a percentile rank:
If the teacher wants to set a goal based on PR, the teacher
selects Percentile Rank from the drop-down list, enters the PR
Joel should reach within 4 weeks (for this example, 50), and
then clicks Calculate Goal. The number of scaled score points Joel's score needs to increase by each week will be
displayed (2.7 SS/week), as well as the scaled score that is equivalent to the goal of 50 PR (274 SS). Edit this goal later
if you want to use a different growth rate than originally selected.
©Copyright 2016 Renaissance Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. (800) 338-4204www.renaissance.com
All logos, designs, and brand names for Renaissance’s products and services, including but not limited to Star Assessments, Star
5Reading, Star Math, Star Early Literacy], and Renaissance Learning are trademarks of Renaissance Learning, Inc., and its subsidiaries,
registered, common law, or pending registration in the United States and other countries.
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©Copyright 2016 Renaissance Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. (800) 338-4204www.renaissance.com
All logos, designs, and brand names for Renaissance’s products and services, including but not limited to Star Assessments, Star
5Reading, Star Math, Star Early Literacy], and Renaissance Learning are trademarks of Renaissance Learning, Inc., and its subsidiaries,
registered, common law, or pending registration in the United States and other countries.
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