The STAR program

August 2006
The cornerstone of California’s effort is the Standardized Testing and Reporting or STAR program. Each summer, the state releases results for testing completed the previous spring. State, county, school district, and school results are available from many sources online. A good place to start is the California Department of Education's STAR web page.

California students in grades 2–11 participate in STAR. Based on their student test results, schools are given an Academic Performance Index (API) score and ranked. The API for elementary and middle schools is primarily composed of CST test results in English, math, science, and social science. The high school API is made up of primarily CST and California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) results.

STAR results are also used to determine whether schools have made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

The STAR program consists of:

• California Standards Tests (CSTs), are criterion-referenced tests based on the state’s academic content standards—what students are supposed to learn. The state has set performance levels for student results. Test scores are described as: far below basic, below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced.
  
• California Achievement Tests, Sixth Edition Survey (CAT/6), a norm-referenced test of basic skills. A student’s scores are national percentile rankings, which indicate the performance of each student relative to a national sample. Beginning in 2005, only 3rd and 7th graders take the CAT/6.
  
• Aprenda: La prueba de logros en español, Tercera edición (Aprenda 3), an additional norm-referenced test in Spanish administered to Spanish-speaking English learners who have been in school in the United States fewer than 12 months when tested or who are receiving instruction in Spanish regardless of how long they have been in U.S. schools. Aprenda 3 replaced SABE/2 in 2006.

Testing of Special Education students

Most Special Education students participate in STAR. In many cases, however, their individualized education programs (IEPs) call for students to receive some extra assistance based on their disability. That may mean accommodations, such as a large-print version of an exam, that do not alter the test. Or it may require modifications, such as allowing the use of a calculator, which do alter the test.

Students who are unable to participate in the STAR program because of severe disabilities are tested with the California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA). Teachers observe and record student performance on tasks that are the building blocks of California’s academic content standards.

History of the STAR program

During the first three years of the STAR program, the focus was on a basic-skills, nationally normed, multiple-choice test. Initially the state used the Stanford-9 basic-skills test but switched to the CAT/6 in 2003. These tests were given to virtually all California public school students in grades 2 to 11, and the results formed the basis for the state's school accountability program until 2002.

But because it is developed for national use, a nationally normed test does not fully match the academic content standards adopted to guide school curriculum in California. (See standards.) In 1999 the state began the second portion of the STAR program by creating additional ("augmented") test questions to measure student and school performance against the state’s new standards initially in English and mathematics and later in science and social science. By 2002, the California Standards Tests (CSTs) dominated the state’s testing system.

In 2000 the State Board of Education (SBE) developed the five performance levels (far below basic, below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced) for reporting the results of the CSTs, beginning with the 2001 standards test in English/language arts.

For more information about the current legal requirements related to the STAR program, see Assessment Laws and Policies.