Early learning success depends on timely insights—but young learners need assessments designed just for them. Star Early Literacy delivers age-appropriate, engaging screening experiences that respect instructional time while providing educators with meaningful, actionable data.
Build strong foundations with early literacy insights that guide next steps
From universal screening through ongoing progress monitoring, Star Early Literacy and Star Alfabetización temprana deliver the fast, reliable, actionable insights educators need to understand what early learners know—and what they’re ready to learn next—supporting early intervention, personalized instruction, and strong literacy outcomes.
What educators are saying
Rather than forcing teachers to spend hours ciphering through a confusing continuum to pinpoint teachable concepts and create learning groups, Star Early Literacy does all that work for us.
Foundational skill assessment that supports your youngest learners
Early insights that power confident instruction
A path to early literacy success
What Star Early Literacy measures
Star Early Literacy assesses the foundational literacy and numeracy skills students need to become confident, independent readers and learners in grades pre-K–3. It provides a comprehensive view of early development, helping educators pinpoint strengths, identify skill gaps, and guide targeted instruction across key domains.
Print concepts
- Directionality
- Letters and words
- Word length
- Word borders
- Visual discrimination
- Alphabetic principle and sequence
- Print features
Phonological awareness
Phonics and word recognition
Fluency
- Purpose of reading
- Reading with comprehension
- Repair strategies
- Reading rate WCPM
- Prosody
Vocabulary acquisition and use
Early numeracy
Measures students’ foundational number sense and early math concepts, providing insight into skills that support overall academic readiness.
How Star Early Literacy fits into the Star ecosystem
Star’s computer-adaptive tests—Star Early Literacy and Star Alfabetización temprana—can be used together with Star curriculum-based measures (CBM)—Star CBM Reading and Star CBM Lectura—to efficiently provide educators with a more complete view of literacy. Together, these complementary assessments combine broad performance data with insights into foundational skills and reading development in both English and Spanish. By using assessments with distinct purposes, educators can interpret data more accurately and distinguish language acquisition needs from underlying skill gaps—without over- testing students.
Star Assessments also help inform purposeful literacy instruction and practice. Educators can use results to support learning through Renaissance solutions such as Accelerated Reader, myON, Freckle, and Lalilo, as well as other trusted instructional resources already in use. Together, assessment and practice help reinforce skills, personalize learning, and support literacy growth within a coherent instructional experience.
Star Early Literacy is available in Spanish
Star Alfabetización temprana is not a translation of Star Early Literacy—it is an authentic Spanish assessment intentionally designed to reflect the linguistic structures and reading development pathways of Spanish. It offers a parallel assessment experience that allows educators to measure literacy skills in students’ first language and gain meaningful insights into biliteracy development, supporting more equitable decision making for emerging bilingual students in English-only and dual language learning environments.
Learn more about the development of learning progressions for Spanish reading
Watch: Star Early Literacy Demo Videos
See how Star Early Literacy works on both computers and tablets, with videos available in English and Spanish to support diverse classrooms and families.
English
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Spanish
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Expand your reading assessment toolkit
Get the most out of Star Early Literacy
Explore how early literacy insights support strong reading foundations and guide meaningful literacy growth for all pre-K–3 learners.
Case Study
Star Early Literacy + Lalilo: Assessment meets practice
Learn how Star Early Literacy and Lalilo work together to support beginning readers.
Grow literacy from pre-reader to high achiever
Build foundational literacy skills with research‑based solutions that support students from early learning through confident, independent reading.
Guidance Resource
Seamless Transition from Early Literacy to Reading
Students move smoothly from Star Early Literacy to Star Reading on a unified scale, providing a continuous, comparable view of growth from pre‑K–12 in a single report.
Technical Manuals
Star Assessments for Early Literacy Technical Manuals
Explore the research foundation, development process, and the validity behind Star Early Literacy―trusted by educators nationwide.
View the manuals:
Your questions answered
Star Early Literacy FAQ
Whether you’re supporting students in the classroom or helping families understand how learning is measured, this FAQ provides clear answers about Star Early Literacy, what it is, how it works, and how it empowers educators to guide every learner’s growth.
Interested in exploring Star Early Literacy?
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