The Passage Oral Reading measure of Star CBM Reading has been available for grades 1–6 since Star CBM assessments were first made available in September. Now, when testing a fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-grade student, you’ll have the option to administer a nonfiction passage for field testing purposes.
Administering nonfiction passages gives educators an opportunity to hear students read a different type of text. This is also an opportunity to preview this new product feature and provide Renaissance with feedback that will help shape the future of Star CBM.
Now through the end of the school year, when you start the administration process for a Passage Oral Reading measure for a fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-grade student, you’ll see a dropdown menu for an extra passage. You can either opt-in (Yes, please!) or forego (No, thanks.) administering an additional nonfiction passage just before or after your fiction passage administration.
These new nonfiction passages are available using online, print, and mixed format so you can choose which works best for you at any time. If you’re looking for additional information, you can learn more about nonfiction passages, including why they’re being offered, how to opt-in, and suggestions for manual record keeping.
While data from these nonfiction passages are not included in Star CBM reports and dashboards during field testing, the goal is to gather data to provide valuable norms and benchmarks for nonfiction passages to include in the product next school year. Following field testing, likely for the 2021–2022 school year, nonfiction passages will comprise about 25% of the measures for Passage Oral Reading in grades 4–6.
Thank you for considering field testing a new nonfiction passage with your students. We all know the importance of having students read both fiction and nonfiction texts, especially as they transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”
This future enhancement to Star CBM is something you won’t find with some other curriculum-based measures, and by trying it out during this field-testing phase, you’re helping Renaissance to bring this additional valuable insight to educators and students across the country as well as being able to listen to your own students read nonfiction text that follows many of the same design principles as their fiction counterparts in Star CBM.