<p>My daughter is starting STAR testing this week, she is in 11th grade in a public high school in California. We were talking to others about the testing, I was under the assumption that the results are only for school purposes but they told me that colleges look at these results for admission purposes. I looked at my daughter's transcript and I see no previous STAR results on it. </p>
<p>When a college is sent a transcript, do they also received STAR scores...or do they obtain them otherwise to use for admission purposes?</p>
<p>I was telling my daughter not to stress about the testing...am I wrong?</p>
<p>STAR testing is a measurement of how well the school is doing so testing is a high-pressure event for the school, an attitude that is communicated to students. The GC should be able to tell you if the scores are sent to colleges separately from the transcript (probably not), but even if they are, they carry little or no weight with college admissions offices.</p>
<p>I can tell you that as a precious CA high school student with many CA friends… not one college will care about those scores. They aren’t even put onto the transcript. Universities outside of CA will probably not even know what those are… mmmm… they will not know what they are. hehe</p>
<p>Colleges don’t look at STAR testing results for individuals. But it would be nice if your D tried her best. I suspect that the results may reflect on the teachers.</p>
<p>You are not wrong. The tests are only for the HS at this point.</p>
<p>btw: STAR testing also includes an english readiness test for Cal State. If your D has been admitted elsewhere and/or is taking AP Eng/Lang, she can skip that portion of the test (and take a nap). Drives the proctors crazy. :D</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses-I thought I was correct. Blue, thanks for the reminder re: engligh rediness, she took the math portion earlier in the year so she should “attempt” to do well at least on that portion :)</p>
<p>When the administrators say the colleges look at it for admission purposes it’s in a very round about way. The colleges may consider the API score the school receives as a composite of how the students in the school scored on the Star test when deciding how rigorous the school is compared to other high schools. </p>
<p>For instance, if your D’s high school is scoring 600, and the neighboring high school’s API score is 750, they might use that as part of their reasoning that the neighboring high school is tougher, so your D’s 4.0 GPA is not considered as impressive as a 4.0 GPA from the neighboring high school.</p>
<p>The school API scores also factor into the price of houses in the district, with higher scoring schools increasing the value of the neighborhood.</p>
<p>But individually, no, doesn’t make any difference.</p>
<p>Actually, our school now puts STAR testing on the official transcript. They do it to pressure the high-achieving kids at the school to take the test seriously, rather than blowing it off. While I doubt colleges care or will look, it might catch their eye if they notice below proficient scores on a transcript with otherwise stellar grades, etc. Getting high school kids to take the test seriously has been a big problem at many schools. My son says some of his friends are regretting having blown off the test in prior years now that they realize colleges will see their scores.</p>
<p>My oldest son, who is now in college, received an award at graduation from his high school for having very high scores each year on the STAR test. I am unsure as to whether colleges he applied to were informed of this. I think his HS’s public recognition of high achievers on the STAR test is an incentive for the students to make a strong effort on what is a much higher stakes test for the high school than it is for the individual student.</p>
<p>Many years ago, in what feels like a galaxy far, far away, the state of CA was flush and had the Governor’s Award which was cash toward college for those in the top percentile of state standardized testing. Each year, my oldest kids won $1,000 that was held by the state and went toward their college education. The state also gave up to $2500 for very high (I think 5 but don’t quote me) scores on higher level math and science AP scores Unfortunately, they stopped doing that before my daughter took her APs in those subjects. And now…no librarians, talk of shorter school years, massive teacher layoffs – how times have changed. But in its day, it was a powerful incentive.</p>
<p>Another reason to try to do well on the STAR tests in 11th grade has to do with English and Math placement, at least for the CSUs and some CCCs. The Early Assessment Program (EAP) is a portion of the STAR test which indicates proficiency and readiness for college-level math or English and is included on the test score summary. This can exempt a student from having to take the mandatory ELM math placement test and/or the EPT English placement test before enrolling for classes.</p>