The purpose of the STAR is to supplement the assessments teachers make about progress and achievement in reading. The STAR may be administered at any time in the school year and there are two parallel forms.

Subtests:

Years 3 – 9

1. Word recognition: this subtest shows how well students can decode words that are familiar in their spoken vocabulary. In the absence of any verbal context, the students must decode, accurately, using letters and sounds.
2. Sentence comprehension: the task is reading for meaning. This subtest assesses the skills of decoding and the ability to use a range of sources to gain meaning.
3. Paragraph comprehension: the “cloze procedure” here assesses reading comprehension by requiring students to replace words which have been deleted from the text. Students use the context of the surrounding text as cues to meaning.
4. Vocabulary range: this subtest assesses students' knowledge of word meanings in context.
   
   Years 7 – 9 also complete the last two subtests:
    
5. The language of advertising: this subtest requires pupils to identify emotive words, which are typically used by advertisers when trying to attract consumers to buy.
6. Reading different genres or styles of writing: students are given paragraphs which represent a range of genres, and at particular points they are to select the phrases which best fit the style and purpose of the writer. The genres represented include traditional fairy tales, business letters, informal letters, recipes, computer manuals, etc.

Go to the STAR page of the NZCER website for further details and ordering.