Parent Training and Learning Video - Program Walkthrough (For Homes)

CARS & STARS Online is a comprehensive resource that allows you to identify and teach essential reading comprehension strategies. The CARS Series is the assessment component, and the STARS Series is the instruction component. The STARS Series provides precise instruction and practice with the strategies that your child needs to master in order to achieve reading success.

Placement Test: A Placement Test is preset when a student account is created. The Intelligent Placement option will intelligently allocate the beginning Placement level for the children based on their years of birth and any data from their previous reading levels (you do not need to manually direct your children to take a Placement Test).

NEW The Intelligent Placement option will intelligently allocate the beginning Placement level for the children based on their years of birth and any data from their previous reading levels (you do not need to manually direct your children to take a Placement Test).

Before your children take their Placement Test, if you know that your children have learning differences, you can change the initial placement level lower than the recommended one. For more information on reviewing and changing the child's recommended placement level, click here.

When your children log in, they will be immediately directed to the Placement Centre to have their reading comprehension assessed. The Placement Centre evaluations test individual children’s comprehension levels and place them in the appropriate CARS & STARS level.

If you already have an idea of what each child's reading level should be, you can let them skip the placement test and directly assign an individual reading level for them to begin on. For more information on manually assigning a reading level, please click here.

Once your children have completed their placement tests, a correct CARS & STARS reading level will be automatically created for them. Your children should remain in their designated CARS & STARS reading level for the entire school year, and therefore not be stretched beyond their abilities. 

Diagnose with CARS: Once assigned a CARS & STARS reading level, your children can start working on CARS Pretests. Administer the five Pretests in the CARS Series using CARS & STARS Online to diagnose strengths and weaknesses in the 12 reading comprehension strategies. After your children complete their pretests, review their Child Summary Report (Pretest) and Child Reading Strategy Performance Report.

If you would like to reset the reading level for your children, please see Reset the Reading Level (CARS & STARS Series).

Instruct with STARS: After completing Pretest diagnostics, six specific strategy STARS lessons based on the child's areas of need will be automatically recommended for the child to complete in order to remediate areas that need reinforcement. Once all six specific strategy lessons are completed, review the Child Lesson Performance Report.

You may provide explicit instructions in your children's recommended strategies with the help of the Teaching Guide while they are working on their STARS lessons. Teaching Guides for all reading levels are accessible from the left-hand side navigation menu in your parent portal. For more information on accessing your children's profile page and various reports, click here.

Benchmark/Progress monitoring: Throughout the year, administer the five Benchmark tests in CARS & STARS Online to monitor your child's progress. These tests provide practice in applying multiple reading strategies within a passage. Once all five Benchmark tests are completed, review the Child Summary Report (Benchmark).

Instruct with STARS: Finish the remaining strategy lessons to build and reinforce the child’s basic knowledge of reading strategies. After the children complete the 12 lessons and four review lessons, they will begin the final review that provides practice in all 12 reading strategies. Once all the strategy lessons are completed, review the Child Lesson Performance Report.

Assess Mastery with CARS Post Tests: Upon completion of the STARS lessons and Final Review, use CARS & STARS Online to administer the five Post Tests in the same way you administered the five Pretests.

Then, review the Child Summary Report (Post Test & Overall) and Child Reading Strategy Performance Report.

You may download a copy of our program guide with the attachment link provided below,