Issue:

 

Accelerated Reader Renaissance Place Updates

 

Resolution:

 

Accelerated Reader 7.6

Accelerated Reader 7.5

Accelerated Reader 7.3

Accelerated Reader 7.2

Accelerated Reader 7.1

Accelerated Reader 7.0

 

Accelerated Reader Renaissance Place 7.6 has been enhanced in the following ways:

 

Installer/Components

 

1)    Renaissance Place 4.1 is compatible with SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. During a new install, SQL Express will be installed if neither SQL Server 2000 nor SQL Server 2005 are present. If you are already using the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE) and would like to upgrade to Express Edition, contact Renaissance Learning Technical Support.

 

2)    School Interoperability Framework (SIF) 2.0 certified.

 

Renaissance Place

 

1)    Import/Export functionality has been enhanced to allow you to select your matching criteria prior to the import, ensuring only appropriate students are automatically merged. Clicking the “Merge Candidates” button will show students that were not an exact match but have some matching information.

 

2)    Enhancements to student merge for students with data for Accelerated Reader, English in a Flash, and MathFacts in a Flash.

 

3)    Students and their records can be permanently deleted from the Renaissance Place database. This is helpful to remove students who have graduated or are no longer enrolled in your district. In previous versions of Renaissance Place, students with records could only be inactivated and their data remained in the database.

 

Note: Before selecting the option to “Permanently remove students and their records” from the Edit Multiple Students page, be sure future access to their data is not required, as this feature will remove the students’ personal information as well as any application data from the database.

 

Application/User Interface

 

Convenient links to the AR BookFinder and Renaissance Learning Online Quiz Store websites have been added to the quiz management screens.

 

Preferences

 

1)    Quiz Allowing Rules is a new preference that can be found under the Individual Student Settings preferences. Using this preference, teachers can create rules that allow students to take quizzes that fall within specific book level and interest level ranges. The teacher can set the same values for the entire class or individualize the settings for each student. By default, students are allowed to quiz on all books. These rules can be overridden by entering the monitor password.

 

Note: This feature is similar to the Quiz Blocking Rules preference in Desktop Accelerated Reader applications but the criteria are somewhat different. In Accelerated Reader Renaissance Place 7.6, Quiz Allowing Rules can be set for book level and interest level, whereas in Desktop Accelerated Reader applications, rules can be set for book level and point value. For more information about Quiz Allowing, click HERE.

 

2)    The Book Voting preference, which gives students the opportunity to rate the books that they are reading, is enabled by default. If Accelerated Reader is upgraded to version 7.6 and Book Voting was set to “disabled” in the previous version, this setting will revert to “enabled” once the upgrade completes.

 

Recorded Voice Quizzes

 

The ability to search for recorded voice quizzes has been added to the quiz search criteria for Reading Practice quizzes.

 

Reports

 

1)    Renaissance Place Consolidated Reports will show all students enrolled in an active application class on all reports regardless of whether a student has data. For example, if you select to run an Accelerated Reader report listed by class it will only list Accelerated Reader classes, not other application classes, and show all students within those classes with or without data.

 

2)    To help you determine the state of a student’s data, we have implemented consistent rules across reports. If there could not possibly be any data, that column will be blank. If the student/group has no data at the time the report was run, but they are enrolled in the class, the report will show a single dash “-“. If there has been activity, but nothing passed, the score will be zero “0”. Students with a blank or “-“ will not be counted in totals, averages or means, but students with “0” will.

 

3)    All reports now include an option to print report options.

 

4)    In order to be consistent throughout our products and brand ATOS, alternate Book Level 1 and 2 have been renamed to ATOS 2000 and ATOS 100. ATOS 2000 is based on a 2,000-point scale similar to Lexiles and ATOS 100 is based on a 100-point scale similar to DRP. The default book levels that are displayed within the application and on reports can still be renamed within Book Level Settings.

 

Note: If you have already changed the names of your alternate book levels, the new names will not be overridden. Only the default names will change.

 

5)    To aid in the calculation of Renaissance Learning certification achievements, the Reading Practice Diagnostic Report and Schoolwide Summary Report now have the option to report on 90% correct in addition to 85% correct.

 

6)    The Reading Practice Quiz List Report can be sorted by recorded voice quizzes.

 

Top

 

Accelerated Reader Renaissance Place 7.5 has been enhanced in the following ways:

 

Installer/Components

 

1)    Support for Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0. During the upgrade to Renaissance Place 4.0, Release 0803, the web site used by Renaissance Place will be updated to use .NET 2.0.

 

2)    Improved Active Directory Authentication

 

Renaissance Place

 

1)    The Check Software Requirements page has been redesigned to verify each of the required components is installed and working properly.

 

2)    The Download Client Application Installers link under Product Administration was renamed to Download Supporting Software, and the link now opens the Check Software Requirements page in a new browser window.

 

3)    Changes have been made to the header and layout of all Renaissance Place web pages. Note that all header navigation links are now on the second row and that the page titles, such as Assignment Book, are on the page rather than left-justified in the header.

 

4)    Consolidation was reviewed and has been updated to provide optimal performance.

 

5)    New school years can now be set by a district administrator for all schools, not requiring each school administrator to log in and set it separately.

 

6)    The Assign Products link has been added to the View Courses page to assign products to multiple classes simultaneously.

 

7)    Two new security options allow you to remove the Parent link from the Welcome page, and hide the “Find User Name” link on the student login page.

 

8)    Additional alerts have been added to the Home page depending on the state of your software:

 

·         License Agreement - An alert will appear for administrators immediately after an upgrade or new install to view and agree to the software license. (The Download Software Updates link has been removed from the Product Administration section of Renaissance Place.)

 

·          Updates - An alert will appear for administrators anytime we have a cumulative patch or high-priority fix available (only if connected to the Internet).

 

·         Parent Requests - An alert will appear for the administrator anytime one or more parents have requested access to Renaissance Place; these alerts are updated nightly.

 

·          Subscription - An alert will appear for all school- and district-level users once an active subscription is within 90, 60, 30, 15 and 0 days from a subscription end date. (The subscription alert was also available in Renaissance Place 3.2 with Cumulative Patch 2.)

 

9)    Search results will now show up to 50 items per page so there are fewer pages to click through.

 

10) A capability has been added to control whether or not teachers can preview an Accelerated Reader quiz by taking a “Sample Quiz”.

 

11) In addition to consistent report styles throughout for improved readability, a new Engaged Time score is available on consolidated Math and Reading reports.

 

Renaissance Home Connect

 

Renaissance Place customers with Accelerated Reader Enterprise Edition will have access to Renaissance Home Connect. Schools or districts can grant access to Renaissance Home Connect by sending a letter generated through the Renaissance Home Connect tab in Renaissance Place which contains the necessary login information. Renaissance Home Connect allows students and their families to log in from home to monitor Accelerated Reader progress. Renaissance Home Connect users can:

 

·         View goals, results of the last quiz taken, and overall progress for both Reading Practice and Vocabulary Practice Quizzes.

 

·         View “My Words Learned” based on Vocabulary Practice Quizzes.

 

·         Find books that have quizzes via AR BookFinder.

 

·         View “My Bookshelf“ which shows the books on which quizzes have been taken.

 

·         Specify up to six email addresses of parents, guardians, or relatives to receive updates of student progress via email.

 

Application/User Interface

 

Additional support for using an alternate book level (Alt. BL). Functionality has been added to search for quizzes, create book labels, view/update student quiz records and generate reports with a book level other than ATOS. Alt. BL1 is based on a 100-point scale similar to DRP and Alt. BL2 is based on a 2,000-point scale similar to Lexiles. To set an alternate book level in the Accelerated Reader Management program, choose Manage Quizzes from the Accelerated Reader tab, then select Book Level Settings under the Actions area.

 

Reports

 

1)    The following reports now include reporting options for alternate book levels:

 

·         Diagnostic Reading Practice

·         Favorite Books

·         Goal History

·         Labels- Book

·         Labels- Vocabulary List

·         Quiz List- all quiz types

·         Quiz Takers- Reading Practice and Other Reading

·         Schoolwide Summary

·         Student Record

·         TOPS- Reading Practice and Other Reading

·         Vocabulary List

·         Word Count

 

2)    More visual TOPS reports and updated styles on all reports.

 

3)    An Engaged Time score has been added to the Reading Practice Diagnostic Report. Engaged Time per Day is an estimate of the number of minutes per day that students are actively engaged in reading practice.

 

Note: This calculation is based on a test score from STAR Reading or STAR Early Literacy and points earned in Accelerated Reader. A score is not reported unless the student has completed a STAR assessment within the last 12 months.

 

4)    The Student Points Report can be sorted by points earned allowing users to find their top point earners.

 

5)    The Word Count Report can be sorted by the total number of words per student. Sorting options include either highest to lowest or lowest to highest.

 

Quizzes

 

1)    The addition of Spanish Recorded Voice quizzes. To see a list of titles, go to the Renaissance Learning Quiz Store (http://www.renlearn.com/store/quiz_home.asp) and do an advanced search on Recorded Voice (RV) quiz type + Spanish language.

 

2)    Students can take Reading Practice, Vocabulary Practice, and Other Reading Quizzes on the NEO 2 and print off TOPS Reports. (Literacy Skills quizzes are not available on NEO 2 for this release)

 

3)    Textbook quizzes are now available as Accelerated Reader Enterprise content. Accelerated Reader Enterprise customers can order textbook-aligned quizzes at no additional charge from our website. Click HERE for more information.

 

Top

 

Accelerated Reader Renaissance Place 7.3 has been enhanced in the following ways:

 

Installer/Components

 

Support for SQL Server 2005, except Express Edition.

 

Renaissance Place

 

1)    Support for Macintosh OS X workstations running on an Intel-based processor.

 

2)    Support for Active Directory authentication of Renaissance Place users.

 

3)    Enhancements to the Client Application Installers page, including better detection of required components. The AccelScan client is now listed under the Scoring Software section, along with the Renaissance Responder software.

 

Renaissance Place Reports

 

1)    Removal of the Read Now Status report, to coincide with removal of the Read Now tab from the Renaissance Place home page.

 

2)    Removal of the Implementation Index scores from the Implementation Progress and Implementation Status reports.

 

Application/User Interface

 

1)    New “Manage Quiz Availability” area allows users to show or hide quizzes for easier student and teacher searches. 

 

2)    AR Enterprise users can setup rules for new quiz installation to manage which quizzes will be available for each school after the install is complete.

 

3)    Advanced search functionality for quizzes to ease quiz searching.

 

4)    New individual student preference to take Recorded Voice quizzes

 

5)    AR: Understanding Reliability and Validity resource was added to summarize the reliability, validity and usability of AR quizzes and describes the purpose and intended use of AR and how quizzes are developed.

 

6)    To make report customization faster, clicking on a report now takes you directly to the Customize page.

 

Top

 

Accelerated Reader Renaissance Place 7.2 has been enhanced in the following ways:

 

Renaissance Place

 

1)    You can use Renaissance Place with Mozilla’s Firefox browser (Macintosh and Windows platforms only) in addition to Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Safari

 

2)    A new and improved Parent Place page has reports for several products

 

3)    Find what you need easier with the simplified home page task menu

 

4)    Report performance improvements make school-wide and district-wide reports run much quicker

 

5)    Now you can import your Tier 3 scores into Renaissance Place and utilize the Customizable Status, Ranking, and Progress reports

 

6)    Assign courses to multiple schools simultaneously

 

7)    Select multiple students to edit and change enrollment simultaneously

 

8)    Renaissance Place allows you to export data in a text file format to be used in other applications

 

9)    Use Renaissance Update to download Renaissance Place software updates

 

10) Renaissance Data Translator now allows you to match your Renaissance foundation imports with your SIS records by Student ID, assuring more accurate and complete matching

 

11) SIF Agent has been updated to comply with the SIF 1.5r1 specifications and now includes two new StaffAssignment and Authentication objects

 

Class Record Books

 

1)    Certification descriptions have been added to the Certification Record book.

 

2)    Points Used has been renamed Points Management.

 

3)    Goals can be edited from any class regardless of what class they were set in.

 

4)    A "Show Goal Settings Chart" link has been added to the Goals Record Book.

 

Reports

 

1)    The Book Label report can now be run by install date, as well as other reports that provide Quiz information.

 

2)    A Student Information Report has been added to the School Management group of reports that will allow teachers to print user names and passwords for students.

 

3)    Advanced quiz searching has been included in the report options for those reports that allow you to choose which title to include.

 

4)    Improved performance running reports.

 

Quizzes

 

1)    An export capability has been added that will allow AR BookGuide users to export their quizzes from Accelerated Reader RP. This export will also allow for creation of an HTML quiz listing and a text export that can be used for creating book labels in other applications.

 

2)    Enhanced quiz searching

 

Preferences

 

1)    A new preference allows the ability to choose how many things to display in lists - up to 100 items.

 

2)    A new preference allows students to be automatically logged out of the program after taking quizzes.

 

Student Application

 

1)    The Renaissance Learning Print Engine is no longer a required installation before students can quiz.

 

2)    The quiz will automatically start once the student has confirmed it is the correct quiz – students no longer have to click on the [Start] button.

 

3)    A new option has been added for students to view quizzes taken. This allows students to see the list of the quizzes they have taken without running the Student Record Report.

 

Other Accelerated Reader Enhancements

 

1)    Parents can now connect and view student progress.

 

2)    Renaissance Place customizable reports now contain percent of students above 85% correct as an option.

 

3)    Class dropdowns have been modified to include, course, class and term so you can distinguish between classes with identical names.

 

Top

 

Accelerated Reader Renaissance Place 7.1 has been enhanced in the following ways:

 

Accelerated Vocabulary Functionality

 

Accelerated Reader 7.1 RP incorporates the functionality of Accelerated Vocabulary into the product as another quiz type – Vocabulary Practice Quizzes. A Vocabulary Practice Record Book has been added, which is similar to the Reading Practice Record Book.

 

The following reports have been added:

-          Vocabulary Practice Diagnostic Report

-          Labels – Vocabulary List Report

-          Vocabulary Practice Quiz List

-          Vocabulary List Report

-          Vocabulary Practice TOPS Report

-          Words Learned Report

 

The Student Record Report has also been updated to include Vocabulary Practice Quiz data.

 

Preferences

 

School Preferences

 

1)    TOPS Report Printing – Vocabulary Practice has been added as a quiz type

 

2)    Monitor Password Required – Vocabulary Practice has been added as a quiz type

 

3)    Vocabulary Practice Include Definitions – This preference allows the user to determine if the definitions are printed on the Vocabulary List Report when printed from a student login.

 

Classroom Preferences

 

1)    TOPS Report Printing – Vocabulary Practice has been added as a quiz type

 

2)    Monitor Password Required – Vocabulary Practice has been added as a quiz type

 

3)    Vocabulary Practice Include Definitions – This preference allows the user to determine if the definitions are printed on the Vocabulary List Report when printed from a student login.

 

4)    Vocabulary Practice Review Percent – Allows you to set the percentage of review questions a student receives on each quiz.

 

5)    Vocabulary Practice Review Only Quiz Length – Allows you to determine the number of review questions a student receives on a <Second-Try and Review Words> quiz.

 

6)    Vocabulary Practice Student Comprehension - identifies if the students must pass the Reading Practice Quiz before taking the Vocabulary Practice Quiz. When this preference is enabled, the student must pass the RP Quiz in order to get a question about taking the VP quiz. If the preference is enabled, they will always get the question to take the VP quiz.

 

Reading Resources

 

Added Resources

 

1)    Pronunciation Key (in the Forms and Charts Section)

 

2)    Vocabulary Teacher’s Guide (in the Classroom Resources to Advance Your Implementation Section)

 

3)    Quizzes - Using Vocabulary Practice Quizzes (in the Classroom Resources to Advance Your Implementation Section)

 

4)    Power Lesson Samples for Vocabulary (in the Classroom Resources to Advance Your Implementation Section)

 

Updated Resources

 

1)    Accelerated Reader RP Glossary (in the Classroom Resources to Get you Started Section)

 

2)    Accelerated Reader Software Manual (in the Manuals Section)

 

3)    Accelerated Reader Software Tips for Getting Started (in the Manuals Section)

 

Student

 

1)    Vocabulary Practice has been added as a quiz type. Students will be able to choose from recently taken Reading Practice quiz titles when selecting a quiz to take.

 

2)    The Vocabulary List and Words Learned Reports have been added to the Student Reports list.

 

3)    Students will be prompted to take the Vocabulary Practice Quiz (depending on how the Vocabulary Practice Student Comprehension preference is set) when they complete the Reading Practice Quiz and there is a Vocabulary Practice Quiz available for the same title.

 

Renaissance Place Reports

 

1)    Addition of a new School-to-Home report.  This report will help keep parents informed of student progress at school and provide teachers with a report that reflects the key scores from the Renaissance Learning programs they are using in their classroom. This report will show information on a single student, with the wording and terminology designed for a parent or guardian. It will report current information for any Renaissance Learning programs selected by the user.

 

Top

 

Accelerated Reader RP 7.0 has been enhanced in the following ways:

 

Accelerated Reader Renaissance Place (RP) is a browser-based application that provides several new features for educators.

 

Preferences

 

1)    Preferences are grouped by type to make it easier to see what is available

 

2)    Ability to see how several preferences are set, and change them, all on one screen

 

3)    Quiz Blocking rules have been eliminated

 

4)    A preference was added that allows you to assign quiz types to classes. You will have the option of turning off quiz types (Reading Practice, Literacy Skills or Other Reading) that are not used in your classroom. Each class will have all quiz types available by default. Turning off quiz types will hide the ability to quiz for that type for the class in the student application.

 

5)    Eliminated the following preferences: Data Location, Lock Out Privileges, Upgrade from 4.x and Network Setup.

 

6)    The following preferences have been moved to the Renaissance Place browser-based management application: School Name, School Year, Student Capacity and Characteristics.

 

7)    ATOS conversion can now be done at the quiz level

 

8)    Individual settings are now available for using Recorded Voice Quizzes

 

9)    The ability to edit Fiction/Non-Fiction has been added

 

10) The ability to edit the Interest Level has been added

 

Record Books

 

1)    Record books have been created for each type of activity

 

2)    Different classes can use different marking periods to set goals

 

3)    You can now edit goals for an entire class from one screen

 

4)    You can view the status of goals for the entire class from one page and view the status of certifications for the entire class in one view

 

5)    The archiving goals feature has been eliminated

 

6)    Teams have been re-designed and the concept of Team Sets has been added

 

Reports

 

1)    A Reading Resources area has been created for all Reading Renaissance forms and other documents. Manuals and installation guides are also available in this area.

 

2)    The Diagnostic Report has been updated to the two summary areas side by side to allow for more students to print per page

 

3)    The ability to save report customizations is no longer available

 

4)    Spanish versions of the Reading Renaissance forms are now available

 

5)    The Literacy Skills Class Status Report and the Student Summary Report have been combined into a new report called Literacy Skills Status Report

 

6)    The following reports have been eliminated: Quiz Blocking Rules Report, Teacher Made Quiz Question Report, Setup Report, Weekly Progress Report, Student Point Slip Form and Top Point Earners Report

 

Student Application

 

1)    The student desktop application has been replaced by a browser

 

2)    The browser-based student application is managed by Adobe Flash

 

3)    Students are required to enter a username and password to enter the program. However, there is the ability to search for their username.

 

4)    Students still have the ability to do a search for the quiz they wish to take. If the list returned is a long list, the results will show 10 quizzes at a time, and the student can page through the rest of the results.

 

5)    When a student takes a quiz, the application will write to the database after each question answered. If a student closes out of the browser during the quiz, they can pick up where they left off and will be able to see any of the questions they’ve already answered.

 

6)    Student lock-outs have been eliminated

 

7)    Students can resize the text size on the quiz screen

 

Accelerated Reader RP also includes the new Renaissance Place management and reporting system.

 

Renaissance Place Reports

 

1)    Customizable Progress - Compares student achievement on one or two assessments administered at different times.

 

2)    Customizable Ranking - Ranks student achievement in ascending or descending order for up to three products, subjects, score categories, and reporting periods. Includes an option to show students with scores above, below, or between certain values. Also includes lowest to highest and highest to lowest sorting options.

 

3)    Customizable Status - Shows student achievement for up to five products, subjects, score categories, and reporting periods.

 

4)    Implementation Progress - Compares student achievement on up to seven reporting periods for Accelerated Math or Accelerated Reader.

 

5)    Implementation Status - Shows students' comprehension of Accelerated Math objectives or Accelerated Reader results of reading practice for one reporting period.

 

6)    *ReadNow Status - Includes student achievement in the Read Now intervention program (Accelerated Reader, STAR Reading, and Fluent Reader) to help educators determine how to move forward with student instruction.

 

NOTE: The Progress, Ranking, and Status reports can be customized to include Tier 1 (Accelerated Math, Accelerated Reader, Fluent Reader) program data along with the current Tier 2 (StandardsMaster, STAR Early Literacy, STAR Reading, STAR Math) programs.

 

Top