About What Kids are Reading 2026 This year’s report is based on reading data for the 2024–2025 school year for 4.7 million kids who read 161 million books at 19,962 schools and the 1.5 million kids who spent 545,888,348 minutes reading digitally. What Kids Are Reading displays popular books by grade range, by grade level, and—new this year—for Growing Readers (kids who started the year with low reading achievement but finished with exceptionally high growth). Two research spotlights dig further into the data to share what we know about How Kids Are Reading and our Insights on Growing Readers. Dr. Tiffany P. Hogan, a Professor at MGH Institute of Health Professions and Research Associate at Harvard Medical School, wrote the introduction to the report. The Full Report and additional information is available online: <https://www.renaissance.com/resources/what-kids-are-reading/>.

Anderson School District One in Williamston, South Carolina, has many high-performing students but is a low-funded district, meaning leaders must be selective about what they invest in and must thoroughly vet all tools to ensure they will be impactful. At the beginning of the 2022–2023 school year, Anderson One switched assessment programs to begin using Renaissance Star Assessments in order to access detailed information about students’ knowledge and mastery of standards-based skills. Shortly thereafter, the district added Freckle for Math and ELA, as well as Lalilo. K–5 students in the district have seen their growth scores soar using these Renaissance tools. The full study is available online: <https://renaissance.widen.net/s/wjbswknhc2/r69052>.

From the abstract: "Academic screener tools are commonly used within the context of multitiered systems of support, and it is expected that they have a high standard of technical adequacy, including reliability and validity evidence. In United States school systems, there are large numbers of students who speak languages other than English with varying levels of proficiency, and it is imperative that well-developed academic screening tools be accessible to active bilingual users/users of English (ABLE) in languages beyond English. This review evaluated the translation process, norming data, and National Center on Intensive Interventions (NCII) standards of academic screening tools that were available in the fall 2023 in early literacy, reading, and math in languages other than English. Information was coded using a rigorous, double-coding process. Findings revealed that academic screening tools for ABLE students are available only in English and Spanish. Very few academic screeners met development criteria for translated measures or met convincing evidence standards established by the NCII. Academic screening conducted in languages other than English is severely constrained by limited availability of high-quality measures. Additional effort should be devoted to developing new measures and appropriately translating and trans-adapting existing measures for ABLE students." Includes Star Alfabetización temprana, Star CBM Lectura, Star Lectura, and Star Matemáticas Citation: Huenergarde, M. C., Floyd, R. G., Harris, B., & Moreno, J. (2026). A systematic review of academic screening tools for active bilingual learners/users of English. Psychology in the Schools, 63(2), 314–331.

From the introduction: "In the fall of 2025, the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee (SC EOC), in collaboration with the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE), partnered with Education Analytics (EA) to complete a level-linking study between the South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Assessment (SC READY) in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) and Renaissance Learning's Star interim assessments in Mathematics and Reading, respectively. This report outlines the methodology used by EA and the outcomes of the linking study. The goal of this report is to statistically connect the SC READY and Star assessments' scale scores in grades 3-8 to facilitate further comparisons of proficiency status on these two assessments." This October 2025 report is reading only.The full study is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R68971>.

To develop Pathway to Proficiency reports for Iowa Star Reading and Star Math schools, we linked our scaled scores with the scaled scores from Iowa's achievement test. This technical report details the statistical method behind the process of linking Iowa's state tests (ISASP) and Star Reading and Star Math scaled scores. The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R52870>.

To develop Pathway to Proficiency reports for Tennessee Star Reading and Star Math schools, we linked our scaled scores with the scaled scores from Tennessee's achievement test. This technical report details the statistical method behind the process of linking Tennessee's state test (TCAP) and Star Reading and Star Math scaled scores. The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R52834>.

To develop Pathway to Proficiency reports for Arkansas Star Reading and Star Math schools, we linked our scaled scores with the scaled scores from the ATLAS achievement test. This technical report details the statistical method behind the process of linking ATLAS and Star Reading and Star Math scaled scores. The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R45710>.

The Star Phonics Technical Manual, which provides technical information about how the program was developed.The full technical report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R67720>.

EduEvidence, formerly the International Certification of Evidence of Impact in Education (ICEIE) has granted Renaissance's Nearpod the Silver badge (ESSA Tier 2) for Efficacy in enhancing learning outcomes.The full certification is available online: <https://eduevidence.org/products/>.

EduEvidence, formerly the International Certification of Evidence of Impact in Education (ICEIE), has granted Renaissance's Freckle for Math the Silver badge (ESSA Tier 2) for Efficacy in enhancing learning outcomes.The full certification is available online: <https://eduevidence.org/products/>.

This whitepaper introduces the Renaissance Star assessment Biliteracy Trajectories Project, The full whitepaper is aavailable online: <https://renaissance.widen.net/s/vtlslkjdns/809564-biliteracytrajectories-whitepaper>.

This large Freckle for Math study involved more than 250,000 students from Grades 3-5 and examined Freckle for Math usage and growth in general math ability (Star Student Growth Percentile) over the fall-to-spring period in the 2022-2023 school year. Students in grades 3-5 who used Freckle for Math at or above recommended levels experienced significantly greater growth than students using the program below recommended levels or not at all, particularly if the recommended usage spanned a larger portion of the school year. Using Freckle for Math at or above recommended usage levels promoted significantly greater growth among students in different educational settings (e.g., urban/suburban/rural, economically disadvantaged school classified as Title I), and among students using the program in small groups and large groups. Using Freckle for Math at or above recommended usage levels also promoted significantly greater growth for students of differing characteristics, including at risk students who struggle with math and English Language Learners.The full study is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R67897>.

From the Introduction: "To provide optimal power and usefulness within our Star Assessments and many of our practice products, Renaissance takes a unique approach to content creation through the development of custom learning progressions. In general, learning progressions are descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of thinking about key disciplinary concepts and practices across multiple grades, which outline intermediate steps toward expertise (Pellegrino, 2011). Learning progressions lay out in words and examples what it means to move toward more expert understanding (Wilson & Bertenthal 2005) in a subject area. While not unlike a traditional scope and sequence, learning progressions are far more thoughtfully developed and emphasize a holistic, cross-grades focus."The Full Report is available online: <https://renaissance.widen.net/s/jdm9kgx5cw/780549-lpfocusskills-whitepaper>.