Frequently Asked Questions about Curriculum-Based Measurement
In 2005, the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring held its second Summer Institute. The focus of the Institute was on CBM in Mathematics. Here, you will find an extensive compilation of the questions asked at the Institute, as well as some others that we thought would be helpful.
Mathematics Sub-topics
Click to explore below - page last updated on 9/9/05
If there are questions from the new Math FAQ that you would like to discuss, visit our Discussion Board and post your comment or question.
General Mathematics & Curriculum Based Measurement Questions
- Would you recommend that students with spatial difficulties track with their fingers to ensure they don’t lose their place?
- Do students show an increase or decrease in performance by using color-coded probes?
- On time-specific tests, do you make time accommodations for students with physical or sensory disabilities? If so, how do you know how much extra time to allow?
- Do you provide accommodations to student with disabilities when assessing with CBM?
- I thought you actually used your curriculum to assess or measure student progress. How do commercially available probes do this?
- Are there measures for middle and high school students, or are they just for elementary students?
- When using a spiral curriculum where mastery of skill is not required but many topics are skimmed across the year, how can CBM be used as an aid for instructional decision-making?
- If we change the directions when administering CBM probes, does it invalidate the results?
- Are you recommending 1 time a week for each student that requires progress monitoring and 3 times a year for everyone else?
- Where are the benchmarks? How are they established? National, local, school-wide / specific to classroom?
- Can progress monitoring be used for marker variables – in identifying sub-skills that build to reading competency?
- Is this a lead to “Response to Intervention” instead of “Discrepancy Model” in determining special needs students?
- If we no longer look for discrepancies between IQ and achievement, how is the student who has a very low IQ, yet performs in the normal range, ever identified? In other words, will that student get intervention so that he or she can perform to his or her ability? Or, will the teacher assume that because the student is in the normal range, everything is okay?
- When using CBM to monitor progress to make AYP, how do we know that the CBM benchmark matches the benchmarks on the state assessment (which determines AYP) for proficiency? Proficiency on one may not be proficiency on another.
Quantity Array
- If students “name” quantity vs. add dots, should the teacher prompt students to provide a single number answer?
- If a student moves vertically across the page, should the teacher prompt him to move horizontally across the page? (or to use a ruler? Finger?)
- Does the quantity array test the student’s ability to count, or his or her familiarity with groupings of dots?
- If you see a pattern of errors, can you re-direct?
- What do you do if during quantity array the student states left and right arrays separately and does not combine the two?
Computation
Concepts and Application
Other
- The 6 th step of this process, “How to Apply Decision Rules to Graphed Scores to Know When to Revise Programs and Increase Goals,” suggests to review the 4 most recent consecutive scores – is this based on weekly monitoring or monitoring twice a week? Can we afford to wait a month (if monitoring once a week) before intervening?
- Using the intra-individual framework for establishing goals, do the first eight scores represent performance during the course of regular instruction or performance during intervention?
- If scores flat-line, how is an intervention chosen? How are deficit skills identified in math?
General
Would you recommend that students with spatial difficulties track with their fingers to ensure they don’t lose their place?
If this is not stated in the standardized directions, it should not be used. If it is used (and is not part of the standardized directions), it should be recognized that (a) the scores the student obtains cannot be compared to those of other peers who did not use this modification, and (b) it must be incorporated in every administration in the same way.
Do students show an increase or decrease in performance by using color-coded probes?
We are not aware of any research that has looked at this. Because color coding has not been proven to impact learning in other areas, it is unlikely it would affect performance here.
On time-specific tests, do you make time accommodations for students with physical or sensory disabilities? If so, how do you know how much extra time to allow?
You can incorporate accommodations that appear on the student’s IEP, but those accommodations must be used in the exactly the same way for each and every administration. It should be recognized that the scores the student obtains cannot be compared to those of other peers who did not use this modification.
Do you provide accommodations to student with disabilities when assessing with CBM?
You can incorporate accommodations that appear on the student’s IEP, but those accommodations must be used in the exactly the same way for each and every administration. It should be recognized that the scores the student obtains cannot be compared to those of other peers who did not use this modification.
I thought you actually used your curriculum to assess or measure student progress. How do commercially available probes do this?
You can develop your own probes that are aligned to your specific instructional program. It is time consuming, however, to develop the materials, and the appropriateness (grade level/ readability level) are unknown. Commercial material is typically better developed and will assess the skills in the same way as if they were taken from the curriculum. Research shows that generic probes, like CBM, which are developed to mirror key aspects across curricula, work well.
Are there measures for middle and high school students, or are they just for elementary students?
Many of the measures have been created for kindergarten through 8 th grade. Some work has been done with high school students, but this is still a relatively new area of research. If you are interested in information about secondary students and CBM, access the Research Institute on Progress Monitoring (www.progressmonitoring.org) for this topic.
When using a spiral curriculum where mastery of skill is not required but many topics are skimmed across the year, how can CBM be used as an aid for instructional decision-making?
No matter what type of curriculum you use, CBM will report whether a student is making growth or not. In fact, because CBM samples skills that are addressed across the entire school year, it is well-suited to a spiraling curriculum.
If we change the directions when administering CBM probes, does it invalidate the results?
Absolutely!
Are you recommending 1 time a week for each student that requires progress monitoring and 3 times a year for everyone else?
The minimum schedule is 3 times a year for students who are not at risk. Technically, this is not progress monitoring. For progress monitoring, once a month is required, and we recommend this for at-risk students. For students in special education, we recommend twice weekly.
Where are the benchmarks? How are they established? National, local, school-wide / specific to classroom?
The benchmarks from the 2005 Summer Institute can be found on page 61 of the math progress monitoring manual. The norms are on page 62. (The math manual will be posted on-line soon.) The norms are established based on national data, but CBM can be used to establish state, district, and campus norms.
Can progress monitoring be used for marker variables – in identifying sub-skills that build to reading competency?
Most basic academic skills can be subdivided into sets of different skills. As a General Outcome Measurement (GOM), CBM progress monitoring is not specifically designed for sub-skill analysis. But, if you know the sub-skills and have categorized the GOM into sub-skills prior to assessment, it certainly can be done. After the assessment is conducted, an “error analysis” can be done on the problems (i.e., in math) that the student performed incorrectly (the same could be done in reading if each word in the passage was analyzed for its specific sub-skills). Some commercial programs in math provide skills analysis automatically via computers. In reading, procedures for conducting skills analysis during the oral reading fluency assessment are described in the 2004 Summer Institute manual (manual will be posted soon). In addition, Ken Howell, Western Washington University, has written extensively on how to do this kind of information assessment to supplement progress monitoring.
Is this a lead to “Response to Intervention” instead of “Discrepancy Model” in determining special needs students?
Yes, it probably is. The reauthorization of IDEA offers RTI as an alternative method (in lieu of a discrepancy approach) for determining the specific learning disabilities classification.
If we no longer look for discrepancies between IQ and achievement, how is the student who has a very low IQ, yet performs in the normal range, ever identified? In other words, will that student get intervention so that he or she can perform to his or her ability? Or, will the teacher assume that because the student is in the normal range, everything is okay?
If the student is performing in the “normal” range, why would s/he need intervention? In your example the student would actually be exceeding what would be expected on the basis of his/her IQ. A problem-solving approach is “needs” based, with “needs” referring to academic needs irrespective of “ability.” For example, take two students who are both achieving far below academic standards. The first child has an average IQ and exhibits a discrepancy. The second child’s IQ is below average and is commensurate with his/her academic achievement. In a discrepancy model, only the first child would likely receive compensatory education. The second child might be considered “performing at his/her ability.” In a problem-solving, needs based model, both children would receive intervention due to similar academic needs. The research is quite clear that both types of students respond similarly to quality interventions (i.e., there is no evidence that the child with the discrepancy has instructional needs that are somehow unique to the fact that he or she exhibits a discrepancy). In this model, all children are considered on the basis of educational need, not on the basis of some ability threshold.
When using CBM to monitor progress to make AYP, how do we know that the CBM benchmark matches the benchmarks on the state assessment (which determines AYP) for proficiency? Proficiency on one may not be proficiency on another.
There is emerging evidence that CBM can be used to predict performance on state assessments beyond simple correlation. A forthcoming article by Hintze and Silberglitt in School Psychology Review demonstrates how CBM cut-scores can be developed to predict the likelihood that a student will pass/fail a state assessment. Importantly, these cut-scores can be calculated as far back as kindergarten and first-grade (or many years before the state assessment is administered). Also, see the paper, “Determining Adequate Yearly Progress from Kindergarten through Grade Six with Curriculum Based Measurement”. Progress monitoring provides a guide to teachers/schools about how individual students are improving toward meeting AYP.
Quantity Array
If students “name” quantity vs. add dots, should the teacher prompt students to provide a single number answer?
Students should be prompted one time to tell the total number of dots in the box. After that, they should not be prompted again.
If a student moves vertically across the page, should the teacher prompt him to move horizontally across the page? (or to use a ruler? Finger?)
The student should be prompted one time to move across the page horizontally, and the administrator should point to the next item that the student needs to complete. Using a ruler can sometime slow the student down, as the student can only move as fast as the person moves the ruler down the page.
Does the quantity array test the student’s ability to count, or his or her familiarity with groupings of dots?
It was designed to test the student’s overall ability to recognize numerical value from symbols, which is a factor in the development of early numeracy. Some students will be at the stage where they are familiar with patterns of dots and can rapidly name numbers, while others will need to count each dot one-by-one.
If you see a pattern of errors, can you re-direct?
You shouldn’t re-direct or stop the student. However, you can give one verbal prompt at the beginning of the task if it is apparent that the student does not understand the task directions. After that, the student should be allowed to proceed through the assessment, completing as many items as possible.
What do you do if during quantity array the student states left and right arrays separately and does not combine the two?
The first time, you should prompt the student to tell you the total number of dots in the box and physically point to all dots. Then the student should continue with no prompts, even if he/she says each number for each group of dots in the box independently. The student is not given credit unless he/she gives the number for the total number of dots in each box.
Computation
How do you handle “correct digit” quantities when different algorithms are allowed? (e.g. multi-digit multiplication using traditional method, partial product, etc.)
We recommend scoring digits in answers, not in the work the student does to obtain the answer.
Concepts and Application
More and more, 6 th grade students are allowed to use calculators. How does this affect the Concepts and Applications probes in CBM?
If your district/state policy does not require students to learn computation (except by using calculators), you can permit students to complete the CBM assessment using calculators. We recommend, however, that you administer the test in the same way every time; either using calculators, or not. It should be noted, however, that increasingly, research shows the importance of students understanding algorithms.
Other
The 6 th step of this process, “How to Apply Decision Rules to Graphed Scores to Know When to Revise Programs and Increase Goals,” suggests to review the 4 most recent consecutive scores – is this based on weekly monitoring or monitoring twice a week? Can we afford to wait a month (if monitoring once a week) before intervening?
The decision rules apply regardless of whether data are collected weekly or twice weekly. For this reason, we recommend twice weekly data collection for students with severe academic deficits.
Using the intra-individual framework for establishing goals, do the first eight scores represent performance during the course of regular instruction or performance during intervention?
This depends on the situation. If, for example, the student is already in special education, the first eight scores would be collected during the first intervention period.
If scores flat-line, how is an intervention chosen? How are deficit skills identified in math?
There are no hard and fast rules for determining intervention, as this will vary by student needs. Deficit skills in math can be identified by looking for patterns of errors on the students’ probes and quantifying these errors or by using a computerized math CBM system, such as Monitoring Basic Skills Progress www.proedinc.com, which provides a skills analysis for each student.
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