Schools across the nation are responding to reading assessment mandates by turning to DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), a program endorsed by the Federal Reading First Grant Office, to assess fluency on a range of reading-related tasks. DIBELS makes strong claims regarding its usefulness in documenting reading progress…

Examines the extent to which curriculum-based measurement (CBM) survey-level mathematics assessment varies as a function of type of survey-level assessment used and the generalizability of results. Results of a generalizability analysis suggest that for single-skill survey-level CBM math assessments, the administration of one single-skill math…

Ecological validity is an important construct in the assessment of young children. The argument is made that using environmentally based assessment practices as well as understanding the child's ecology will help assure that assessments are carried out in an ecologically valid manner. The discussion focuses on play-based assessment,…

This study examined the relation between benchmark data and rate of growth across the year for reading, math computation, and math concepts and applications curriculum-based measures, and a statewide and large-scale achievement test. Results showed that reading and math benchmarks were significantly and moderately correlated with performance on…

There is a growing body of literature linking curriculum based measurements and general outcome measures to state test outcomes. With an increasing focus on the early identification of students at risk for academic failure, the present study investigated the predictive validity of preschool early literacy general outcome measures (GOMs) in a low…

This article describes the development of a process for universal screening and progress monitoring in reading at the elementary level that can be used in a school-wide Response to Intervention (RtI) model. University personnel worked with teachers and administration at an urban elementary school to develop and implement the model in response to a…

Federal efforts to improve American students' achievement through high-stakes testing have led to significant concerns about the fairness and effectiveness of standardized tests. We attribute these concerns to the use of summative tests to assess academic progress without the benefits of an effective formative model of assessment and instruction,…

This study investigated the technical features of six potential progress-monitoring measures in mathematics appropriate for use at the middle school level, including two commercially available measures for sixth-grade mathematics, two measures used in previous middle school studies, and two new measures of numeracy concepts. Five hundred…

The purpose of this article is to explore the research and developmental needs for curriculum-based measurement (CBM) at the secondary level (9th through 12th grades) for mathematics. Much has been accomplished empirically on the validity, reliability, and utility of CBM as an assessment measure in mathematics at the elementary level.…

We examined the technical adequacy of writing progress measures as indicators of success on state standards tests. Tenth-grade students wrote for 10 min, marking their samples at 3, 5, and 7 min. Samples were scored for words written, words spelled correctly, and correct and correct minus incorrect word sequences. The number of correct minus…

This study examined the accuracy of a curriculum-based assessment for use during the eligibility process for Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) services. The study extended a previous investigation in which performance scores of children without disabilities on the Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System (AEPS)…

This study investigated the assessment practices used by resource room teachers in Jordan to determine eligibility for learning disability, and to identify assessment obstacles. The study also investigated whether assessment practices and obstacles of assessment differ among resource room teachers as a function of gender and academic…

All students from grades 3 through 8 were tested in the fall, winter, and spring of 2009 on passage reading fluency (PRF) measures from easyCBM [R]. Student characteristics were analyzed for influence on reading growth. The results showed the negative effects from being a male or a student of color, coming from an economically disadvantaged…

There are a number of steps that parents can take to ensure that a child realizes the benefits of Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM). The first is to become familiar with CBM. This article describes steps for parents both when CBM has not been implemented in the classroom and following adoption.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between English phonics (nonsense word fluency) and reading performance for 134 English language learners. First-grade nonsense word fluency scores had significant moderate to large correlations to three third-grade outcome measures: curriculum-based measurement in reading (0.65), Maze…