Curriculum-Based Assessment

Curriculum-based assessment (CBA) can be defined as any set of measurement procedures that use “direct observation and recording of a student's performance in the local curriculum as a basis for gathering information to make instructional decisions” (Deno, 1987, p. 41). Although the term CBA increasingly has come into common usage as a methodology, it represents a number of diverse assessment practices. Shinn and colleagues (1989) identified four different models of CBA that have been presented in the professional literature:

• 1.
  Curriculum-based assessment for instructional design (CBA-ID)
• 2.
  Criterion-referenced curriculum-based assessment (CR-CBA)
• 3.
  Curriculum-based evaluation (CBE)
• 4.
  Curriculum-based measurement (CBM)

Shapiro (1990) offered another model that integrates aspects of the models listed above in addition to assessing the instructional ecology of the academic environment.

Although the definition of CBA as posed by ...