Curriculum-Based Measurement

History of CBM

CBM began with the work of Stanley Deno and a number of doctoral students at the University of Minnesota in the late 1970s. Borrowing from the field of applied behavioral analysis, Deno and his team developed a measurement system that could efficiently produce monitoring data, could be displayed in graphic form, and would permit students' academic progress to be evaluated in only a few minutes.

CBM was examined in the 1970s with school-aged children with and without disabilities to assess its technical quality (e.g., reliability, validity) and practical utility (e.g., ease of administration). Following this development and validation phase, interest in CBM expanded because it provided an efficient alternative to expensive and time-consuming norm-referenced tests and was closely aligned with the curriculum. CBM has had the support of the U.S. Department of Education since the 1980s.

Examples of CBM

Examples of the application of CBM to reading, mathematics, spelling, and writing follow.

• 1.
  In reading, students read aloud for 1 minute from reading probes taken from basal reading series or from other reading probes designed with some control for grade-based readability. The number of words read correctly per minute is the metric of interest for evaluating oral reading fluency. In practice, three reading probes are given, and the middle score is reported. Another reading measure commonly used is the maze-reading task, a multiple-choice cloze technique in which students read grade-level reading passages in which every seventh word has been deleted and replaced by a blank; students are asked to fill in the blank by selecting one of three alternatives that appear beneath the blank. The measure is scored by counting the number of correct word choices per 5 minutes.
• 2.
  In mathematics, students write answers to computational problems. The math probes last from 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the type of skill assessed. The number of digits correct and incorrect for each probe is counted.
• 3.
  In spelling, the examiner dictates words at specified intervals of time for 2 minutes, and the number of correct letter sequences and words spelled correctly is counted.
• 4.
  In writing, the student is given a “story starter” (e.g., “Jill got a surprise package in the mail”) and is asked to write a story within 3 minutes. The number of words written, spelled correctly, correct word sequences, or both are counted.

CBM is designed to identify students whose level and rate (slope) of performance are below those of the reference group. Thus, equal weight is given to skill level (low achievement) and to progress (slope), regardless of the type of skill assessed.

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