1. Curriculum-Based Assessment and Other Informal Measures
Chapter 5
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

2. Curriculum-based assessment- Using curriculum materials
to measure student progress and achievement. This includes
a variety of testing methods such as teacher made tests,
tests made by the producer of the materials such as
end of chapter tests, and other assessments using the
actual content of the instructional materials.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

3. Curriculum-based measurement- A specific type of
curriculum-based assessment that uses repeated
assessments or measurements of specific skills. These
assessments are based on a long-term goal and seek to
determine if a student is progressing along an aim line to
meet that annual goal.
Curriculum-based measurements are formative evaluations.
This means that the progress is monitored during the
instructional period rather than just at the end of the
instructional period like summative evaluations.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

4. Curriculum-Based Measurement
CBMs or curriculum-based measurement has been found
to be effective in assessing of oral reading fluency,
spelling skills, written expression, and mathematics skills.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

5. Constructing Curriculum-Based Measurement
for Oral Reading
* Oral reading fluency is one skill that indicates how well
a student is achieving within the curriculum.
* Oral reading fluency measures are constructed by
selecting grade level passages that the student has not
read before, and asking the student to read the passages.
* The teacher counts the number of correctly read words
read aloud in 1 minute.
* The goal of using CBM is to determine if the student
continues to increase in the number of correctly read words
from one week to the next and to make adjustments if the
student is not progressing as expected.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

6. Constructing Curriculum-Based Measurement for
Oral Reading Fluency
Steps:
Select the number of passages needed to have a total of
two passages per week plus an additional 3 passages
to take the baseline.
2. Make 2 copies of each passage. The teacher’s copy will
have the cumulative total of words at the end of each line
so the teacher can quickly count the words read and record
the total.
3. Have the student read 3 passages to determine the baseline.
The baseline score can either be the median score of the 3
scores or the average of the 3 scores.
4. Use the established expectations of the number of words
expected to increase per week and multiply by the number
of weeks of instruction to determine the aim line.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

7. Constructing Curriculum-Based Measurement For Oral Reading Fluency
For example, if the baseline score is 35 words and the
number of words that the student is expected to increase
per week is 1.25 for 20 weeks the aim line is calculated as:
20 x = =
weeks expected expected baseline goal
increase increase
per in 20
week weeks
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

8. Charting Progress of Curriculum-Based Measurement- Aim Line60 55 50 45 40 35 W o r d s
aim line
..….
Baseline
Weeks
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

9. Charting Progress of a CBM
Once the aim line has been plotted, the number of words correctly read is marked after each reading. The student should complete at least 2 CBM tasks per week.
The next slide illustrates the progress of a student after several measurements have been charted.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

10. Charting Progress of Curriculum-Based Measurement60 55 50 45 40 35 W o r d s
aim line
..….
Baseline
Weeks
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

11. Using CBM to Make Educational Decisions
The previous slide indicates that the student is keeping
pace with the number of words expected each week. In
other words, the student is increasing the number
of correctly read words at the level expected for students
in the second grade.
Look at the next slide. This slide will indicate that the pace of oral reading has changed. As a teacher, what
does this mean for educational planning and interventions?
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

12. Charting Progress of Curriculum-Based Measurement60 55 50 45 40 35 W o r d s
aim line
..….
…… 25
Baseline
Weeks
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

13. Using CBM to Make Educational Decisions
As you can see in the previous slide, the student’s pace
began to decrease. Generally, when the student progress
declines for 3 or more measures taken, the educational
instruction needs to be changed. In this case, additional
instruction, individual intervention, and additional
tutoring at school helped to bring the student oral reading
rate back to the level expected.
When the data collected indicates that a student is reading
well beyond the rate expected, the aim line may need to be
adjusted or the curriculum may need to be changed to be
more challenging for the student.An example is shown in the
next slide.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

14. Charting Progress of Curriculum-Based Measurement60 55 50 45 40 35 W o r d s
aim line
..….
Baseline
Weeks
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

15. Other Informal Measures
Criterion-referenced Tests- To assess a
student's progress in skill mastery
against specific standards
Criterion-related Tests-To assess student's
progress on items that are similar to objectives
or standards
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Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

16. Checklists and Questionnaires
A variety of measures used to determine
student's skill level or behavioral functioning.
These instruments may be prepared by the
teacher or they may be commercially prepared.
A variety of checklists and questionnaires
exist that may be designed to be completed
by the teacher, student, or parent. An example
of a teacher made questionnaire is presented
on the next slide.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

17. Study Skills Questionnaire
1.Where do you like to study at home? ___________
_________________________________________
2. How do you study your class notes? ___________
3. Describe the strategies you use to study your
textbook: ________________________________
4. What time of day is best for you to study? ______
5. Do you prefer to study alone or with another
classmate? _______________________________
6. How do you practice answering questions? _____
__________________________________________
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Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

18. Writing Items for Teacher Made Tests
All teachers evaluate their students to assess progress
within the curriculum. Teachers not only assess the
progress of skills, such as with CBMs,they also assess
acquired knowledge.
Writing effective test items that measure acquisition and
mastery of material requires items that assess a variety
of levels of knowledge. For example, items may be written
to assess the simple skill level of rote memory or to assess
analytical skills. These represent 2 different levels of
knowledge and thinking.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

19. Examples of Different Forms
and Levels of Test Items
The standard deviation is found by determining the
square root of _________________. (Recall, fill
in the blank or short answer).
The standard deviation is found by determining the:
a. the sum of squares
b. the difference
c. the square root of the variance
d. the squares
(Recall, multiple choice).
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Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

20. Examples of Different Forms
and Levels of Test Items
3. The standard deviation is the square root of the variance T F
(recall, True or False)
4. Look at the list of scores below. Calculate the standard deviation for this set of data:
98, 99, 100, 77, 78, 65, 94, 94, 93, 71, 68, 69, 75, 94, 94, 98
(Application, synthesis)
5. Select the best test from the choices below and explain why you think it is the best one.
TEST A TEST B
SEM = SEM = 2
Standard Deviation Standard Deviation 10
(Essay, application, analysis and synthesis)
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Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e

21. Writing Test Items, Continued
As you can see from the previous slides, there are many ways to write test items to assess the same content. As a
teacher, you will need to determine the level of understanding you expect given the developmental age of the students and the instruction provided. Test items
should be written to reflect these educational expectations.
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Terry Overton Assessing Learners with Special Needs, 5e