Glossary · Fluency and assessment
What is curriculum-based measurement?
Definition
Curriculum-based measurement is a family of short, standardized, timed probes, such as oral reading fluency, used to track student growth week by week.
Each probe takes a minute or two and has many equivalent forms, so it can be given every week without the student learning the items. Scores are graphed and compared against an aimline.
The approach was developed in the 1970s and 1980s, largely at the University of Minnesota, as a way for teachers to check whether instruction was working. Its measures are general indicators. Oral reading fluency, for example, tracks overall reading growth rather than one skill.
CBM is different from a lesson check. A lesson check asks whether the student learned today's pattern. CBM asks whether reading as a whole is improving. You need both, and they answer different questions.
In a lesson
Every Thursday a teacher gives a one-minute reading probe from a set of equivalent passages and adds the score to the student's graph. Each week uses a new passage.
Why does this matter for the record?
Keep CBM scores and lesson ratings side by side. When the lesson ratings are good but CBM is flat, skills aren't carrying over into connected reading.
Rate each skill as you teach it
Needs support, Developing, Secure. The rating schedules the review and builds the report.