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The US Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) recently sent out a memo that requires IEP goals to be relevant for the grade in which the student is enrolled. There is no technology to help teachers do this – yet.

At the secondary level, multi-tiered services of support are still a relatively new practice. Dr. Mark Shinn explains how curriculum-based measurement helps educators organize and plan for intervention measures within the demanding and increasingly varied schedules in middle and high schools.

Typically, end of year benchmark data is underused, which forfeits valuable time for intervention measures during the summer that could help narrow or close the student’s learning gap. Dr. Mark Shinn discusses how to use screening and progress monitoring instruments at the end of year to assist in goal-setting and planning.

It seems like every week there is an increase in the "anti-testing" movement, which although a number of complaints are legitimate, are painting all tests with the same brush. This piece provides a context for understanding how Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) remains invaluable for simple, time and cost efficient frequent basic skills progress monitoring and screening. 

Download "What Makes CBM Tests Useful for Practice in MTSS"

This entry is a continuation of the previous entry that described the most familiar of the two types of Progress Monitoring practices, Mastery Monitoring (MM) or Short-Term Measurement. As noted, this type of Progress Monitoring has high instructional validity (did students learn what I taught today, this week, etc.), but is typically less accurate as a measure of long-term growth. General Outcome Measurement (GOM), represented by Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM), is the most research example.

The first of a two part posting on different approaches to frequent progress monitoring, Mastery Monitoring (MM) or Short-Term Measurement (STM).

Teachability_The_Two_Types_of_Progress_Monitoring_Part_1 - Download

Frequent basic skills progress monitoring (i.e., making decisions regarding the benefits of particular instruction to a student), has typically been secondary to other assessment practices, such as eligibility for special programs, screening, and program evaluation and accountability. This lack of attention is unfortunate because a powerful teaching tool is underutilized.