How is the easyCBM system to be used in schools?
The easyCBM program is a tool designed to give teachers insight into which of their students may need additional instructional support as well as to provide a means by which they can measure the effectiveness of their teaching.
Our easy CBM Lite program is a progress monitoring system designed to assist students who are performing below the 50th percentile of their peers. It was created to measure students’ response to intervention and progress throughout the year. These assessments, known as CBMs or curriculum based measurement, are standardized measures that sample from a year’s worth of curriculum to assess the degree to which students have mastered the skills and knowledge deemed critical at each grade level.
Our upgraded Teacher Deluxe program also utilizes a benchmark screener where all students are tested two to three times a year to see how students are doing academically in areas such as reading and math. Benchmark tests are actually screeners and are given to students at their grade level to see where they are academically compared to students in their own grade, at a particular time of year. These screeners are intended to be used to identify students most in need of instructional interventions. They do not identify what grade level students are performing at.
For those students who test in the normal range for their grade, no further testing is needed. They just are testing during the benchmark screening periods. However, if you have students that test low or below the expected range of performance (below the 50th percentile), then easyCBM provides a tool teachers can use to help their students who are struggling. This tool is progress-monitoring measures. The goal will always be to get low functioning students back on their expected grade level as soon as possible and at the 50th percentile.