CBM progress monitoring within a standards-based system: introduction to the special series.(curriculum-based measurement )

Monitoring students' progress has always been an important component of the educational process. Recently, with requirements brought on by standards-based reform and school accountability (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001), progress monitoring has received closer attention in educational research, policy, and practice. For example, progress monitoring in general, and curriculum-based measurement (CBM; Deno, 1985) in particular, has been proposed as a means for predicting performance on and monitoring progress toward rigorous, state-defined academic standards for individual students (Espin, Wallace, Campbell, Lembke, Long, & Ticha, 2005; Crawford, Tindal, & Stieber, 2001; Hintze & Silberglitt, 2005; McGlinchey & Hixson, 2004; Nolet & McLaughlin, 2000; Silberglitt & Hintze, 2005). Moreover, progress monitoring has been used as part of a response-to-intervention (RTI) assessment approach for special education referral and identification (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006; President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education, 2002; Speece, Case, & Molloy, 2003).

Whereas researchers have documented a variety of uses for CBM, a comprehensive system of measurement designed to assess individual progress within a standards-based educational system has not yet been established. The breadth and depth of CBM research varies with content area, student age, skill level, use of CBM data, and more. For example, substantial research has been conducted in the elementary grades; less has been conducted in the secondary grades. Reading has received more attention than has mathematics or writing, and CBM's application to students with high-incidence disabilities has been studied more extensively than has its application to students in other disability categories.

In 2003, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) funded the Research Institute on Progress Monitoring (RIPM) at the University of Minnesota. A major goal of the institute was to work toward the development of a seamless and flexible system of progress monitoring. Seamless and flexible implies a system that can be used across students of different ages and skill levels and across settings and curricula. The development of a seamless and flexible system of progress monitoring would require identification of durable measures-measures that would prove valid and reliable across students and settings. The first step in the research program was to review the extensive body of existing CBM research to identify gaps in the research and to highlight areas of need for future research. The last comprehensive review of CBM research was reported by Marston in 1989, but since that time, numerous studies have been conducted. An updated review of CBM literature is needed.

This issue of The Journal of Special Education includes reviews of the CBM literature conducted as a part of the RIPM in the areas of reading, writing, and math. The reviews are designed to provide teachers, administrators, parents, and researchers with information about the present status of CBM-where the support is strong and where more work is needed. A clear understanding of the research base ...