Skills-Based Measurements (SBMs)Determines if students are academically at risk

Use for screening, survey-level testing, progress monitoring

Aids in determining when initial goals are met, and students’ instructional level

USES

Measure individual skills

Designed according to goals to be

assessed

Administered on a frequent basis

All items of a goal are on the same

level

Each goal equally represented on

assessment

Items should be in random order

Exemplers/Illustration

Developing math sheets to use

results diagnostically

Aligning math sheet with

curriculum

Instructional Level

Correct

Digits

(Frustrational Range)

Correct

Digits

(Instructional Range)

Correct

Digits

(Mastery Range)

1-3 0-13 14-31

32+

4+ 0-23 24-39

50+

Criteria for Determining Student’s Instructional Level:

Skills-Based

MeasurementsTerry Cooper

Shirley Friar

Katrina Mitchell

Purpose

Skills-Based Measurements (SBMs) is a very adequate way to determine if

students are not matriculating as they should academically, or if they are at

risk of academic failure (Hosp, Hosp, & Howell, 2007). SBMs’ screening

capabilities enable the teacher to determine which students are in need of

further assistance. Progress-monitoring aids in determining when initial goals

have been met and the student can move on to new goals. It also helps in

determining if student instruction should be modified (Hosp et al., 2007). As a

part of SBMs, survey level testing can be used to determine the students’

instructional level, as well as, narrow down the testing needed to determine

students’ level of performance (Hosp et al.).

How Used

As its name infers, Skill-Based Measurements measure individual skills. To design a series of SBM”s, the first objective to be met is to identify the set of goals to be assessed over the period of time to be assessed. Although a shorter time frame could be chosen, typically the whole year would be the time frame assessed. After the goals have been determined, items need to be created to assess the goals. When these items are created a specific set of criterion should be used. All items for a particular goal should be of the same difficulty. Each goal should be equally represented on the assessment as well. The order for the items should be random from the student’s point of view. This means that the order should not be the same as the oreder in which the content was or is to be taught. The complexity of each assessment item should also not be used to determine the order. Finally, each item should be linked and cross-referenced to the goal or skill being assessed so that information is available for instructional purposes (Hosp, Hosp, & Howell, 2007).

Directions for the assessment would typically tell students that if they did know a particular item that they could skip it and go on to the next item. These assessments should be administered on a frequent basis such as weekly or bi-weekly and tracked over the entire assessment period so that improvement can be tracked (Hosp, Hosp, & Howell, 2007).

Exemplars of Use

When developing math sheets, it is prudent to plan so that the results can be

used in a diagnostic way. The authors give examples of aligning the math

sheet with their curriculum. The sheets were set up into five columns and

five rows, giving a total of 25 problems. Each of those five skills were put on a

diagonal. As the sheet is scored the authors looked to see if there was a

pattern of the student missing problems within a diagonal. These patterns

should not be considered reliable evidence of that student’s deficit in the

specific skills, but should be considered as hypotheses to test with more in-

depth measures or evidence of skills that need to be taught or reviewed

(Hosp, Hosp, Howell 2007).

Illustration

Math CBM is a content area where survey-level assessment (SLA) has been used. The procedures are similar except while SLA for reading uses GOMs (ORF CBM is the task used). Math CBM uses SBMs. So rather than testing forward or backward through a curriculum to find an instructional level, SLA for math is done slightly differently. The first step is to administer three sheets at the appropriate curriculum level (generally the student’s grade level). Record the scores and grade level in the “Mixed Math” table in the SLA Math sheet. Find the median correct digits (CD) and compare that score to the performance criteria. If the student’s performance is in the instructional range, great; if it is in the frustrational range the teacher should administer single-skill sheets that correspond to the skills included in the mixed-math sheets just administered. If sheets have been set up to provide preliminary diagnostic information, the teacher will have an idea of which skills to focus on (Hosp, Hosp, Howell 2007)

Criteria for Determining Student’s Instructional

Level:

Instructional Level Correct Digits

(Frustrational Range)

Correct Digits

(Instructional Range)

Correct Digits(Mastery Range)

1-3 0-13 14-31 32+

4+ 0-23 24-39 50+