The Contribution of Skills Analysis to Curriculum-Based Measurement in Spelling

The purpose of this study was to assess the contribution of ongoing skills analysis to Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM). Thirty special educators were assigned randomly to treatment groups, including a control condition and different levels of CBM analysis, one of which included graphed performance indicators with skills analysis; one, graphed performance indicators only; and another, graphed performance indicators with ordered lists of student spellings. Teachers who used skills analysis effected, better achievement than controls and than CBM teachers who had no additional analysis. Although the mean achievement of students whose teachers had skills analysis was greater than that of teachers who inspected ordered lists of errors, the difference in achievement was not reliable, and the teachers who inspected errors effected greater growth than controls. Implications for CBM practice are discussed.