Skills-based measurements (SBMs) are used to determine if students are academically at risk or struggling. SBMs involve measuring individual skills through frequent short assessments. Scores are tracked over time to monitor progress towards instructional goals. SBMs help determine a student's instructional level and when initial goals have been met so instruction can be modified if needed. Items on SBMs assess specific goals and are ordered randomly to evaluate individual skills.

1. 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
Criteria for Determining Student’s Instructional Level:
Instructional
Level
Correct
Digits
(Frustrationa
l Range)
Correct
Digits
(Instructiona
l Range)
Correct
Digits
(Mastery
Range)
1-3 0-13 14-
31
32+
4+ 0-23 24-
39
50+

2. Skills-Based
Measurements
Terry Cooper
Shirley Friar
Katrina Mitchell

3. 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.).

4. 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).

5. 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).

6. 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)

7. 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+