Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading: An evaluation of growth rates and seasonal effects among students served in general and special education

Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading (CBM-R) is often used to benchmark growth in the fall, winter, and spring. CBM-R is also used to set goals and monitor student progress between benchmarking occasions. The results of previous research establish an expectation that weekly growth on CBM-R tasks is consistently linear throughout the academic year. The patterns of CBM-R growth were examined for a large sample of students (N = 3808) from both general education and special education populations in second to sixth grades. Results support four general conclusions: (a) annual growth is more substantial within the general education population; (b) growth is more substantial in earlier elementary grades; (c) more growth occurs in the fall than the spring season (i.e., seasonal effect), especially within the early primary general education population; and (d) the seasonal effect is less pronounced within the special education population. Estimates of growth within and across seasons are presented and implications are discussed.