Can progress monitoring be used for marker variables – in identifying sub-skills that build to reading competency?
Most basic academic skills can be subdivided into sets of different skills. As a General Outcome Measurement (GOM), CBM progress monitoring is not specifically designed for sub-skill analysis. But, if you know the sub-skills and have categorized the GOM into sub-skills prior to assessment, it certainly can be done. After the assessment is conducted, an “error analysis” can be done on the problems (i.e., in math) that the student performed incorrectly (the same could be done in reading if each word in the passage was analyzed for its specific sub-skills). Some commercial programs in math provide skills analysis automatically via computers. In reading, procedures for conducting skills analysis during the oral reading fluency assessment are described in the 2004 Summer Institute manual (manual will be posted soon). In addition, Ken Howell, Western Washington University, has written extensively on how to do this kind of information assessment to supplement progress monitoring.
