Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I get the data export feature on the reporting section to work on my computer?

When you click on an "Export CSV" link in the reporting section, ideally your browser should download the corresponding .csv (Excel supported "Comma Separated Values") file then automatically open it with Excel. However, there's always a chance your Operating System and Browser might be configured to do something different than that.

If you're having trouble, the first step is to get the .csv file downloaded to your computer and saved in a location of your choosing, such as the Desktop. When the "Export CSV" link is clicked, some browsers will automatically download the file to a default location, usually the Desktop, while others will prompt you to Open or Save the file. If it does prompt you, choose Save and select the desktop or an appropriate folder. Another option is to right-click the "Export CSV" link, select "Save as...", then manually save the file. If the filename does not end in ".csv", change the name so it does.

Once the file is saved to your computer open Excel. When the program has loaded, select Open from the File menu, then browse to the location where the .csv file has been saved. If the file is greyed-out in the listing, change the dropdown menu to view "All files" or "All documents." The .csv file should now be selectable. Select it, and the program should now open the file.

2. What web browser should I use for the best performance?

easyCBM will open with many browsers, but will only work properly using one of the recommended browsers.

3. Why can't I use any browser I want?

The easyCBM system has been carefully engineered to provide high quality student progress monitoring and assessment while at the same time reducing teacher workload. Because there are many small differences between web browsers, we have carefully selected the ones that best accomplish our goals - delivering consistent high quality and ease of use. In some cases, users might have to download a new browser. We feel this inconvenience will be well rewarded: We can provide better support with a known browser.

4. Where's my login email?

The easyCBM system automatically creates and sends an email to the email address specified during account creation. In most cases users will receive this email within a few minutes. In some cases, a spam filter may block this email. If several hours have passed and you have not received the login email, please check your spam filter for the message. If this fails, set your filter to allow emails from: and use the 'reset your password' link.

5. What if I forgot my password?

Please click on the "Reset your Password" button on the login page of easyCBM.com. You will be asked to enter your Username. An email will be sent to the account you used when you first registered for the system to make sure you want to change your password (this feature prevents others from changing your password without telling you). Once you have confirmed that you want your password changed, a new temporary password will be sent to you via email. You can use this temporary password to log in and then re-set the password using the "Account" tab at the upper right hand side of your screen.

6. How can I provide feedback about this system?

Send all feedback to the email address.

7. Why do I have to activate individual measures before students can take them?

easyCBM.com is a web-based assessment system; all data are stored on a secure server rather than on your personal computer. When you "activate" a measure, the server automatically creates a place in the database to hold your students' data so you can use the reporting features of the system. Unless you have activated a particular measure for a group of students, the server will not have a database column prepared for holding your data.

Because the easyCBM system holds over 800 progress monitoring measures from which teachers can select, we needed to design it to use computer resources as efficiently as possible. Rather than 'holding' a large number of empty columns in the database for every user, the system creates customized database set-ups for each user. This feature allows the system to work even with slower computers.

8. How do I "Group" my students?

Students can be put into groups in the "Students" section of easyCBM. Create a new group by clicking the Add Group button, then assign students to that group by marking their corresponding checkboxes.

Ideally, you should only put students into the same group if you want all of them to take the same measures. This means that if you have a particular student who is the only one to whom you want to assign certain measures, then she should be alone in a unique group. You can create as many groups as you'd like and a single student can be in multiple groups at the same time.

9. How do I interpret student scores?

Typically, student performance is compared against benchmark goals. You can download information about the benchmark goals by clicking on the link at the top of the reporting page. On this benchmarking guideline sheet, scores in red indicate below grade-level performance while scores in green indicate performance at or above grade level expectations in a particular measurement type.

10. What sort of technical adequacy do the CBM measures in this system have?

The Progress Monitoring measures offered through EasyCBM have been designed using the most modern approaches to designing, testing, and revising student assessments. Detailed information about the design considerations and technical adequacy of each of the measures can be found in the individual Technical Reports related to each type of measure. Please click on the links below to download the Technical Reports for the measures you are interested in.

• Early Literacy Measures: Letter Names, Letter Sounds, and Phoneme Segmenting
• Word and Passage Reading Fluency
• Reading Comprehension

11. Why are scores in the Reporting section twice the size of the score I entered?

The reason the tests double the score is that people are used to seeing a 'correct word per minute' score (with other types of CBMs), so rather than complicate things by giving them a 'correct words per thirty seconds' score, we decided to simply multiply the 30-second score by 2. Notice that the system does this automatically for all the tests that are administered for only 30 seconds - Letter Names, Letter Sounds, and Word Reading Fluency.

12. What does it mean when my students' scores seem to be going off the chart?

First, congratulations. If your students are scoring "off the chart" on a grade-level test, it means they are doing really well in that skill area! It's also important to take a close look at the measures you are assigning to these students, however. We designed the Progress Monitoring measures to be incredibly sensitive to small increments of growth over a relatively short period of time. As students gain mastery in one skill area, that particular assessment no longer provides as reliable a measure of growth as more challenging measures. Thus, if students are scoring "off the chart" on one of the easier measures available to them at that grade level, it is probably time to begin using a more challenging measure to track their continued progress in developing reading skills. Try moving to the next type of measure.

13. Why am I not seeing student growth?

A lack of growth could have several causes. Each of the different forms of each measure is designed to be of equivalent difficulty, so you would expect to see growth from one test administration to the next if students are, indeed, making growth. That said, each measure has an optimal range of ability it is designed to measure. Take a moment to look at the group reports for the measure you're talking about. If you are administering these measures to enough students, you should be able to see a pretty nice 'normal curve' looking distribution on the most recent measure. If the scores are 'clumped' either toward the Left (the tests are too hard for the students) or toward the Right (the tests are too easy for the students -- there's no 'room' for them to show growth), then you should probably consider using a different measure. (In the case of 3rd grade students, if the Word Reading Fluency tests are too easy, move to the Passage Reading Fluency measures. It's likely that the Comprehension measures are going to be pretty challenging -- they're designed to be the most challenging of all the 3rd grade measures. So, if you're specifically talking about not seeing any growth on those measures, it's important to keep in mind that a jump of 1 or 2 points would actually be pretty significant on that particular test.

That said, it's important to remember that there is a certain amount of unreliability around every score (whether it be Correct Words Per Minute on a Word Reading or Passage Reading test or # of correct answers on a Multiple Choice Comprehension test). Sometimes, students have bad days / good days... sometimes students may be more interested in the passage being read, etc.

But, if you don't see growth over a longer period of time, this is definitely something to be a bit concerned about and may require some close examination of what instruction / curriculum the students are focusing on. It may be that the students have not actually made any more progress in the skill area a particular test is designed to measure... they wouldn't really be expected to unless their classroom experiences were focusing on those skills. In the case of the Word and Passage Reading Fluency measures, classroom instruction / curriculum emphasizing increasing students' oral reading fluency skills should result in increased scores on these measures. If, however, instruction has focused on building understanding of literary devices or elements of literature, a growth in fluency would not be expected.

One of the most powerful features of this EasyCBM system is its ability to give teachers an opportunity to track progress -- or lack thereof -- quickly and make adjustments to the curriculum / instruction accordingly rather than waiting for the state assessment yearly score (which arrives too late to be very helpful). If you don't see much progress across three or more times of measurement, use that information to help guide discussion about instruction.

14. Why can't I simply get a booklet containing all the possible tests my students might be taking this year?

Although it is POSSIBLE to give you individual pdfs of all the measures in the system so that teachers could make paper copies of them, it is HIGHLY UNADVISED!

You'd end up with a huge waste of paper. Not every student needs to take every measure... and the number of documents is astronomical.

Kindergarten = 140 pages of paper
LN = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students
LS = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students
Segmenting = 20 pages testers
Word Reading = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students

First Grade = 180 pages of paper
LN = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students
LS = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students
Segmenting = 20 pages testers
Word Reading = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students
Passage Reading = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students

Second Grade = 80 pages of paper
Word Reading = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students
Passage Reading = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students

Third Grade = 240 pages of paper
Word Reading = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students
Passage Reading = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students
MC Comprehension = 160 pages students

Fourth Grade = 200 pages of paper
Passage Reading = 20 pages testers + 20 pages students
MC Comprehension = 160 pages students

Total: 840 pages of paper (just to print one copy of each measure)

The EasyCBM system provides streamlined, efficient assessments appropriate for individual students' needs. We recommend that you ONLY assess students with the particular type of measure appropriate for their current skill level (thus, you would only be using ONE type of measure at a time for most students). The measures are designed to increase in difficulty within each grade. Thus, as students master the easiest measure type available at a particular grade level, the teacher should stop administering that type of measure and move to the next most challenging measure type available.

One final reason for not printing out entire paper versions of the assessments available on EasyCBM is that we make revisions to the measures periodically, as we get additional information about how to improve them. If you depend on already-printed measures, you may find that you are no longer up-to-date with the latest enhancements.

15. I'm interested in finding a math assessment to use with my students. What can you recommend?

The research group that created the easyCBM system has also been working on developing math assessments, starting with Benchmarking Exams (fall, winter, spring) for grades 1 - 8. You can request your free copy by emailing Leanne Ketterlin Geller, Ph.D., at lketterl@uoregon.edu. Please use: "MATH BENCHMARK request from easyCBM" in the subject line of your email so that we can quickly process your email.

16. Are the Reading Comprehension Measures timed?

The Comprehension measures on easyCBM are not intended to be timed. Unlike the other measures, which are all fluency based (and thus depend on a certain timing for meaningful score interpretation), the Comprehension tests target more complex skills. If students are unable to finish the test in a single setting, they can return to the test another day / time, continuing where they left off.

Most students need about 20-30 minutes to complete the Grade 2 Comprehension measures and between 40-60 minutes to complete the Grades 3, 4, and 5 measures. Because this particular measure type takes so long, we recommend using it only every two or three weeks and scheduling it for a block of time students would normally use for independent reading type activities.

Please note that the measure can be group-administered in a computer lab setting, which means the test administration can be completed quite efficiently.