An investigation of the effects of passage difficulty level on outcomes of oral reading fluency progress monitoring

This study examined the differential effects of using grade versus goal level reading material on curriculum-based measurement (CBM) progress-monitoring procedures. Participants included a total of 80 students, 20 each from grades 1 through 4. CBM reading passage probes from both grade and goal level material were administered to all students, twice weekly during an 11-week period. Students' rare of progress in each level of materials was indexed using the slope of their data series calculated by ordinary least-squares regression. Results indicate that the amount of progress observed (i.e., slope of improvement) varied as a function of grade and whether student progress was monitored in grade or goal level material.