Illuminate BlogFastBridge Math Progress Measures: How to Select the Right One
The FastBridge system has many math assessments that teachers can use to monitor student progress.
In order for such monitoring to be effective the progress measure must match the skill that the student is learning in the selected intervention.
FastBridge’s math progress monitoring measures include tools that evaluate students’ mastery of math fact fluency, applied problem solving, and the processes that students use to solve problems.
This blog will review the available measures and how to select the best progress monitoring measure to match each student’s instructional level.
Table of Contents
- Available Fastbridge Math Measures
- General Outcome Measures
- Single Skill Measures
- Selecting a Math Progress Monitoring Measure
- FastBridge Math: Conclusion
Available FastBridge Math Measures
The following table provides a summary of the available FastBridge math progress monitoring measures, the levels available, and skills covered.
| Measure | Levels | Skills Covered |
| earlyMath | K-1 | All essential pre-mathematics and early mathematics skills, including numeral identification, number sequences |
| CBMmath Automaticity | 1-3 | Fact fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and divisions with two forms
|
| CBMmath Concepts and Applications (CAP) | K-8 | Application of fact fluency to different problem types with two forms
|
| CBMmath Process | 2-6 | Processes used to solve multi-step problems with two forms:
|
Notice that the measures are organized by skill levels, not grade levels. This is because the FastBridge assessments are designed to track student progress toward specific math skills and not grade level equivalents.
Grade level indicators are arbitrary designations but do not necessarily define what skills a student has mastered. FastBridge skill levels indicate a continuum of specific math skills from level K through 8.
Another important feature of FastBridge math progress monitoring measures is that they include both general outcome measures (GOM) and single skill measures (SSM).
General Outcome Measures
General Outcome Measures (GOM) are math assessments that include a combination of problems reflecting the skill level.
For example, a GOM for level 3 will include addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems as well as problems with different numbers of digits in each part of the problem (e.g., 3 digit by 2 digit, etc.).
Mixed skill GOMs provide a way for teachers to learn how well students can switch between problems requiring different operations and skills.
GOMs are the type used for universal screening, but can also be used for progress monitoring when a teacher would like to know if a student can switch between problem types.
Single Skill Measures
Single Skill Measures (SSM) include problems of all one type.
For example, a level 1 automaticity SSM probe might include all addition facts to 18.
SSM are used for progress monitoring only and provide a way for teachers to know if a student has mastered a specific skill being taught. Once mastered, both the instruction and progress measure are then adjusted to the next skill.
Selecting a Math Progress Monitoring Measure
The first step in selecting the best progress monitoring measure is to know what skill(s) a student needs to learn.
The best way to identify students’ instructional needs is to conduct universal screening. The screening assessment will show all students’ current math skill levels as well as which students have or have not met benchmark learning goals.
In the FastBridge system, indicators of risk in relation to benchmarks are exclamation marks.
Students whose score indicates some risk of not reaching the end of year learning goal are indicated with one exclamation mark (!) and those at high risk are indicated with two marks (!!). These indicators are designed to help teachers know which students might benefit from additional instruction or intervention.
All screening scores should be compared to other sources of information about a student’s current skills in order to validate score accuracy.
Although the screening scores provide a first level of information about student math performance, they do not indicate each student’s current instructional needs. FastBridge Learning offers several reports that teachers can use to see what skills a student has mastered and what ones still need to be learned. Helpful reports for identifying specific skill needs are:
| Report Name | Screening Measure(s) Available | Information Included |
| Individual Skills | aMath (screening only)
earlyMath Composite CBMmath Automaticity CBMmath CAP CBMmath Process |
Student-specific listing of which math skills a student has mastered, are developing, or are in the future
Tables showing which specific items a student got right and wrong |
| Group Skills | earlyMath Composite
CBMmath Automaticity CBMmath CAP CBMmath Process |
Class-wide summary of what skills were weaker or stronger for the entire class |
Sample Individual Skills Report:
The above sample shows the top of the aMath individual skills screening report for a third grader. This student is at high risk for math difficulties.
In order to know what skills this student needs to learn, and what progress measure to use, examine the skill set sections that are below the above summary.
Here is the Number and Operations in Base 10 skills summary for this student:
This student does not yet have any mastered skills in this area. When reviewing the Individual Skills report, teachers are encouraged to look closely at the developing skills section. These are the skills that a student needs to master next before going on to more advanced future skills.
When a student’s list of developing skills is long, the teacher must select which one will be included in the current intervention. This selection should take into account several factors, including what skills are the focus of current classroom instruction and what skills are most essential for overall math development.
In this case, the student needs to master knowing and writing numerals to 120 and that is a very basic skill. Intervention should focus on this skill and Numeral Identification-1 would be the best progress measure to use.
The Individual Skills reports for earlyMath and the CBMmath assessments are different than for aMath. These reports show the actual items that the student got right and wrong on each part of the assessment. Here is an example for Numeral Identification completed by a Kindergarten student.
The above report format shows the teacher exactly which numbers the student does or does not know. In this case, Numeral Identification would again be the recommended progress measure.
Sample Group Skills Report
The Group Skills report is available for earlyMath and the three CBMmath assessments. This report provides a breakdown of how each student in a class did on each subtest in the earlyMath Composite.
The Group Skills report is organized to show overall class performance on the skills covered in the selected assessment.
The above example shows part of a Kindergarten class performance on Numeral Identification. In this class, there were three numerals that less than 80% of the students knew (e.g., 28, 29, 31) This feature is designed to help teachers know what additional whole group instruction would benefit all students.
When 80% or more students in a class have mastered a specific skill, it does not need to be taught at the whole class level, but certain students might need small group or individual instruction to master the skill. When fewer than 80% of students in a class have mastered a skill, ongoing whole class instruction of that skill is recommended.
The above example also shows which students need additional instruction on some numerals. Students should attain at least 90% accuracy on a numeral to be considered mastered.
Instructional Hierarchy
All FastBridge math progress monitoring measures reflect a skills hierarchy such that beginning skills are included at the lower levels and more advanced skills at the higher levels.
This is done because certain basic math skills must be mastered in order for students to move on to math proficiency. The skills hierarchy included in FastBridge assessments comes from two main sources: (a) National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and (b) Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
The NCTM first published an instructional hierarchy and guidelines for math instruction in 1989. More recently, the CCSS were published by the National Governor’s Association to provide states and school districts with more uniform learning targets at each grade level.
There are many similarities between these guidelines, including an emphasis on student mastery of all basic math facts across the four basic operations (i.e., addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). Importantly, students need to achieve automaticity with math facts so that they can use them while completing other math problems.
Such automaticity was identified as a cornerstone skill for later math proficiency in the 2008 National Math Advisory Panel Report (NMAP).
Once students have mastered basic facts, they are ready to use these facts to solve other types of math problems, including multi-step and story problems as well as solving for a variable.
Matching Skills to Progress Monitoring Measures
The skill hierarchies reflected in the NCTM and CCSS guidelines, and emphasized in the NMAP, are the basis for how the FastBridge math progress measures are organized.
The following table shows the skills and which FastBridge math assessments can be used for progress monitoring in those skills.
| Skills | Example | Measure(s) |
| Numbers and Operations | Use fractions on a number line | CBMmath CAP |
| Counting and Cardinality | Count to 100 by 1s and 10s | earlyMath Number Sequence |
| Operations and Algebraic Thinking | Addition with objects and pictures | CBMmath Automaticity |
| Number and Operations in Base 10 | Place values for 1s, 10s, 100s | CBMmath Process |
| Measurement and Data | Measure with standard units | CBMmath CAP |
| Geometry | Names of basic shapes | CBMmath CAP |
Once a student’s specific math skill instruction need has been identified, teachers can select the appropriate progress measure from the Table above. The skills are listed from easier to more difficult. In the early primary grades (e.g., K and 1) the instructional focus is usually on learning numerals, the quantities they represent and base 10 place value.
The best FastBridge progress measures for these skills are earlyMath Numeral Identification and earlyMath Number Sequence-1. Note that these measures do not have separate GOM or SSM but only one form because these are distinct skills.
With these skills, students can move on to learning the single digit (or up to 12) math facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Automaticity of math facts is essential for later math proficiency because such automaticity will determine how quickly a student can recall and use these facts to solve more complex math problems.
When a student does not have the basic operation facts memorized, trying to complete more difficult problems will be frustrating or impossible.
The best progress measure for students working toward fact fluency is CBMmath Automaticity. This measure has both GOM and SSM and the specific form to use depends on what skill the student needs to learn next.
Usually, a SSM is best for progress monitoring automaticity. It is important when using CBMmath Automaticity to review the student data often and have the student move up to the next skill once each one is mastered.
Although schools might have local criteria for mastery, a general guideline is for the student to reach the low risk benchmark score within the time limit. Although it consists of only 3 levels, CBMmath Automaticity can be used with students in the upper elementary, middle, and high school grades who have not yet mastered all basic math facts.
After students have developed automaticity with basic facts, they can be monitored with either CBMmath CAP or CBMmath Process. The decision of which to use should reflect the local curriculum and learning goals.
CBMmath CAP reflects a wider range of applied math skills that require using basic facts to solve applied problems. CBMmath CAP includes content matched to the skill hierarchies in most U.S. published math programs and has GOM and SSM forms.
For students with specific skill problems, such as those involving fractions, the SSM is the best choice. For students who are learning to know what operations to use for applied problems, the GOM is best.
The final option for math progress monitoring is CBMmath Process. This assessment focuses exclusively on the individual steps that a student uses to solve a multi-step basic operation (e.g., 304+67+2598).
This measure is best for students who have difficulty applying the right steps needed to solve such problems and are participating in intervention to build these skills.
CBMmath CAP
CBMmath Concepts and Applications (CBMmath CAP) is an additional form of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) for mathematics.
Like other CBM tools in FAST™, CBMmath CAP is designed to show a student’s current skills in relation to year-long learning goals. CBMmath CAP is a computer-based assessment of applied math that includes items spanning computation fact fluency to multi-step algebra problems.
Instead of grade levels, there are skill levels from 0 through 8. CBMmath CAP items were developed from an existing bank of FAST™ math items, including those in aMath and Standards-Based Math Assessments. The items were all developed in accordance with the mathematics learning hierarchy in the Common Core State Standards, including Counting and Cardinality, Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number and Operations in Base 10, Number and Operations, Measurement and Data, and Geometry.
Procedure. CBMmath CAP is a timed measure that is computer administered and computer scored. The times allotted for CBMmath CAP vary according to grade levels as follows.
- Screening times by level:
-
-
- K-3: 15 minutes
- 4-5: 20 minutes
- 6-8: 30 minutes
- 9-12: 30 minutes
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- Progress monitoring times by level:
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- K-5: 15 minutes
- 6-8: 20 minutes
- 9-12: 20 minutes 9expected availability 11/21/16)
Students complete about 20 math problems by selecting one of four answer choices. Each possible answer can be read aloud by clicking on a picture of headphones next to each answer choice. Students can also have each question re-read by clicking on a headphone picture.
Scores and Uses
CBMmath CAP reports the number of problems that a student got correct in 10 minutes. When a student takes shorter or longer than 10 minutes to complete a CBMmath CAP session, the score will be prorated to match a 10 minute interval.
CBMmath CAP can be used for both universal screening and for progress monitoring. When used for fall screening, Illuminate Education recommends that students complete the level below the current grade. This is because the items in each level reflect content that might not yet have been taught.
For winter and spring screening, students complete the level matching their current grade. When used for progress monitoring, Illuminate Education recommends the level matching the student’s current grade unless the student is three or more years behind grade level in his or her math skills.
CBMmath Process
The CBMmath Process assessment is the only FastBridge measure that must be administered and scored from paper-and-pencil. Specifically, in its original version, after the students completed the CBMmath Process assessment, the teacher would use an online scoring key to analyze each individual step and process that the student used to solve the problems.
This scoring method, a form of error analysis, can be very helpful for teachers who want to learn about the details of an individual student’s math difficulties.
Still, using an error analysis scoring method for all students could be more time-consuming than needed because many students will make few mistakes, and their work does not require such in-depth analysis.
Scoring and Uses
Based on feedback from teachers, FastBridge convened a panel of CBMmath Process users, content experts and researchers during the summer of 2016 to design a revised alternative scoring method.
The panel developed a new, additional, scoring option for CBMmath Process. This new method is called “Rapid Scoring” and involves evaluating each student response in relation to three color-coded score options:
- Green = 100% points
- Yellow = 50% points
- Red = 0 points
To assist teachers with using this new rapid scoring option, the “rules” for awarding points are as follows:
- 0 errors = 100% (green)
- 1-2 minor errors = 50% (yellow)
- More than 2 errors = 0 points (red)
100% of points are given when there are zero errors, 50% of points when there are two or fewer minor errors, and no points when the student makes more than two errors.
FastBridge Math: Conclusion
FastBridge offers a range of math progress measures designed to help students improve their overall math proficiency. Each measure is aligned to certain important skills.
In order to select the right measure for a student, the teacher first needs to know what skill(s) the student needs to master next. Selected FastBridge Learning screening reports provide helpful information about each student’s current math skills.
Once the skill area has been identified, the appropriate progress measure can be selected and used. Teachers are encouraged to review student’s progress data often (e.g., weekly) in order to learn whether the provided intervention is leading to desired skill improvements.
FastBridge provides progress reports that include graphs depicting student scores. FastBridge subscribers can get more information about how to interpret progress graphs by completing the online modules available within the system.
Dr. Rachel Brown is FastBridge Learning’s Senior Academic Officer. She previously served as Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Southern Maine. Her research focuses on effective academic assessment and intervention, including multi-tier systems of support, and she has authored several books on Response to Intervention and MTSS.
