CBMSkills is a free program available to easyCBM users. This program enables students grades K-5 to practice and master math and reading skills so teachers can individualize instruction.
Modules progress through math defined skills that help students prepare for easyCBM‘s benchmark and progress-monitoring measures.
You can register for a free account at CBMSkills.com or accessing the link under “Other Applications” in the Resource tab.
CBMSkills provides over nine modules per grade (K-5). Each module has 100 alternate items that test a specific skill.
Gamification and badges create a fun environment for learning while also providing students with immediate feedback. Badges are awarded for proficiency: 70% is Bronze, 80% is Silver, and 90% is Gold. A motivational system is added so if a student is within one item of attaining a specific badge, they are administered one more item (making it 11 not 10 items to denote proficiency).
Once logged into CBMSkills:
- Roster your students using a downloaded csv of all students (under Settings) or Adding Students from Google Classroom.
- Form a group of students to take either a grade level set of modules or a combination (subset) of modules from within or across various grade levels.
- Have students enroll by entering your designated class code, selecting their name, and taking the modules you’ve assigned to them by completing all the items for the modules.
Both easyCBM and CBMSkills can be used in conjunction with each other in the following manner. The two systems (easyCBM and CBMSkills) are complementary, but distinct, systems.
- Administer the easyCBM benchmark (BM) screening measures in fall, winter, or spring to determine students’ relative standing (percentile rank – PR). If a student is performing in a low PR (e.g., < 20th PR), consider the student at risk and in need of special interventions (smaller groups, direct instruction, different feedback, etc.).
- View the Item Analysis under benchmarks, where items are listed from the easiest to the most difficult, noting the students who missed each item.
- Assign the CBMSkills modules based on the domains missed on the benchmarks in the Item Analysis. Have students practice with those modules as another intervention.
- After some intervention, administer easyCBM progress monitoring (PM) measures to determine if the student is progressing (showing a positive slope) and analyze further the problem types where the student is making mistakes.
- Evaluate student performance on the next season’s BM to ensure students are indeed improving in their relative standing as compared to grade-level peers.
The Early Reading Fluency measures cover:
- Long & Short Vowels
- Sight Words
- Vowel Teams
- Blends
- Digraphs
- Tricky Words
- Pseudo Words
- Isolating Sounds
- Blending
- Segmenting