The nation is challenged with improving the mathematics achievement of its students. No Child Left Behind holds schools, districts, and states accountable for improving student achievement. Because high stakes tests are given at the end of the school year, schools are presented with the challenging task of developing or purchasing reliable assessments that provide accurate information describing how well students understand the skills that will be measured on the end-of-the-year high stakes tests. Curriculum based measurements are used periodically to measure student progress toward meeting objectives during the school year. The problem exists that schools are utilizing limited resources of time and money on a tool with little evidence of effectiveness in increasing mathematics scores on state assessments. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between the scores of the three assessments of the Mathematics-Curriculum Based Measures (M-CBM) and the scores from the mathematics MCT2 for sixth-grade students. A correlational research design is used to fulfill the purpose and test the three null hypotheses. Hypothesis 1 for this study states that there is no relationship between the August 2009 M-CBM scores and the May 2010 mathematics MCT2 scores. Hypothesis 2 states that there is no relationship between the December 2009 M-CBM scores and the May 2010 mathematics MCT2 scores. Hypothesis 3 states that there is no relationship between the April 2010 M-CBM scores and the May 2010 mathematics MCT2 scores. To test the three null hypotheses, correlation coefficients were computed using the Pearson r. The results from all three hypotheses indicated that there were moderate positive correlations between scores of the M-CBM and scores of the mathematics portion of the MCT2, with the strongest relationship being between the April M-CBM and the mathematics MCT2 scores. Further analysis was done to determine if the relationship between M-CBM and mathematics MCT2 scores continued to exist when examined by mathematics MCT2 proficiency levels. The results of this analysis indicated that relationships between M-CBM and the mathematics portion of the MCT2 scores only existed for students scoring in the proficient range.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in MCT2 scores between students who attended a school district that used MSPMS and students who attended a school district that did not use MSPMS. The data for this study were archived and consisted of math and language arts MCT2 scores for two groups of students. The independent variable was the use of MSPMS for progress monitoring and the dependent variable was student scores on the MCT2. All data were analyzed using the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) statistical procedure. In this study the 2008-2009 math and language arts MCT2 scores were the covariate. Hypothesis one stated that there was no statistically significant difference in the MCT2 language scores of students in Grades 4-8 in a school district using MSPMS and MCT2 language scores of students in Grades 4-8 in a district not using MSPMS while controlling for pre-test differences. The results of the first hypothesis indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the 2009-2010 language arts MCT2 scores of a school district that used MSPMS and a district that did not use MSPMS. The district that did not use the MSPMS had higher MCT2 Language Arts overall and higher scores in fourth and sixth grades. Hypothesis two stated that there was no statistically significant difference in the MCT2 math scores of students in grades 4-8 in a school district that used the MSPMS and MCT2 math scores of students in grades 4-8 in a district that did not use the MSPMS while controlling for pre-test differences. The results of the second hypothesis indicated that there was not a significant difference in the 2009-2010 math MCT2 scores of the school district that used the MSPMS and the school district that did not use the MSPMS. The district that did not use the MSPMS had higher MCT2 Math scores overall and higher scores in sixth grade. The district that did use the MSPMS had higher MCT2 math scores in eighth grade. Further study should explore larger populations, assessment instruments of different lengths and fidelity of teacher implementation.

Current research suggests schools face many barriers in effectively monitoring student's response to behavioral interventions in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the FastBridge - Direct Behavior Rating (FastBridge-DBR), a brief, novel progress monitoring measure, designed to assess student behavioral change in response to a classroom behavioral intervention. Twenty-four elementary teacher-student dyads implemented a daily progress report intervention to promote positive student behavior during pre-specified classroom activities. FastBridge-DBR data were then collected for three target behaviors (i.e., Academic Engagement, Disruptive Behavior, Withdrawal) and compared to Systematic Direct Observation (SDO) data. Five change metrics (i.e., absolute change, percent of change from baseline, improvement rate difference, Tau-U, effect size; Gresham, 2005) were used to examine sensitivity to change. The Usage Rating Profile - Assessment (URP-A) was used to evaluate teacher acceptability of FastBridge-DBR. FastBridge-DBR scores were highly correlated with SDO data, demonstrating evidence of concurrent validity. FastBridge-DBR change metrics were significantly correlated with SDO change metrics. Additionally, while teachers provided high acceptability ratings for FastBridge-DBR, there was a lack of association between teachers' ratings of acceptability and student behavioral change. Implications for practice, study limitations, and areas of future research are discussed.