This review examines the efficacy of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) as an assessment methodology for enhancing student achievement. We describe experimental-contrast studies in reading and mathematics in which teachers used CBM to monitor student progress and to make instructional decisions. Overall, teachers' use of CBM produced significant gains in student achievement; however, several critical variables appeared to be associated with enhanced achievement for students with disabilities: teachers' use of systematic data-based decision rules, skills analysis feedback, and instructional recommendations for making program modifications. In general education, positive effects for CBM were associated with use of class profiles and implementation of peer-assisted learning strategies. Implications for instructional practice and future applications of CBM are described. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.An increasingly popular form of alternative assessment, known as curriculum-based measurement (CBM), is used by teachers and school psychologists for monitoring student progress. The roots of CBM lay with the University of Minnesota's Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities (IRLD) in the mid-to late 1970s during the time of the original passage and implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), known then as Public Law 94-142. Stan Deno and colleagues sought to develop a simple and efficient, but technically adequate, measurement system for assisting special educators in tracking student growth in basic skills (for review, see Deno, 1985). Deno and colleagues designed a program of research to determine the technical features of CBM and to examine the utility of CBM for enhancing teachers' instructional planning and student learning. Consequently, the initial purpose for developing CBM was to assist special educators in using progress-monitoring data to make meaningful decisions about student progress and to improve the quality of instructional programs. Over the past 25 years, numerous investigations have emerged that utilized CBM in a variety of ways including, but not limited to: (a) establishing norms for screening and identifying students in need of special education services (Shinn, 1989b), (b) evaluating the effectiveness of educational programs (Tindal, 1992), (c) reintegrating students with disabilities into general education classrooms (D. Fuchs, Fernstrom, Reeder, Bowers, & Gilman, 1992), (d) monitoring progress and planning instruction within general education classrooms (L.S. Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, Phillips, & Bentz, 1994), and (e) identifying potential candidates for special education evaluation using a dual-discrepancy model of low level of performance and inadequate rate of improvement (L.S. Fuchs, Fuchs, & Speece, 2002).Despite the various ways in which CBM has been applied, the original intent was for teachers to use technically sound, but simple, data in a meaningful fashion to document student growth and determine the necessity for modifying instructional programs. Th...