A literature synthesis of curriculum-based measurement in writing for English learners

The purpose of this article is to systematically examine the literature around Curriculum Based Measurement in Writing (CBM-W) for English learners (ELs) in English. We reviewed the literature to identify published research studies examining CBM-W that disaggregated data for ELs. We identified six published studies examining the technical adequacy of CBM-W specifically for ELs. The studies examined a variety of types of CBM-W across diverse populations of ELs but all were restricted to stage 1 of CBM research. Only one study included ELs participating in a bilingual model of instruction and their findings contrasted with other studies including ELs participating in English-only models of instruction. While there is emerging evidence of the technical adequacy for ELs across a variety of CBM-W types for screening purposes, there is little evidence to currently support their use for progress-monitoring or for ELs participating in bilingual models of instruction. Suggestions for current practice and future research are described.