The paper presents an effective stiffness model for deformational analysis of reinforced concrete cracked members in bending throughout the short-term loading up to the near failure. The method generally involves the analytical derivation of an effective moment of inertia based on the smeared crack technique. The method, in a simplified way, enables us to take into account the non linear properties of concrete, the effects of cracking and tension stiffening. A statistical analysis has shown that proposed technique is of adequate accuracy of calculated and experimental deflections data provided for beams with small, average and normal reinforcement ratios.