Curriculum‐based measurement (CBM) is a method of systematically assessing students’ academic skills by
directly using the academic materials taken from the school curriculum or from what they are being
instructed. CBM is one of the alternative evidence-based assessment methods that could be used to evaluate
students with existing academic underachievement and to determine the needs for instructional change to
improve performance of underachieving students. This paper provides readers with the concept of CBM, the
advantages of CBM, the general characteristics of CBM, the process of conducting CBM to evaluate academic
underachievement of students, and the process of using CBM data in the determination of the needs for
instructional change to improve performance of academic underachieving students.