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From Classroom Teacher to Education Research Leader

Alisa Dorman began her career in the classroom, teaching young learners before moving into education policy and research. Today, she leads Acadience Learning, a research organization with more than 20 years of experience developing evidence-based assessments in reading and math.

Founded by Dr. Roland Good and Dr. Ruth Kaminski—the creators of the original DIBELS assessments—Acadience Learning’s mission has always been to translate research into practical tools educators can use. Now part of the Wilson Language Training Company, Acadience continues to develop high-quality, research-backed assessments that help schools and families monitor student progress and support early intervention.

What Are CBMs and Why Do They Matter?

Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) is a system that allows teachers to measure what students know and how well they’re progressing toward grade-level goals. As Alisa explained, CBMs have been around for more than 40 years as a way to capture how students are responding to instruction in real time.

Acadience Math CBMs serve two primary purposes:

1️⃣Universal Screening – A “checkup” for every student to gauge their overall mathematical health.

2️⃣Progress Monitoring – Regular, short assessments that help teachers and parents see whether a student is making adequate progress toward goals.

Heather added that when she was a classroom teacher, her school used both the current grade-level and the previous year’s CBMs to see if students were fluent with earlier skills or already showing learning gaps. Heather explains that it helped them see not only what students were learning, but how solid their understanding was of the foundational math skills.

Foundational Skills that Predict Success

Alisa shared that Acadience Math starts screening with foundational early numeracy skills such as:
🟣Quantity discrimination – understanding which number is greater.

🔵Number identification – recognizing and naming numbers.

🟢Next number fluency – knowing what comes next in a sequence.

These skills are measured through short, timed activities that reveal both accuracy and fluency. “We’re looking to see what students can do with automaticity,” Alisa explained. “That fluency tells us whether the skill has become part of their mental toolkit.”

Each measure is standardized, meaning it’s administered and scored the same way every time—ensuring reliable, comparable results across classrooms, teachers, and even districts. This reliability allows educators and parents to have confidence in what the data shows.

These measures give educators a clear way to use collected data to identify where individual students need extra support—or where a whole class might benefit from targeted instruction. By combining all measures at any grade or time of year into a composite score, we can provide a full picture of each student’s mathematical skills. This also gives an overall indication of risk, helping educators know which students may need additional support, remediation, or a more detailed diagnostic assessment.

Heather connected these measures to the latest dyscalculia research by Dr. Daniel Ansari, noting how quantity discrimination and sequencing are among the most sensitive indicators of early math risk. “It’s exciting to see those research-based components built right into Acadience Math,” she said.

Acadience carefully develops their math assessments over many years. They start by looking at the latest research on how students learn and what skills are most important. Then they design measures that show whether students have those skills. Each assessment goes through multiple rounds of testing and feedback—from both students and educators—before it’s finalized. Only after proving that the assessments are reliable, accurate, and useful are they published for schools to use. This long, careful process makes sure every Acadience assessment can truly help teachers understand, support, and track students’ math growth.

See Acadience’s Technical Adequacy Brief

Prevention Over Remediation

One of Alisa’s most powerful points: Acadience Math is prevention-oriented. Instead of waiting until students fall far behind, the goal is to identify and support struggling learners early—sometimes as early as kindergarten.

“We’re trying to prevent risk before it becomes a gap,” she explained. “When we can spot those lagging behind in the presence of effective instruction, we can respond quickly with the right support.”

Heather echoed this sentiment, pointing out that in reading, early intervention is already well established—but math often lags behind. “Too often, schools wait until fifth grade to say, ‘This student is really struggling,’” she said. “If we could intervene earlier, we could prevent that experience of prolonged struggle.”

Free vs. Paid Acadience Math Resources

Acadience Learning offers both free downloadable materials and commercial kits. The content is identical—the only difference lies in the format and convenience.

🟡Free Materials: Downloadable assessment manuals, scoring booklets, and student worksheets—ideal for homeschool parents, tutors, or educators just starting out.

🟠Commercial Kits: Professionally printed and packaged versions of the same materials—perfect for schools or districts that need durable, ready-to-use sets.

“The free downloads are great for testing it out or working within a budget,” Alisa shared. “The commercial kits make sense when you need a high-quality set of materials that last across classrooms.”

The Power of Progress Monitoring

While screening is crucial, Alisa emphasized that the real power lies in progress monitoring—the ongoing process of checking if students are making adequate progress toward their goals.

“Monitoring itself doesn’t change the student outcome,” she explained. “But it empowers teachers to adjust instruction so that learning truly sticks.”

Acadience recommends monitoring frequency based on student need:
🔴Every week for students significantly below benchmark

🟠Every 2–4 weeks for those slightly below benchmark

🟡At benchmark students can typically wait until the next assessment period

This continuous feedback loop allows educators to intervene early and with precision, ensuring instruction is always data-informed.

Managing and Interpreting Data

To make data management easier, Acadience offers Acadience Learning Online, a digital system that stores, visualizes, and reports student progress. Teachers can enter results manually or administer assessments digitally on tablets or Chromebooks.

“Seeing the data clearly—color-coded, graphed, and historical—helps teachers make smart decisions in real time,” Alisa said. Whether using Acadience’s system or another platform, she urged educators to “find a data system that empowers you to take action.”

Matching the Right Level to See Real Growth

A common challenge teachers face is not seeing growth data that reflects student progress. Alisa explained that often the issue lies in monitoring at too high a level. If a third grader struggles with multiplication, their progress may appear flat—not because they aren’t improving, but because they need monitoring at a lower skill level first.

“The closer the match between what you’re teaching and what you’re measuring,” she said, “the more sensitive the progress data will be.”

Using Data to Drive Change

Acadience’s approach is simple yet powerful:
🟢Set clear goals. What do we want students to achieve and by when?

🔵Draw an aim line. Visualize the rate of progress needed to reach that goal.

🟣Monitor frequently. If three data points fall below the aim line, pause and adjust instruction.

An aim line is a way to track a student’s progress toward a specific goal over time. It starts at the student’s initial score—the point where more support was identified—and slopes up to the target score they are expected to reach, whether that’s by the end of a semester or a full year.

The line represents the rate of improvement a student needs to meet that goal. If a student’s data points stay above the aim line, they are on track to reach their target. If the points fall below the aim line three times in a row, it signals that a change in support may be needed. Fluctuating scores don’t automatically indicate a problem, but consistent trends below the line show that adjustments are necessary to help the student succeed.

A Positive Note (and a Math Joke!)

As the conversation wrapped up, Alisa left listeners with a fitting bit of humor:

“The minus sign asked the plus sign, ‘Are you sure I make a difference?’
The plus sign replied, ‘I’m positive.’”

She added warmly, “I’m positive that what you’re doing at Made for Math is making a difference.”

Learn More: Acadience + Made for Math

If you’d like to explore Acadience Math resources, both free and commercial options are available at https://acadiencelearning.org.

And if you’re a parent, educator, or tutor who wants hands-on coaching in how to use evidence-based tools like Acadience Math effectively, check out Made for Math’s CRA Club—a community designed to equip you with practical strategies for helping every learner build confidence and mastery in math.

MFM Authors