CBM stands for curriculum-based measurement and involves assessing students' fluency in reading passages, computing, spelling words, and in writing sentences.

DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. DIBELS are measures of students' understanding that words are made up of sounds and that sounds can be associated with written letters.

Lexile is a score that helps identify reading material that is at an appropriate difficulty level for an individual student. When a student reads material within his or her Lexile range, that student should read with 75% comprehension.

MAP stands for Measures of Academic Progress (computer-administered tests that result in a RIT score).

Norm-referenced tests compare student performance to that of other students nationwide. They show where students stand in relation to their peers, not to a defined standard of achievement.

Percentile and percentage: "Percentage" is about the number of questions answered correctly; "percentile" is about ranking a student in comparison to other students in the same grade or age group. For example, if a student answered 8 out of 10 ten questions correctly, then the student's percentage would be 80%. If that same student's percentile score is at the 70% percentile, that student scored higher than 70% of the students who took the test.

RIT stands for Rasch Unit scale and is named after the developer of the scale, George Rasch. The RIT scale score shows a student's current achievement level along the curriculum scale.