CBMs are designed to provide insight into the effectiveness of an intervention. If the student's Current ROI is trending downward and not in line with their Target ROI, this lets the teacher know that changes might need to be made to the intervention for the student. 

For example, if the trend is flat after three or more probes, the teacher may decide to further refine the intervention and only assign instruction geared to the student’s dominant learning style. Or, it may be determined that the student experiences success when they are able to integrate the intervention with their on-grade-level work, in short spurts throughout the week. Or a teacher may decide that a paper and pencil intervention is not engaging the student, and move them to a computer-based intervention.

The probes serve as a way to check and document how a student is responding to their current intervention.