In CPM, what guidance is there on scoring syllabication? If a student claps the right amount of syllables for a word, but says the wrong number of syllables is the item marked correct or incorrect? For example: /cow/ /boy/ - claps twice but says "3"

 Answer

In the Syllabication subtest, children are asked to demonstrate knowledge of how words can be broken down into syllables. There are 7 test items, as well as sample procedures.   In the administration manual (i.e., flip book), teachers are encouraged to have the children clap syllables.   This decision was made due to the fact that syllable clapping is fairly common in many preschool settings.   However, teachers should feel free to adapt the specific procedure to methods that have been used in their classrooms. For instance, another perfectly acceptable way to evaluate this skill is by asking children to “move a block for each part of the word you hear” while some classroom teachers ask children to provide a number to indicate the syllable count.  

The purpose of this task is to clap (or otherwise identify) the word parts the student hears in a word, as it is a phonological processing task. Students should be marked correct if they are able to clap/identify the correct amount of syllables by breaking down the word into syllable parts (see guidance from user guide on p. 18): https://cliengage.org/clirep/CPM/CPM-User-Guide.pdf