(NOT the Official) DIBELS Clearinghouse

Dibels came into Alabama classrooms a couple of years ago as a pilot program. In the Tuscaloosa City system, the children's test scores were immediately used to sort and rank schools and teachers. I went to the DIBELS website (U.of Oregon) and asked the Dibels guy there if he thought this was an appropriate use of the test (supposedly meant to help teachers identify K-2 children who are at-risk of developing reading problems and may need extra help). He wouldn't say no.

Now DIBELS is another of the state's required assessments.

I credit DIBELS and the associated "scientific" testing mentality as a major force in the destruction of the magnet school that my children attended. If parents had questions about the changes being made at the school, they would be shown printouts of test scores meant to horrify them, evidence of the program's miserable failure. An administrator suggested I review my son's DIBELS scores with his teacher. Since my son was a 3rd grader reading well above his grade level, the suggestion merely confirmed MY assessment of the clumsy and ignorant way these tests were being used.

In the eight years since I moved to Alabama, I've seen such a decline in diversity, creativity, and choice. All schools are supposed to operate like all other schools, sometimes literally on the same page of the required reading program. Teachers become almost irrelevant, and I wonder why they don't fight more for the children and against this poisonous mentality. Then again, my own fights simply led to exhaustion. When the magnet program was de-funded, I saw no choices for my younger son, and as a result we're now home schooling.

— Theresa Pappas

2004-08-27
Assessment Reform Network (ARN)