(NOT the Official) DIBELS Clearinghouse

When the choice is DIBELS or else, one family chooses to homeschool.

Note 1: Mid-September 2005
I've been crying for the better part of 2 days because my family has encountered the horror of DIBELS. My husband and I have just moved from Portland, OR to a rural town in the northeastern section of the state. We had a wonderful kindergarten experience but have now awoken to the horrors of DIBELS.

We had never heard of DIBELS till we met the first grade teacher here. We were surprised but not then alarmed to hear that all in-coming first graders (according to her) knew how to read. My son, Ellis, does not know how to read, nor do we support a teaching philosophy that would make this a de facto mandate entering or even finishing first grade.

After teaching Ellis for 13 days the teacher called us to ask for an immediate conference to discuss his progress. I'll leave out the gory details for the sake of brevity, but the choices she gave us were either to have Ellis repeat kindergarten or (after we expressed that that would not be happening nor did it make any sense given his progress in Portland) our other option was holding him back at the end of first grade.

These options were presented to us as the best solution for Ellis to
keep him from being stigmatized because he was below their level in two
specific DIBELS scores. One was phoneme recognition and the other we don't remember because it's a bunch of garbage. He was average to above average in the other areas.

She did not address the issue of other subjects such as math and science where we are confident he'd be ahead of his class since his Portland school had a math and science focused curriculum and we look over his daily school work when he arrives home. All that, however, is ultimately besides the point.

The main issue for us is what we perceive as an over-reliance on
standardized testing and teaching methods solely designed to support
success in standardized tests.

A child's well-being be damned.

Another issue is the lack of respect and support for a first grader when moving across state and changing schools. What ever happened to the idea of extra support, such as tutors, or make-up lessons conducted at home? These possible solutions were our idea and teaching materials were only offered to us after we requested them.

The only other public school nearby also uses DIBELS. We are currently
debating the option of homeschooling versus attempting to stay in the
public school system and supplementing our son's education to make up for what will be left out in order to focus so heavily on success on
standardized tests. However, the imbalance that has led to a disappearance of creativity, diversity, philosophical inquiry, and fun in our schools seems so monumental and ingrained in the current system of teaching that we are sickened at the thought of keeping Ellis in such an environment.

We will not be holding back our bright, confident, tender-hearted,
funny, and delightful son.

If you have any advice or know of a parents' support group we would
welcome this information.

Sincerely,
Lisa Laser and Bob Ransdell
laserrebob@earthlink.net

Note 2:
At Joseph Elementary (K-4) the students are tested approximately once a month by the Title One Coordinator. These scores are then transmitted to the University of Oregon.
Ellis' first test had the following scores. The italicized numbers represent the range of the 15 other students in his class:
Letter naming 28 (11-45)
Phonemene Segmentation 4 (4-68)
Word Use 41 (14-63)
Nonsense Word 6 (6-44)

I'd like to also add that no one ever discussed DIBELS and the monthly testing when we enrolled Ellis. No one has ever discussed the transmission of his test scores either.
Welcome to '1984.'

Ugh, what a knot in my stomach!

One of my favorite groups is the Violent Femmes (I experienced high school in the eary 80's). The song that used to make us all scream at the top our lungs was (is) 'Kiss Off' with its' ever so depressing lyrics about reasons life sucks. It came back to me today in all its' brilliance for one particular line that at a concert is like electrifying shock through your body when the band and every person in the audience sings in perfect unison:
"I HOPE YOU KNOW THIS WILL GO DOWN ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD"

Ohanian comment: About the nonsense word test, I asked Lisa about Ellis, asking if he was a thoughtful and deliberate child and also if his teacher is young and inexperienced.

I would like to report that his teacher is young and inexperienced, but, in fact, she is neither. She also seems to truly believe in DIBELS which is more horrifying than those who are trapped by it and NCLB. I don't know the number of years she has been a teacher but my guess would be at least 25 years. .

Ellis is a very thoughtful and cautious boy, so careful and deliberative is exactly how he would approach a test. He is also not one to be rushed whether it's getting his shoes on or painting a picture.

I spent time in his classroom yesterday and Bob and I will be going next week as well. What I saw makes me unable to give my son to such a rigid and unimaginative place. I've also met with people homeschooling their children nearby and at this point that is our plan.

Note 3 Oct. 26, 2005

Homeschooling is wonderful and we are all enjoying having so much more time with each other.

Ellis came to the decision on his own to not go to school any more. He'd been increasingly showing signs of stress and exhaustion. On Monday, Oct. 3rd, he seemed especially tired (and even depressed!). We decided that sending him back to school was detrimental to all of us.

We had already decided to homeschool but were going to get the house
together a bit more first and withdraw him late October. We were wrestling with how to tell Ellis he wasn't going back to school. For two days we just said we wanted him to take time off. On Wednesday he was having one melt down after another so I took him aside at a quiet area in the park and asked what we could do to help him.

I said to Ellis that ever since he'd been going to school in Joseph he
seemed tired, grumpy, and not quite himself. I asked him what he thought we could do to help with this. He said, "Stop sending me to school."

Wow. We can sure support that wish, my dear.

Nearly four school weeks later Ellis is a happy, healthy homeschooler. He hasn't once asked to go back to school, further confirming how stressful and debilitating his school day was. I'm loving homeschooling. We are unschoolers if a label need be applied. Days are filled with board games and reading and playing outside (recess).
He's an Uno shark and becoming adept at checkers. He has a stronger bond with his little sister now, too, and they are amazing playmates.

So, on the home front we are all feeling good about our decision to
homeschool.

When we withdrew Ellis from school they gave us the actual DIBELS assessment book they used in testing him: It's illuminating to say the least. . . helpful in analyzing how idiotic DIBELS is. He was first tested on 8/26/05 (second day of school) and again 9/28/05. His scores progressed well, only making me more pissed off over our 'options.' But it also made me think they must not believe in their own curriculum. We sure don't.

Getting an inside look at the test was additional proof of how lousy DIBELS is. The font used in the "Letter Naming Fluency" was one were the lower case 'g' and 'a' look like what one would find in, say, Times New Roman font, definitely not the way children are taught to write them, nor do most children's books use that style. Also the letter l (lower case L) looks just like the number one (1) to further confuse students. Ellis' book has been marked that twice he called the 'l' a '1' or was it the '1' a 'l'? .

Oh dear God! Do the people who write this crap do this on purpose or do they think first graders write the letter l with fancy stuff on top and bottom? My son’s letter l and every other kids' I've seen are a nice respectable straight line. The number one gets a little hat on top
not the letter 'l'.

When we moved to Joseph we moved into a huge 1908 (or 1909) house on 5 acres. Part of being able to do this meant my parents sold their house in town and we moved in together. Ellis and Lilah get to
grow up with their grandparents under the same roof. The grandparents have completely supported and were part of the decision to homeschool. My mom called it "death of soul" to leave him in school. Ellis and Lilah will now get to be totally involved in raising chickens, having honey bees, growing a huge garden, canning food, and making apple cider. To date we've made about 12 gallons of the best tasting cider and 2 gallons of applesauce. Oh, and the fresh apple pies are awfully good, too. Beats reading drills and having to be quiet!