As a school psychologist in a rural town in Michigan, all kindergarten and first
grade students are administered the DIBELS benchmark assessment in the
fall, winter, and spring. This has provided us valuable information in
identifying those students at-risk for reading failure, so that
appropriate interventions can be put in place. In addition, DIBELS is
highly sensitive to effective instruction. It can validate teacher's
skills by showing that a kindergarten student who entered kindergarten
in the at-risk range, by winter administration, may no longer be
at-risk.
The assessment materials are NOT intended to be specifically taught to
students. One comment on this site indicated that a parent was being
asked by her school to practice a DIBELs Nonsense Word Fluency probe
with her child nightly. This is clear abuse of the purpose of DIBELS.
If you are teaching to the test, the results don't mean anything.
DIBELS is designed to be a general thermometer of early reading skills.
In addition, the DIBELS website clearly warns parents that coaching
their children on probes invalidates the results. So my point is: Don't
bash DIBELS. Bash the people who are using it for purposes it was not
designed or validated for.
Shari O'Boyle