DIBELS Decoded

Thousands of students across Oklahoma are participating in reading screenings this week.  The Oklahoma Reading Sufficiency Act requires that all students in grades K-3 be screened to determine if they are reading at or below grade level.  Oklahoma provides a list of approved screenings and one of the most utilized is called DIBELS.  You may hear teachers refer to "dibeling week" or they may use it as a verb as in "We dibel'd your child."

So, what is this DIBELS?

• DIBELS is an acronym for the literacy screening called Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.  DIBELS is not an in-depth diagnostic test, just a screening and it takes about 10 minutes.  The screen is given three times, usually at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.  The screening aims to determine the student's overall literacy health.  It answers the question, "Is this child at-risk for reading difficulties?"  

Depending on what grade your child is in they will take a handful of quick, timed subtests.

• First Sound Fluency- students listen to a word and tell the first sound they hear
• Example:  Teacher says 'boy' and student replies /b/
• Letter Naming Fluency-student is shown a page of alphabet letters in random order and names them as quickly as possible
• Phoneme Segmentation Fluency-student listens to a word and says all the sounds he hears in the word
• Example:  Teacher says 'cup' and student replies /c/-/u/-/p/.  It is important to note that this is not a spelling exercise.  The student replies with the sounds he hears, not letters.
• Nonsense Word Fluency- student is asked to read the pretend words.  
• The words are pretend so that the ability to rely on previously memorized words is omitted.  The test wants to know if you are able to apply your knowledge of phonics to decode an unfamiliar word.  
• Oral Reading Fluency- student is asked to read a story for 1 minute
• This test is an indicator of word attack skills and ability to fluently and automatically read connected text.  
• Retell Fluency- student is asked to tell about what he read in the story
• This part of the screen examines whether a student is able to gain meaningful information from what was read.

Based on the outcomes of the screening, your child's scores will be placed into one of three color coded categories.  Some schools have created their own categories, but most often you will hear one of the three designations:

• Benchmark- student is likely to be successful with the classroom reading program
• Strategic-  student success is difficult to predict in this category.  Students should be closely monitored to make sure they are progressing positively towards reading goals.  These students may need extra support in addition to the classroom reading program.
• At-risk-  student is not likely to be successful with only the classroom reading program.  This student will need additional, intensive support in order to make progress towards reading goals.

The screening is over, now what?

If your child's score was benchmark, or at grade level, your child appears to be reading as expected and will continue receiving typical instruction in the classroom.

If your child's score was strategic, the school may or may not provide extra support.  They may opt for a "wait and see" approach if they see progress in other areas such as spelling or vocabulary that were not on the test.  They may want to continue with regular programming if classroom grades or reading scores conflict with the DIBELS scores.  The most important thing to do at this point is monitor progress.  DIBELS has short weekly assessments that take 1 minute and are used to monitor whether the child's progress is improving or not.  If monitoring across the next month shows good progress that is steady enough to catch up to peers, that's great news.  If monitoring over the next month is not indicating that the student will catch up to peers in a reasonable amount of time, extra help may be needed.  If extra help isn't offered, request it in writing.

If your child's score was at-risk, or well below grade level, this is serious and extra support should begin immediately.  Oklahoma Reading Sufficiency Act states that students who are at risk should get an individualized program of reading instruction.  The key word there that is often ignored is individualized.  This means it should be designed to meet the unique needs of your child.  How does that happen?  Schools should automatically give an in-depth reading assessment to students who are at-risk, but truthfully, most schools don't have the personnel to do this.  So you may need to ask.  If the school puts a cookie cutter reading intervention plan in front of you to sign, don't do it.  There are some things to take care of first.

Parents should request in writing that their child be given an in-depth assessment of reading skills to determine specific skills their child has and does not have.  There is no point in wasting time teaching skills that your student already has.  If your child is behind, lets get right to the skills we know they are missing.  Only a reading assessment that is prescriptive can do this for you.  Requesting a reading assessment does not mean special education testing by the school psychologist. No.  Request that testing be done by the school reading specialist or Title I teacher.  These personnel are (or should be) trained to give reading assessments and help you determine what areas need the most attention.  Some popular reading assessments that can be used are:

• Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA)
• Fox in a Box
• Phonological Awareness Test
• Quick Phonics Screener
• Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory

All of these assessments will dig a bit deeper than the DIBELS and give us more specific information about the literacy strengths and weaknesses of the student.  When we have specific, prescriptive information, then we aren't poking around in the dark, hoping to hit on whatever skill the student needs.  Doesn't this make a lot of sense?

After you have some specific areas of need, then the team working with your child (this includes you, parents) can choose some goals to work towards.  Choose around 3 very specific, realistic goals that can be achieved in a reasonable amount of time.  Then determine how these goals will be addressed?  Who will provide the extra support?  Make sure the extra support is being provided by a highly qualified teacher or specialist, not a teacher aide, peer tutor, etc.  How will the team determine if progress is being made?  All of this information should be included in your child's instructional reading plan.  Make sure you get a copy.  

Next week, we will discuss what to do when interventions aren't working.  Stay tuned!