I just found that our school district will now use the Dibels assessment for Reading. I teach 2nd grade and have only used the DRA. I have a few questions for those have used Dibels: How well is it for accurately measuring a student's reading ability- fluency and comprehension. How time intensive is this assessment? (I loved the DRA; but it took so long with my group of 25-26 students.) I know it has a big phonics component- how well does Fundations work with struggling readers in regards to this assessment? Thanks for any and all info you can share
So your district is doing away with DRA and using DIBELS in its place? You are not doing both? DRA is a better assessment, in my opinion. I rarely ever use DIBELS data. Basically, from mid-second and up, DIBELS is basically them reading three passages, for a minute each, and then retelling. There is also a DAZE assessment, which is a cloze reading passage. The phonics-heavy assessments are done mainly in K-1.
I use both. My K-2 teachers are all required to use DIBELS & some do DRA. DIBELS is good for seeing if a student is well below grade level, below grade level or above grade level. DRA is going to give you a specific level & if you use the task analysis what skills they need to work on. You can get a Lexile level from the NWEA Map also. What I have found is for those students who are well below grade level, DIBELS can be, well time not well spent. If you take notes & review the data you can get fluency & retell info from DIBELS. Unfortunately, if a child is a reader, but isn't reading at grade level you won't get a lot of valuable information. You can also note which students can read the selections but have no idea of what they have read. DIBELS is just one of our data points.
DIBELS is not a reading assessment. It is a screener. Go to their website. They say that and explain it clearly.
I prefer DIBELS to DRA. In my experience, DIBELS is more objective, and different DRA test givers can have vastly different results depending on how picky they are. However, my experience is only limited to one school. Perhaps DRA testing can be done more effectively than it was where I was.
I'd never heard of DRA until I joined this forum. We use DIBELS in my district. During the first two weeks of school, I am responsible for training the DIBELS team (speech therapist, psychologist, school counselor, SDC teacher, RSP teacher, admin., and reading clinicians). Then, we (the team...not the classroom teachers) test every single student in the school. Grades K-1 are tested on LNF (Letter Name Fluency), CLS (Correct Letter Sounds), and WRC (Words Read Correctly). Grades 2-5 are tested on their reading fluency. The beginning of year DIBELS scores are very, very important to us because they help in the formation of RtI groups. The DIBELS scores let us know whether a student in below, on, or above grade-level. In my district, DIBELS progress monitoring is done throughout the year if a student is in the "Intensive" RtI group. However, if a student is in a Strategic, Benchmark, or Challenge group, they won't receive a formalized DIBELS assessment until the winter and spring tests. All teachers may use their own progress monitoring tools throughout the year (teacher discretion); however, DIBELS is done district-wide using the same grading criteria for all students. It is not subjective at all; in fact, it's very objective.
