What Is the DIBELS Reading Program?
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) system is a reading assessment and diagnostic testing method developed as a standardized test. The DIBELS system can be used as a method of assessing literacy in early childhood development. DIBELS was created in order to use data to help make decisions about the education of each student.
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History
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Developed in the 1970s and 1980s at the University of Minnesota, DIBELS was created to provide an assessment system of students' progress towards a specific outcome. In the 1980s research continued at the University of Oregon, and they created a system to document student change and improve outcomes of children.
Focus Areas of the Reading Program
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The DIBELS program focuses on developing early reading skills as identified by the National Reading Panel as being necessary for learning how to read and develop comprehension. Such areas include phonemic awareness, learning and recognizing the alphabet, and improving both accuracy and fluency in reading comprehension and vocabulary.
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Model
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The school-wide beginning reading model focuses on building the capacity, communication and commitment in order to increase effective reading practices. The reading system focuses on creating a district-wide infrastructure that supports and sustains effective practices in reading. Communication building should establish communication across classrooms and grades so that students can read and develop a common language. When schools build commitment, it creates a consensus that reading is a priority in the school and helps to ensure that children can reach benchmarks.
Purpose
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DIBELS offers benchmark indicators to assess a student's progress and determine whether he is on track to reading. DIBELS focuses on performance levels and specific goals based on research and meeting specific criteria. As the students are evaluated, it maintains the premise that all students should be reading by Grade 3.
Implementation
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DIBELS is a method by which teachers and schools assess the progress of students from kindergarten through sixth grade. DIBELS assessments normally occur in the beginning, middle and end of the academic year to help administer specific reading programs so materials can be altered in order to support students based on their specific needs, such as phonemic awareness or identification of the alphabet. Testing can take approximately 10 minutes per student, so the benefit is that it may be implemented in schools with minimal planning.
Administration
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The administration of the DIBELS system includes a record of each student, while providing different levels of access based on the district, school, class or project. This helps maintain the confidentiality of student information. Specific users may also have the designation of "read" only, which allows viewing for data and reports but not data entry. Tools allow users to upload the progress of individual students efficiently. The system includes individual student information, like identification numbers, dates of birth and test score information.
Resources
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As part of the DIBELS data system, you can use the website to access resources, like an information clearinghouse, reading ideas, quick start guides, video demonstrations, curriculum maps and other vital information for student assessment.
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References
Resources
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