[MOSAIC] DIBELS Results

[elaine garan]

I was trying to keep out of this, but there is another reason. Good  
readers want to make sense of text. For example when they see the  
nonsense syllable "mik" they are way more likely to try to put in a  
word such as "milk" that makes sense. I'm sorry to keep hammering on  
this but the independent research -- not the research on the DIBELS  
website which is done by people associated with DIBELS--- shows that  
DIBELS can only predict 20% of the variance in reading behavior on more  
comprhensive tests. Even the DIBELS website reports that it will only  
predict 50% of the variance.

What this means in plain English is that DIBELS will more likely than  
not, identify strong readers as having problems and neglect to identify  
truly struggling readers. That is not my opinion or observation. that  
is what the independent research shows. Part of the difficulty is that  
DIBELS is so far removed from what kids really do when they're reading.  
Strong readers make sense of text. Weak readers don't. DIBELS does not  
make sense. It doesn't even require kids to read connected text in some  
instances. That is leaving out one of the biggest measures of fluency!  
to say nothing of comprehension.

To me the biggest problem is that it puts the focus on performance on  
nonsense syllables and trains kids to read fast fast fast. Please look  
at the research on this. And again, I would ask, why are we looking at  
fluency first? Why don't we look at comprehension and if the child is  
not comprehending, then look at the reasons why and see if fluency is  
part of it. But lest we confuse DIBELS with fluency-- again, DIBELS  
does not really even assess fluency especially for younger kids.


On Monday, May 28, 2007, at 12:35 PM, DeMilleReed at aol.com wrote:

> Linda and all:
>
>  I am in a district that also uses DIBELS.  DIBELS pros and cons   
> aside, I
> have seen a similar drop in the PSF with stronger, first  grade  
> readers.  My
> feeling is that when they have become fluent  decoders, they really  
> couldn't be
> bothered with phonemic segmentation.  It  has been mastered and used  
> for
> decoding and is no longer needed.
>
> Cathy
> Title I Reading
>
>
>
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