DIBELS
What are DIBELS tests?
DIBELS tests are one-minute assessments that help teachers and schools determine how students are performing on important reading skills. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. These tests are designed for students in grades K-6.
What skills are measured by DIBELS tests?
The DIBELS tests your student will take this year assess students on three critical skills necessary for successful beginning reading. These skills include: phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency.
Which tests will be given to my student this year?
This year your student will be given the following DIBELS assessments: Letter Naming Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Non-Sense Word Fluency, and Oral Reading Fluency. See below for a brief description of what ability each test measures.
Letter Naming Fluency: Letter Naming Fluency assesses a student’s ability to say the names of upper and lowercase letters in the English alphabet. This skill is a strong predictor of future reading success in young children.
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency assesses a student’s ability to segment words into parts by identifying each separate sound within a given word. Phoneme Segmentation is a component of Phonemic Awareness.
Nonsense Word Fluency: Nonsense Word Fluency measures phonics skills by assessing a student’s ability to name letter sounds and blend them together to read unfamiliar words.
Oral Reading Fluency: Oral Reading Fluency assesses a student’s ability to read text accurately and automatically (or with fluency). This skill helps to build the foundation for reading comprehension.
When will my student be assessed?
Students will be given three official DIBELS assessments throughout the school year (beginning, middle, and end). I will also monitor students progress in the classroom. Depending on a student's DIBELS scores, he or she will be given weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly practice tests.
How will the results be used?
A student’s scores on a DIBELS tests will give our school information about whether or not a student is on track for reading success. We will be able to quickly identify students who do not meet the goals on each DIBELS measure and provide extra help. For example, if your child is reading words accurately, but slowly, I may provide extra practice re-reading stories and passages to improve his or her reading rate or fluency. I will use the progress monitoring scores to make sure your student receives any extra help that may be needed to improve other reading skills during the school year. I will review scores on DIBELS measures for all the students in a class to make decisions about how to prepare their day-to-day reading lessons. School and district staff can also study the test scores across classrooms and grade levels to make decisions about how to best use resources to make sure that every child in the school, including your child, is on track to become an accurate and fluent reader.
DIBELS tests are one-minute assessments that help teachers and schools determine how students are performing on important reading skills. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. These tests are designed for students in grades K-6.
What skills are measured by DIBELS tests?
The DIBELS tests your student will take this year assess students on three critical skills necessary for successful beginning reading. These skills include: phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency.
Which tests will be given to my student this year?
This year your student will be given the following DIBELS assessments: Letter Naming Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Non-Sense Word Fluency, and Oral Reading Fluency. See below for a brief description of what ability each test measures.
Letter Naming Fluency: Letter Naming Fluency assesses a student’s ability to say the names of upper and lowercase letters in the English alphabet. This skill is a strong predictor of future reading success in young children.
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency assesses a student’s ability to segment words into parts by identifying each separate sound within a given word. Phoneme Segmentation is a component of Phonemic Awareness.
Nonsense Word Fluency: Nonsense Word Fluency measures phonics skills by assessing a student’s ability to name letter sounds and blend them together to read unfamiliar words.
Oral Reading Fluency: Oral Reading Fluency assesses a student’s ability to read text accurately and automatically (or with fluency). This skill helps to build the foundation for reading comprehension.
When will my student be assessed?
Students will be given three official DIBELS assessments throughout the school year (beginning, middle, and end). I will also monitor students progress in the classroom. Depending on a student's DIBELS scores, he or she will be given weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly practice tests.
How will the results be used?
A student’s scores on a DIBELS tests will give our school information about whether or not a student is on track for reading success. We will be able to quickly identify students who do not meet the goals on each DIBELS measure and provide extra help. For example, if your child is reading words accurately, but slowly, I may provide extra practice re-reading stories and passages to improve his or her reading rate or fluency. I will use the progress monitoring scores to make sure your student receives any extra help that may be needed to improve other reading skills during the school year. I will review scores on DIBELS measures for all the students in a class to make decisions about how to prepare their day-to-day reading lessons. School and district staff can also study the test scores across classrooms and grade levels to make decisions about how to best use resources to make sure that every child in the school, including your child, is on track to become an accurate and fluent reader.