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 Program
Helping Kids Learn to Read Quickly
by Carol Peck, AZCentral.com, January 26, 2004
For more articles like this
visit
http://www.bridges4kids.org.
DIBELS, anyone?
Ever heard of DIBELS? Neither had I, but was delighted to find
that DIBELS is an unusual name for an inexpensive, easy-to-use
tool that's helping thousands of Arizona schoolchildren become
better readers.
DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy
Skills. It's a set of short, individual assessments developed at
the University of Oregon to monitor the development of
pre-reading and early reading skills in kindergarten through
Grade 3.
Mary Lou Chavez, assistant principal at Isaac District's J.B.
Sutton School, swears by it. DIBELS is being used for the first
time this year. She said children's reading scores have gone up
tremendously in just one semester and teachers are feeling more
confident that they can help every student.
"DIBELS is an efficient way for teachers to target instruction,"
says Gina Taylor, principal at Kyrene de la Paloma School, where
DIBELS is in its second year. They can pinpoint problems,
intervene quickly and monitor student progress.
Taylor said the program also helps parents get on board because
information from the assessments provides vivid indicators.
Kids love it, too, she said, because they love the results.
The DIBELS assessments address essential components of reading
instruction written into the federal No Child Left Behind
legislation. It measures student awareness of sounds, letters,
letter-sound connections, and reading speed and accuracy, all
indicators of early reading progress and predictors of later
reading proficiency.
"DIBELS sets the target and the timeline," explained Carrie
Hancock, Reading First specialist with the Arizona Department of
Education. "These measures identify exactly where students
should be as they develop reading skills."
At Le Pera School in the Parker Unified School District, where
there are high percentages of English language learners and
Native American students, approximately 50 percent of the
school's first-graders started each year as struggling readers.
DIBELS K-3 assessments were begun in 2002, and one year later,
only 5 percent of their beginning first-graders were identified
as "struggling" readers.
School psychologist Tracy Gappa credits DIBELS with guiding
instructional decisions that have made such gains possible.
Hats off to DIBELS and the dedicated teachers who make it work.
Readers can get more information about DIBELS at
http://dibels.uoregon.edu.
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