Test Assesses Student Reading Skills

SEBRING - DIBELS sounds like a bite-sized snack food, but it spells out the acronym for a short series of tests that screen and monitor student progress in learning the skills to become successful readers.

Starting Monday and during the next two weeks, the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy tests will be administered in all the elementary grades.

The state tracks the DIBELS results for grades K-3, but all elementary students in the district are tested, Elementary Programs Coordinator Joyce McClelland said. Also, some middle school grades have a similar reading skills test.

DIBELS is a timed standardized test and all the teachers that administer it have been trained on it, she said. The results from the testing are used to adjust lesson plans to help the specific needs of the student.

Woodlawn Elementary fourth-graders Tikira Battle and Meghan Griffin practiced reading "The Missing Gator of Gumbo Limbo" on Friday as their teacher, Sheryl Vretta, timed them with a stopwatch.

Both students said they especially enjoy reading mysteries. Griffin likes the drama and mystery of the "Lemony Snicket" series, which is subtitled "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Most parents will be informed of their child's performance on the DIBELS test either in writing with a printed report or during a parent/teacher conference.

During the testing, kindergarten and first-grade students are given a page with letters and asked to name each one. This test tells the educator if the child is likely to struggle or be a successful reader in the future.

By the middle of kindergarten children should be able to say or recognize the beginning sounds in words automatically. To measure this with DIBELS, students are given a page with four pictures. They are asked to find the picture that starts with a particular sound or to say the beginning or initial sound in a word.

This school year, DIBELS will also be administered Jan. 24 through Feb. 6 and April 28 through May 18.