1. DIBELS: An Overview Kelli Anderson Early Intervention Specialist - ECC
Dr. David Lillenstein, NCSP
Director of Psychological Services

2. Literacy Skills Dynamic Indicators Basic Early DIBELS stands for: Of
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3. DIBELS Facts: 6th edition – Grades K-6 Editors: Roland H. Good II
Ruth A. Kaminski
Outcomes-Driven Model
Research based
Provides longitudinal data
Assists with grouping students by skill in a balanced literacy classroom
Prevention vs. remediation
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4. Key highlights of DIBELS:
Material for Kindergarten to 6th grade
Quick, easy to administer, and to score
Data system for a small fee ($1.00/student/yr)
Grades K Year 2
Grades Year 1
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5. BIG IDEAS of literacy skills:
Phonological awareness
Alphabetic principle or Phonics
Accuracy and fluency with connected text
Vocabulary
Comprehension
abcdefg
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6. DIBELS and the BIG IDEAS:
Phonological Awareness:
Initial Sounds Fluency
Phonemic Segmentation Fluency
Alphabetic Principle:
Nonsense Word Fluency
Accuracy and Fluency with connected text:
Oral Reading Fluency
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7. Phonological Awareness:
The ability to hear and manipulate the sound structure of language
NOT the same as phonics
Examples of phonological awareness:
Rhyming, syllable splitting, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, phoneme deletion, and phoneme manipulation
Example of phoneme segmentation:
Able to determine that the word “mop” is made up of the sounds …
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8. Alphabetic Principle or Phonics:
Letter-sound correspondence
Is NOT knowing letter names in the alphabet
The ability to blend letters into words
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9. Oral Reading Fluency: Ability to read text accurately and quickly
Effortless or to the level of automaticity
Automaticity = fast, effortless word recognition
Automaticity is necessary but not sufficient for fluency
Fluent readers read with automaticity
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10. Fluency Continued…
Reading fluently allows students to comprehend what they have read
Fluency is developed through modeling and repeated oral reading
Significant relationship with reading comprehension
e.g correlation between WCPM and Stanford Achievement Reading Comprehension
ORF is more closely related to Comprehension than to word recognition of words drawn from a passage (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Maxwell, 1988)
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11. Less fluent readers… must focus attention on decoding individual words
must allocate cognitive resources to word recognition
have little attention left for comprehending text
are unable to focus on comprehension!!!
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12. Fluent readers… focus attention on making connections with text
focus attention on connecting text with prior knowledge
are able to read with expression
are able to recognize words and comprehend at the same time
are able to focus on comprehension!!!
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13. Why we assess fluency? Useful in evaluating instruction
Useful in setting instructional goals
Provides means for monitoring Response to Intervention (RTI) / progress monitoring
Can be motivating to students / teachers / parents
Efficient, reliable, and objective
Correlates with comprehension
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14. Administration Schedule
Administration Schedule
DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency
DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency
DIBELS Phoneme Segment Fluency
DIBELS Letter Naming Fluency
DIBELS Initial Sound Fluency
Beg
Mid
End
Preschool
Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade
Third - Sixth Grade
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15. The importance… Strong probability between…
A student remaining a poor reader at the end of 4th grade if the student was a poor reader at the end of 1st grade.
A student remaining an average reader at the end of 4th grade if the student was an average reader at the end of 1st grade.
From Good & Kaminski 2001 (cited Juel, 1988)
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16. Completing DIBELS Benchmark Assessments
All Students = 3 minutes/child - 3x/year (~20 mins/class)
Recommended team assessment approach
Team can include the following members:
School psychologist, classroom teacher, special education teacher, student teacher, counselor, principal, IST, interns, remedial reading teacher, speech therapist, aides…
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17. DIBELS Reports

18. Grade Level Performance & Distribution
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19. Grade Level Progress Report
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20. Classroom Instructional / Grouping Recommendations
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21. Instructional Recommendations
Benchmark = Core curriculum
Strategic = Classroom-based intervention
Intensive = Daily intensive in-class and/or out of class instructional support
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22. Progress Monitoring Assessments
Benchmark = “No risk” = BM 3x/year
Strategic = “Some risk” = PM 1x/month (1 min)
Intensive = “Risk” = PM 1x/week (1 min)
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23. Questions ???
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