District Administration - August 2007 - (Page 42)

STANDARDS AND ASSESSMENT dent to do on comprehension, although you probably would want to supplement it with another test that has the student read a passage and then answer literal and inferential questions,” Joseph says. Reeves says administrators shouldn’t get “seduced” by a high DIBELS score. “You also have to teach kids how to summarize and get the main idea—all the elements of reading comprehension,” he adds. “DIBELS does not do that, but that doesn’t mean that DIBELS is worthless. It’s just part of the reading process.” While Reading First extends only through third grade, DIBELS is designed to be used through sixth grade, according to Kaminski. The Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township in Indiana experimented with DIBELS from kindergarten through sixth grade but will use it only in kindergarten and ﬁrst grade in 2007-2008, because that’s where it works best, says Lisa Lantrip, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and a former school principal. DIBELS doesn’t work as well in higher grades, she Because of her son’s results on two DIBELS measures, his teacher suggested he either repeat kindergarten or be held back after ﬁrst grade, Laser says. Laser thought Ellis would be ahead of his class “Whatever reading instruction you are using, DIBELS indicates whether it works or not.” —Ruth A. Kaminski, co-founder, DIBELS says, because “you can’t really get into whether or not the children understand the story. Their retell is very low, meaning they have no clue what the story is about.” Laser says her family’s main issue with DIBELS was her son’s school’s “overreliance” on the test and teaching solely designed to support test success, with the child’s “well-being be damned.” in math and science because his Portland school had focused on them, but those subjects were not considered. “It was clear to us that DIBELS is double punishment— DIBELS in and of itself and the expectation that kindergartners must enter ﬁrst grade with a speciﬁc and narrow range of reading skills in spite of their other skills and knowledge,” Laser declares. One Minute of Nonsense The truth behind DIBELS, according to Ken Goodman and his book, The Truth About DIBELS: What It Is and What It Does. O NE ANONYMOUS TEACHER, WHO IS quoted in my book, claims that her district is not using DIBELS because administrators and teachers want to use it or because it gives helpful information, because it doesn’t, she claims. “We’re using it because Reading First requires it,” she says. “Some schools are posting ﬂuency scores of children and then the students have race cars, in the form of bulletin boards, where they are trying to race to the speed goal. On the phoneme segmentation part, some kindergarten classrooms have been known to drill and practice the segmentation while kids are in line waiting for the restroom.” DIBELS is not just an early literacy test. Teachers are required to group learners and build instruction around the scores. They’re evaluated on the DIBELS scores their pupils achieve. Publishers are tailoring programs to DIBELS. And academic and life decisions for children, starting in kindergarten, are being made according to DIBELS scores. Roland Good, a DIBELS developer, told the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education Committee during a hearing last April that three million children are tested with DIBELS at least three times a year from kindergarten through third grade. New Mexico provides every teacher with a DIBELS Palm Pilot so the pupils’ scores can be sent directly to Oregon for processing. 42 August 2007 I believe this period in American education will be characterized as the pedagogy of the absurd. Kentucky’s associate education commissioner testiﬁed at the hearing that the state’s Reading First proposal was rejected repeatedly until they agreed to use DIBELS. The DOE inspector general cited conﬂicts of interest by Good and his Oregon colleagues in promoting DIBELS. Another teacher, quoted in my book, claims that while the DIBELS test is used throughout the school year, any child who receives the label “Needs Extensive Intervention” as a result of the ﬁrst testing must be monitored with a “ﬂuency passage” every other week. No test of any kind for any purpose has ever had this kind of status. In my book, I analyzed each of the subtests in depth. Here are my conclusions: • DIBELS reduces reading to a few components that can be tested in one minute. Tests of naming letters or sounding out District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - August 2007

Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
Research Corner
Computer Literature
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Bus Money
DIBELS Draws Doers & Doubters
Report from EduComm 2007
Ins and Outs of Outsourcing
Curriculum Clearance
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem Solution
Online Edge
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - August 2007