Early Literacy Assessment

In the article Preventive Screening for Early Readers: Predictive Validity of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), the authors discuss how the assessment of children’s “early literacy skills can help schools promote beginning reading success for all children by improving instruction and intervention through early identification and monitoring response to intervention efforts”(p. 539). Because it has been shown that phonemic awareness and alphabetic knowledge in the early grades are strong predictors of success in acquiring beginning reading skills, the authors believe that students need to be assessed regularly through assessments such as DIBELS which can be used for screening, progress monitoring, diagnosis, and measuring student outcomes (p. 540). By screening children at risk for experiencing reading difficulties, schools can give these students additional instruction or intervention services. Assessing students often in multiple forms is important as it gives teachers progress-monitoring data that shows them whether or not instruction and or interventions are working. When it is found that a student is not progressing through current instruction, the child may be referred for a diagnostic assessments (p. 540). These assessment not only provide teachers with information about a child’s skills and needs, but are also

The authors give case study examples that back up their claims and discuss how not only teachers and administrators, but also school psychologists can play a vital role in helping schools utilize assessment technology by taking a leadership role in implementing comprehensive school-wide assessment systems, such as the DIBELS. The area of concern that I found, was that there was no mention of any other literacy assessment such as the DRA