Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills

How do I use DIBELS in my school?

DIBELS is an assessment system designed to assess all students' progress (kindergarten thru third grade) on the big ideas of early literacy development in a standardized, time efficient manner. We recommend assessing students at the beginning, middle, and end of an academic year to allow for timely instructional feedback. Because each school has their own academic schedule (i.e., traditional track, year- round), specific months of assessment must be tailored to each school. The following tables provide schools information on which measures to administer depending on grade and time of year. Materials are already created for each grade level. (Click here to link to the benchmark material page.)

Administering and Scoring the DIBELS Measures

Each DIBELS measure has standardized administration and scoring procedures so that the scores have meaning. Deviating from or modifying the administration or scoring procedures of any of the measures decreases or minimizes the validity of the score's meaning. Most educational personnel can be trained to reliably and accurately administer these measures with the materials available on the DIBELS website. Additional training can be provided on request.

	Click here to download the full Administration and Scoring manual.
	Look for these buttons on the web pages for each DIBELS Measure to access the online tutorial for that measure.

Collecting Schoolwide Assessment Data

Collecting student performance data on all students sounds intimidating at first. However, because testing takes less then 10 minutes per child, it can be accomplished in each school with a little planning. Each school has its own nuances and resources that must be considered before determining how the school will make this process happen with the least instructional disruption. Some schools collect all the data on all children in one day, some do a little each day across a week, and some others have teachers collect all the data. There are pros and cons to each of these approaches. To help your school decide on the best method for you, please download the Approaches and Considerations to Schoolwide Data Collection document. This document provides the logistical considerations a school must address to make this process go smoothly. To increas ownership of all school personnel, we recommend a team approach that includes all interested parties (e.g., teachers, aides, principal, special service staff).