School Terminology

 

DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills)

 

What are Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)?

  • The DIBELS measures were specifically designed to assess 3 of the 5 Big Ideas of early literacy: Phonological Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, and Fluency with Connected Text The measures are linked to one another, both psychometrically and theoretically, and have been found to be predictive of later reading proficiency.

Which skills do the DIBELS measures assess?

  • Measures of Phonological Awareness:
    • Initial Sounds Fluency (ISF): Assesses a child's skill to identify and produce the initial sound of a given word
    • Phonemic Segmentation Fluency (PSF): Assesses a child's skill to produce the individual sounds within a given word
  • Measure of Alphabetic Principle:
    • Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF): Assesses a child's knowledge of letter-sound correspondences as well their ability to blend letters together to form unfamiliar "nonsense" (e.g., fik, lig, etc.) words
  • Measure of Fluency with Connected Text:
    • Oral Reading Fluency (ORF): Assesses a child's skill of reading connected text in grade-level material word

STAR Reading- A test given to students on the computer to determine an approximate reading level.  The assessment is given three times per year to look at student growth in reading ability.

Accelerated Reader- A computer software program which is designed to motivate students to read independently by giving points for accuracy in answering comprehension questions to verify a student has read a selected book.

Guided Reading-Reading instruction in which a small group of children reads multiple copies of the same text.  The text is selected based on the reading ability level of the group.  The instruction focuses on a particular reading strategy.

KEYS (Keys to Excellence in Your School)  Stakeholders are given the opportunity to complete an online survey to rate the school on 6 KEYS or categories.  Within the KEYS are 42 indicators of a quality school.  Survey data is compiled, reviewed, and analyzed by school personnel and then presented to staff and other stakeholders.  Following the presentation of the data, school goals are formulated to identify areas to strengthen.

Everyday Math-A comprehensive pre-kindergarten through 6th grade mathematics curriculum developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, and published by Wright Group McGraw-Hill.  It is the math series adopted by Hamilton County Schools for implementation in elementary schools.

http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/index.shtml