DIBELS is typically a ONE MINUTE test for reading fluency, which surprised me as a parent. It’s meant to be a quick screening tool teacher scan use to gauge a lot of children’s fluency. Meaning you have 25 kids, where do they fit. It is not meant as any sortof diagnostic whatsoever — check the DIBELS website. It’s like a whack a mole game, trying to quickly game out where kids might be. There are many more sophisticated measures and if your child is reading then ignore the one minute nonsense.

Are there any resources you recommend for understanding these scores? The scores released at our student's school were not accompanied with any type of context.

Where do you find the score breakout? I just see one score for PALS, but sections like spelling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. They are nearly fluent at reading -- well above grade level books with great comprehension. After chatting with the school, looks like the spelling in particular was a challenge.

I am a reading specialist in Virginia. Many students do not meet the benchmark in PALS because of the spelling alone. As Pp stated, the word recognition component is very fast and some otherwise strong readers do poorly on that. The oral reading passage level is based on the word recognition score, so a poor word recognition score can lower that score as well. DIEBELS is based on a grade level passage so everyone is reading the same level (more or less). Not sure why a school would use both. Seems like a waste of time.

We just got the PALS scores and my kid did well on all sections except he didn't get anything right on the spelling part.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. They are nearly fluent at reading -- well above grade level books with great comprehension. After chatting with the school, looks like the spelling in particular was a challenge.

I am a reading specialist in Virginia. Many students do not meet the benchmark in PALS because of the spelling alone. As Pp stated, the word recognition component is very fast and some otherwise strong readers do poorly on that. The oral reading passage level is based on the word recognition score, so a poor word recognition score can lower that score as well. DIEBELS is based on a grade level passage so everyone is reading the same level (more or less). Not sure why a school would use both. Seems like a waste of time.

We just got the PALS scores and my kid did well on all sections except he didn't get anything right on the spelling part.

Anonymous wrote:Both are just screeners but have different components. The rapid sight word component on the PALS can throw some kids off. The words flash for only 2-3 seconds, and while the child can ask to see the word again, many don’t do so. There is also a spelling component that can bring down the overall score.

+1
I saw my then 2nd grader took this test during the virtual school and it was overwhelming to just watch. I felt it wasn’t even 1 second the word was on the screen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 1st grader scored well, well above the benchmark on DIBELS and right below it on PALS. A little confused on how to interpret this. Any insights?

That's super weird! I would definitely have expected the opposite (sure you don't have the tests confused). Can you post their anonymized results?

The teachers giving the test don't always do it correctly and are often pressed to jam a bunch evals in a short period so corners are cut. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

So you are blaming teachers? It’s not a difficult test to give correctly and we have been thoroughly trained.
In APS k-2 does both. 3-5 does DIBELS only. At my school we also did a separate spelling assessment to determine intervention needs. I much prefer DIBELS to PALS. PALS doesn’t pus you to go higher on the passages even if the student does very well- if the student doesn’t do great on the word list which determines the passage that determines the passage level and then they will come out below on the reading level. And the spelling level is equated to Words their way levels which APS no longer uses because it has been found ineffective. DIBELS is nationally recognized as superior.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 1st grader scored well, well above the benchmark on DIBELS and right below it on PALS. A little confused on how to interpret this. Any insights?

That's super weird! I would definitely have expected the opposite (sure you don't have the tests confused). Can you post their anonymized results?

The teachers giving the test don't always do it correctly and are often pressed to jam a bunch evals in a short period so corners are cut. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

The school is probably using both because PALS is required by the state of VA unless the school division is granted a waiver, but PALS is widely known to be a terrible screener for dyslexia and DIBELS is much better.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. They are nearly fluent at reading -- well above grade level books with great comprehension. After chatting with the school, looks like the spelling in particular was a challenge.

I am a reading specialist in Virginia. Many students do not meet the benchmark in PALS because of the spelling alone. As Pp stated, the word recognition component is very fast and some otherwise strong readers do poorly on that. The oral reading passage level is based on the word recognition score, so a poor word recognition score can lower that score as well. DIEBELS is based on a grade level passage so everyone is reading the same level (more or less). Not sure why a school would use both. Seems like a waste of time.

OP here. They are nearly fluent at reading -- well above grade level books with great comprehension. After chatting with the school, looks like the spelling in particular was a challenge.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 1st grader scored well, well above the benchmark on DIBELS and right below it on PALS. A little confused on how to interpret this. Any insights?

That's super weird! I would definitely have expected the opposite (sure you don't have the tests confused). Can you post their anonymized results?

Yeah, my kid’s PALS score was slightly below the benchmark, but DIBELS score was far below benchmark in almost every category. I think that’s more typical, but I guess it depends on the kid.

A better question is: how does your child do with real, actual reading of books? I would focus on that.

Anonymous wrote:My 1st grader scored well, well above the benchmark on DIBELS and right below it on PALS. A little confused on how to interpret this. Any insights?

That's super weird! I would definitely have expected the opposite (sure you don't have the tests confused). Can you post their anonymized results?

Both are just screeners but have different components. The rapid sight word component on the PALS can throw some kids off. The words flash for only 2-3 seconds, and while the child can ask to see the word again, many don’t do so. There is also a spelling component that can bring down the overall score.

I encourage you to reach out to the reading specialist at your school. At our APS school, the reading specialist is fantastic and is happy to answer questions like this!

My 1st grader scored well, well above the benchmark on DIBELS and right below it on PALS. A little confused on how to interpret this. Any insights?