Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Media Technology

Abstract

The present study examined a variety of issues related to the process of children learning to read and theEducational community's response to children having difficulties learning to read. Two of the issues examined were high-stakes testing and reaction to intervention (RTI). The reading evaluation measure, the Dynamic Indicators for Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) is one measure that works within the RTI model. The purpose of the current study was to examine the predictive value of the DIBELS evaluation measures with scores on high-stakes achievement tests to examine if the DIBELS can assist in predicting early in a child'sEducation which students will struggle to pass high-stakes tests. The current study used DIBELS measures from both the second and third grades to assess the predictability of the DIBELS measures on the reading section of the third-grade Illinois State Achievement Test (ISATR). DIBELS measures were also compared to the reading section of the TerraNova (TNR) taken by students in the second grade. A total of 90 students from a small mid-western community were included in the study. All students were Caucasian. Twenty-six percent of the students received free or reduced lunch. Results indicate that all of the DIBELS measures correlated significantly with the ISATR and TNR. Regression analyses indicate that the DIBELS measures accounted for high percentages of the variability in the ISATR scores and somewhat lower percentages of the variability in the TNR scores. The actuarial analyses indicate that the normal DIBELS measures (Nonsense Word Fluency and Oral Reading Fluency) were able to predict which students would pass the ISATR 81% to 88% of the time.

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