April 16th Newsletter

April 16, 2014
Newsletter

DIBELS Deep Diagnostic:

Amplify and CDE are excited to announce the addition of the DIBELS Deep diagnostic assessment as part of the ELAT program.  Amplify has continued to develop their offerings around the DIBELS family of assessments; the Phonemic Awareness measure was added to the mCLASS platform in the 13-14 school year, and the remaining measures will be added throughout the 14-15 school year.

DIBELS Deep consists of three primary measures: Phonemic Awareness (PA), Word Reading Decoding (WRD), and Comprehension, Fluency, and Oral Language Skills (CFOL).  Each measure consists of a variety of sub-measures designed to provide specific information for developing/adjusting instruction.  DIBELS Deep will replace the Burst Reading Assessment as the diagnostic provided by the ELAT program. 

For schools that are using the Burst Early Literacy Intervention with Amplify, these measures will be added to the intervention package.  You will now have the following tools to use with students: Burst Reading Assessments, DIBELS Deep diagnostic measures, and the Burst instruction.  Teachers will continue to use the Burst Reading Assessments in the same manner as last year in order to ensure accurate instruction is produced by the platform.  In cases where the teacher would like additional information, DIBELS Deep measures may be used.  Examples of when teachers would use DIBELS Deep include: wanting diagnostic information for phonemic awareness (not currently covered by the Burst measures) or if a student is in a Burst group, but not progressing.  Click here to read about Burst updates for the 14-15 school year.

 Logistics:

Training for DIBELS Deep: 

• First opportunity for training will be at the June Jumpstart trainings (provided regionally across the state).  This session will cover the important aspects of using a diagnostic assessment (vs a screener like DIBELS Next).  We will also train the PA measure and do a walk-through of the WRD measure.
• Amplify will provide a second set of regional trainings across the state this Fall.It is highly recommended that schools send their local trainers to both training events.

Assessment Kits:

• Amplify will provide each school with one kit per grade level (K-3).
• Your school will be contacted to coordinate the delivery of kit.

Software Releases/Availability:

• DIBELS Deep Phonemic Awareness is currently available, and will be licensed to schools before August 2014.
• DIBELS Deep Word Reading Decoding will be available for schools on paper/pencil for post-BOY assessments.  We are targeting the post-MOY timeframe for the release of the software on the Amplify platform.

Evaluating Appropriate Growth:

Amplify has developed a tool for districts and schools to evaluate the growth using the DIBELS Next composite score from BOY to MOY. The resources for evaluating growth from BOY to EOY will be provided after the EOY window closes. Please click here to access a document to walk you through this process. This document includes an appendix with resources that you will want to print. This tool will be included in the Jumpstart Training and will be threaded through all training next year. Feel free to call with questions and feedback.

Summer Jumpstart Training:

June Jumpstart sessions: The two day June workshops have taken form and content has been created. These sessions are designed to help you take the training of your staff to the next level. This is not a repeat of content from this year and includes streamlined materials, staff activities, resources and handouts. The sessions will be run in a workshop format and are specifically geared to allow you to turn this training around to your staff. Each session includes a planning template enabling you to leave with a specific training plan for next year in your school.  Topics include: Data conversations, Progress Monitoring: a deeper and more comprehensive approach, DIBELS Deep, A Comprehensive look at RAS and mCLASS teacher reports, and more. Click here for a detailed outline of all sessions that will be offered.

We will offer hours of participation certificates and are looking into offering credit through Adams State for this training. This training link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wWbzIxhdkkIAccmae074S4HDZxJk8SQI4Ua6x1J_8zQ/viewform?usp=send_form will be open until April 22, 2014. Please make sure you have registered as being interested in attending the training. We will have finalized training dates by May 10, 2014.

Testing Windows:

2013-14 EOY Window

EOY – April 28, 2014 - May 16, 2014

2014-15 School Year  Benchmark Testing Windows:

BOY – First thirty school days (you will choose a 2 week window)

MOY – Two weeks before Winter Break (December 8 – 19, 2014) or the two weeks after Winter Break (January 5– January 16, 2015)

EOY – April 27, 2015 – May 15, 2015

ON LINE DIBELS Next Courses:

Amplify and CDE are pleased to announce an exciting on-line opportunity for local trainers and administrators in supporting and training your staff in the use of DIBELS Next. This is offered as an additional tool and is not an “on-line” course that must be completed in a certain time frame.

Each school can enroll up to three people at no charge. These modules will be provided through the project and once you have enrolled you will have access forever. These resources can be used for training in group settings as well as used for supporting individuals in your school.  Directions to enroll can be found here.

Topics for the on-line DIBELS Next modules will:

• provide extensive review of administering all measures,
• provide practice scoring opportunities
• provide detailed instructions on accessing web reports

End of Year Survey:

We will be sending out an End of the Year Satisfaction Survey to all stakeholders in the Early Literacy Assessment Tool project. The survey will be sent out on April 22, 2014 and will close on May 6, 2014. Please let your teachers know that they will receive an email from me with a link to the survey. The survey takes less than 10 minutes and will help us improve our service delivery for the next school year. Thank you in advance for informing your staff about the survey and encouraging them to complete the survey.