Dibels testing

I am a parent of a Jefferson parish public school student in 3rd grade. I just recently learned that a test (dibels) that is given only 3 times a year will determine if a child passes or fails the entire school year. This test only determines how fast a child can read in one minute, not at all what they comprehend while reading. Some children need to read slower to comprehend what they are reading. Even I an adult need to take my time reading to comprehend, if you time me to read as fast as I can I will need to reread it to actually comprehend what was read. There has been absolutely no communication about this test being a determining factor whether they pass or fail. I have also heard from other parents that children with 504 plans and those in special ed received no accommodations for this test. This test should be done to get the children help throughout the school year not at the end of the year going into summer. I as well as many people are upset about this test holding back their children even though they were an A,B,C student the whole school year. My child for example is at a top rated school and has had passing grades from Kindergarten through this year in all subjects. The lack of communication is also very disappointing. Many of us are just finding out this summer literacy camp will be a requirement for our children to progress to the next grade just 2 weeks before it starts. There are many people who have summer camp and vacations planned and paid for that cannot be refunded. I am asking that this test does not determine if a child passes or fails and that their grades that they have worked very hard on all year long does. I am asking this for this school year and future school years.

I pulled this from an article on edweek.org

“But while teachers, administrators, and researchers praise the tests for their ease of use and reliability in predicting which children may have reading difficulties later, the use of DIBELS has drawn criticism from some in the field. Critics cite the tendency of some educators to teach to the tests or give the measures too much weight in gauging reading ability, as well as the often-aggressive promotion of DIBELS by federal employees and consultants to the Reading First program.

“If you want a test of whether kids can read fast with low comprehension, then DIBELS is great,” said G. Michael Pressley, a professor of education at Michigan State University in East Lansing and a former editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology. “It is not as well developed as the claims that are being made.””