What are the Dibels (sounds like dibbles with a short i) measures?
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills.
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The Illinois Snapshot of Early Learning (ISEL)
Other screening tests:
Designed to measure
visual perception and visual-motor abilities.
Ages 5 and over.
Gerald B. Fuller.
Publishing Company, Inc.
The Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic
Test (MPD), is a clinical and educational test constructed to measure visual
perception and visual-motor abilities in children and adults. The MPD offers
prompt, objective evidence of differential status, providing measures that may
be used in conjunction with other information to 1) discriminate among visual,
auditory, and mixed learning disabilities; 2) classify children’s behavioral
problems as normal, emotionally disturbed, schizophrenic, or organic; and 3)
diagnostically separate normal, brain-damaged and personality-disturbed adults.
Scoring involves an
evaluation of reproduced figures in terms of degrees of rotation, distortion,
and separation. Scores are then transferred to a diagnostic summary sheet.
Split-half reliabilities for the MPD range from .52 (for 12 year-old subjects)
to .86 (for 5 year old subjects) with a median of .60. In terms of test-retest
reliability, using a three-month retest interval, stability coefficients range
from .53 with 9 year-old subjects to .70 with 20 year-old subjects. Using a
one-year interval, coefficients range from .37 to .60. Parallel form
reliabilities (uncorrected) have a median value of .47 (median corrected value
Using rotation scores with a sample of 657 adults, the MPD correctly classified
81% as normal (N = 267), personality-disturbed (N = 211), or brain-damaged (N =
179). With 1,872 children, rotation scores correctly classified 82% as normal (N
= 1,287), emotionally disturbed (N = 339), or either brain-damaged or
schizophrenic (N = 246). The MPD rotation scores could not distinguish between
schizophrenic and brain-damaged children. With respect to children’s reading
ability, for a sample of 703 children, 90% could be appropriately diagnosed as
demonstrating good reading, primary reading retardation, secondary reading
retardation, or brain-damaged reading. The manual cites investigations
indicating 85% and 78% hit rates, respectively, in differentiating between
organic and nonorganic children.
The normative sample
includes 4,000 children and adolescents (aged 5-20 years) and 657 adults.
Uses: The MPD is
recommended as a brief screening device of learning disabilities and behavior
problems in clinical or research settings.
Designed for use as a
"quick estimate of general verbal cognitive ability."
Ages 4-0 and over.
Total score only.
Richard L. Slosson,
Charles L. Nicholson (revision), and Terry H. Hibpshman (revision).
The manual states that
the purpose of the Slosson Intelligence Test (SIT) is to serve as a "quick
estimate of general verbal cognitive ability" or "index of verbal
intelligence." Although reviewers have described it as a brief screening
measure of verbal crystallized intelligence, the manual presents appropriate
cautions about interpretation of the SIT as a screening measure, suggesting at
several points that follow-up assessment is necessary to corroborate SIT
The SIT is easy to
administer and score. The test contains 187 untimed items assessing the
cognitive domains of vocabulary, general information, similarities and
differences, comprehension, quantitative ability, and auditory memory. All the
items are presented in question and answer format. The raw score is
computed by adding the highest item in the basal to the number of correct
responses after the basal.
Kuder-Richardson 20 reliability coefficients by age level range from .88 to .97,
indicating a high degree of inter-item consistency. Test-retest reliability is
reported to be .96, based on a weak sample size of 41 and a one-week
administration interval. Split-half reliability, calculated using the
Spearman-Brown correction and the Rulon procedure, was .97 for the entire
criterion-related validity is based on correlations between the SIT total
standard score and the WAIS-R and the WISC-R IQS. In a study of 10 subjects,
significant correlations were found between TSS and three IQ scores on the
WAIS-R. Comparisons with the WISC-R were made utilizing 234 subjects between the
ages of 6 and 16. At each of four age levels the TSS correlated significantly
with each of the WISC-R IQS.
The sample approximates
the percentages found in the
Uses: It is recommended
that the SIT is suitable for screening purposes, although reviewers recommend
using the short form of other comprehensive intelligence test batteries that are
more psychometrically sound.
Metropolitan Readiness Tests are a widely used battery of tests for
prekindergarten to first grade. These tests assess the development of language
and mathematical skills necessary for early school learning. They are generally
used not as an admissions test but as an aid to class placement and sometimes to
help determine promotion to the first or second grade. The tests, which can be
administered individually or in groups, take 80 to 100 minutes and are given in
four to seven sittings. There are two different forms, or levels, which
partially overlap. Level One, which assesses pre-reading abilities, is used with
four-year-olds in preschool but may also be given up to the middle of
kindergarten. It consists of subtests (called composites) evaluating auditory memory
, beginning consonants, letter recognition, visual matching, school language and
listening, and quantitative language. Level Two, which measures skills needed
for beginning reading and mathematics, is used from the middle of kindergarten
to early in the first grade. Skills assessed include beginning consonants,
sound-letter correspondence, visual matching, finding patterns, school language,
listening, quantitative concepts, and quantitative operations. Results of the
Metropolitan Readiness Tests are reported as a raw score, a national performance
rating, and a percentile ranking.
For Your Information
Encyclopedia of Childhood & Adolescence.
Gale Research, 1998.
Scales of Children’s Abilities
Designed to assess the abilities of preschool children.
Children, ages 2.5 -
Score: Six scale scores.
The McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities (MSCA) is a measurement device
used to assess the abilities of preschool children.
The results of the MSCA produce six scale scores: verbal,
perceptual-performance, quantitative, composite (general cognitive), memory,
In the MSCA manual, McCarthy provides information on the internal consistency
and stability of test scores, as they were obtained from the standardization
sample. The internal consistency coefficients for the General Cognitive Index (GCI)
averaged .93 across 10 age groups between 2.5, and 8.5 years. Mean reliability
coefficients for the other five Index Scales ranged from .79 to .88. The manual
includes information on test-retest reliability over a one month interval on a
stratified sample of 125 children grouped into three age levels. The average
coefficient for the GCI was .80, with correlations ranging from .69 to .89 for
the other scales. Other studies of long and short-term stability resulted in
stability coefficients for the GCI of .81 and .84, respectively. Stability
coefficients of the cognitive scales ranged from .62 to .76 with the Motor Scale
emerging as the only scale that lacked stability (r=33).
According to the manual, the content of the MSCA and the organization of the six
scales were determined primarily through "intuitive and functional
considerations" based on McCarthy’s extensive teaching and clinical
experience. Analyses of the standardization data for five age groups and for
separate groups of blacks and whites have given generally good support for the
construct validity of the battery for normal children, although each factor did
not emerge for every age group. The results also provide evidence that a
child’s profile of MSCA Index scores reflect real and meaningful performance
in domains of cognitive and motor ability. The major practical implication of
these results for test users is that a child’s strengths and weaknesses can be
determined through the interpretation of differences on Scale Indexes, as
proposed originally by McCarthy.
Norms: The test was standardized on a sample of 1,032 children
stratified by race, geographic region, father’s occupational status, and,
informally, urban-rural residency, in accordance with the 1970 U.S. Census data.
The major problem which has affected test users’ confidence in the meaning of
the scores is the exclusion of exceptional children from the standardization
Uses: The MSCA is a
useful aid in screening and diagnostic decisions.
Neurological Screening Test, Revised Edition
Designed for use in
screening for early identification of disabilities.
Ages 5 and over.
Norms suggest cutoff
Margaret Mutti, Harold
M. Sterling, and Norma V. Spalding.
The Quick Neurological
Screening Test (QNST) is composed of 15 observed tasks that reportedly can be
used as a screening test for learning disabilities. These tasks are very simple
in nature and were adapted primarily from a typical pediatric neurological
examination; however, a few tasks were derived from developmental scales or
Subjective scoring is
required for the tasks, which include: handwriting ability, perceptual ability
for numbers written on the palms of the hands, eye tracking, finger to nose
coordination, rapidly reversing repetitive hand movements, tandem walk, and arm
and leg extension. The test requires that the examiner be highly
observant of the child’s behavior and make subjective ratings concerning the
child’s performance. These subjective ratings are then compared to cutoff
scores in the manual.
scoring is involved in the test, no direct measure of scorer reliability is
presented in the manual. Indirect evidence suggests that there is some examiner
bias. For example, in one study a test-retest reliability coefficient of .81 is
reported after a month interval for 33 learning disabled children who were
tested by a single examiner. A single examiner is likely to exercise the same
scoring bias on two administrations. A lower reliability coefficient of .71 was
reported in another study after a 1 month interval with two different examiners.
Apparently one examiner administered the first test and another examiner the
follow-up test. The difference between these two correlations may imply that
individual examiners employ slightly different criteria in scoring even though
both attempted to follow the instructions.
The QNST seems to be
best for matching the findings of a standard pediatric neurological examination.
In one study of over 550 subjects, 30% of which had positive neurological
findings, the QNST was abnormally high in 98% of these. No patient had a
positive neurological examination and a QNST in the normal range. A major
problem with the QNST, however, is that a large unspecified number of subjects
had abnormally high QNST scores and no positive finds on neurological
2,239 subjects from
learning disabled and undifferentiated populations.
Uses: It is recommended
that the QNST could be included as only one test in a battery of
neuropsychological tests for learning disabilities.