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Validity of DIBELS Early Literacy Measures with Korean English Learners

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of two Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) early literacy measures with first-grade Korean speaking English Learners (ELs). A total of 30 first-grade Korean ELs were screened three times during the year using early literacy measures from DIBELS. A sample of students was provided an empirically supported phonological awareness (PA) intervention to determine whether DIBELS measures were sensitive to growth caused by an intervention. Results suggest screening measures of phoneme segmentation fluency (phoneme segmentation fluency, PSF) were not predictive of reading performance at the middle and end of first grade. Measures of alphabetics (nonsense word fluency, NWF) were predictive of reading skills for this sample of first-grade Korean ELs. PSF and NWF were sensitive to change caused by an intervention, and appear to be able to be used to monitor the impact of a PA intervention. Implications and recommendations for the use of DIBELS with Korean speaking ELs are provided.

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Correspondence to Michael L. Vanderwood.

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Vanderwood, M.L., Nam, J.E. & Sun, J.W. Validity of DIBELS Early Literacy Measures with Korean English Learners. Contemp School Psychol 18, 205–213 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-014-0032-8

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