Let me clarify this a bit. With the first DRA kit, we have found that when teachers rank their students as "proficient, advanced, basic or below basic" as required by the district, the results are not lining up with other measures. I am no fan of standardized testing, but when we look at multiple measures, it seemed that our DRA scores were not a true reflection of reading ability.
I have a couple of ideas about that. One is that while I find the DRA to be a reasonable tool, the text selections are pretty limited in terms of genre. Certainly heavy on fiction, but more specifically--realistic fiction and fantasy. A couple of folk tale/ fable thrown in at level 24 and then kids in the upper kits encountered historical fiction. In my own opinion, the measure would be stronger with much more nonfiction. That all said, the primary kit as it was initially designed, placed an over-emphasis on retelling in my mind. The new measure seems to more balanced in terms of higher level thinking skills and recall. As a district on the NCLB hit list (and in the top five for poverty by county nationwide) there is tremendous pressure placed on our teachers to raise levels and we seem to be neglecting readers in the process. I picture reading growth as a pyramid that grows wider and wider as children go deeper into their thinking, reflection, discussion and exposure to many, many different genres. I think in our own efforts to save our schools, reading progress has become a rubbery spear. While we have been able to show progress with the DRA Instrument; we have developed tunnel vision and become overly focused on reading levels. My level of comfort with the new DRA is that if teachers under pressure teach to a test, then a test that requires and encourages questioning, predicting, retelling, knowledge level questions that require or allow students to reread and skim for information, determine importance and be metacognitive about the process will take us back to wider reading and more meaningful discussions and teaching. At this point, this is hopeful conjecture. The decision to put a cap on levels for each grade level seems to me a sound one to consider. Lori On 6/6/07 7:49 PM, "ljackson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Although we are just adopting this for use next fall, our pilot showed > exactly the same trend. I think it measures comprehension more accurately > and the drop is not something to be alarmed about. > > > On 6/6/07 6:01 PM, "Kate Lino" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Thank you all so much for your posts on the DRA "ceilings" ... it has been >> very insightful for me. I have a question for you. Have any of you seen a >> variance in your students' levels from the DRA kit to the DRA2 kit? We used >> the old kit for the first semester and got trained on the new kit after >> Christmas. I was out on maternity leave, so I only tested my students with >> the >> new kit at the end of the year. I am freaking out a bit because some are >> scoring 2-3 levels lower than what they came in at (with the old kit). Is >> this >> normal? Some are even testing lower than that ... the fluency component is >> killing them. Any input (or reassurance!) you have would be appreciated. >> >> Kate Lino >> NC/Grade 2 >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Play free games, earn tickets, get cool prizes! Join Live Search Club. >> http://club.live.com/home.aspx?icid=CLUB_wlmailtextlink >> _______________________________________________ >> Mosaic mailing list >> [email protected] >> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >> http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. >> >> Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. >> >> -- Lori Jackson District Literacy Coach & Mentor Todd County School District Box 87 Mission SD 57555 http:www.tcsdk12.org ph. 605.856.2211 Literacies for All Summer Institute "Literate Lives: A Human Right" July 12-15, 2007 Louisville, Kentucky http://www.ncte.org/profdev/conv/wlu _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
