Form Effects on DIBELS Next Oral Reading Fluency Progress- Monitoring Passages

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe passage effects on Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills–Next Edition Oral Reading Fluency (DIBELS Next ORF) progress-monitoring measures for Grades 1 through 6. Approximately 572 students per grade (total N with at least one data point = 3,092) read all three DIBELS Next winter benchmark passages in the prescribed order, and within 2 weeks read four additional progress-monitoring passages in a randomly assigned and counterbalanced order. All 20 progress-monitoring passages were read by students in Grades 1 through 4; 16 passages were read in Grade 5 and 12 passages were read in Grade 6. Results focus on the persistence of form effects in spite of a priori criteria used in passage development. The authors describe the utility of three types of equating methods (i.e., mean, linear, and equipercentile equating) in ameliorating these effects. Their conclusions focus on preferred equating methods with small samples, the impact of form effects on progress-monitoring decision making, and recommendations for future use of ORF passages for progress monitoring.