NMUSD highlights DIBELS rollout and early-grade reading gains
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Shields and Dr. Lori Hernandez described the district—s switch to the DIBELS digital literacy screener, parent reporting tools, and reported that measures like nonsense-word fluency and oral reading fluency exceed national averages.
Assistant Superintendent Shields and Dr. Lori Hernandez presented the district—s elementary literacy assessment and intervention plan, focusing on a transition from Acadience to DIBELS and changes in intervention scheduling.
Hernandez explained that DIBELS replaces Acadience with an updated digital platform that provides real-time scoring, parent reports in English and Spanish, and an additional real-word reading measure. She said the district adopted DIBELS as the official K-2 screener and outlined how the system supports tiered interventions (Tier 1 core instruction, Tier 2 targeted supports delivered during coordinated "Win" blocks).
Hernandez cited measures showing improvement: she reported about 76% of students entering second grade meeting a phonics benchmark, and that the district—s K-2 composite was roughly 18% higher than the national composite on comparable measures. She described how STAR Reading is used starting in second grade for benchmarking, progress monitoring and drilling down to school- and student-level data.
Trustees asked about supports for upper grades and parent understanding of new reports; staff said principals provide master schedules and the district will produce parent-facing training and Spanish-language materials (with Russian translations in development). Board members praised site examples, including College Park—s second-grade Win-block implementation and the district—s ability to fill resource needs for leveled readers.
No formal action was required; the presentation was informational and trustees publicly commended the work.