Enhancing the Accuracy of Kindergarten Screening

Abstract

The Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) subtest of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) has acceptable reliability and moderate validity, but limited diagnostic accuracy when used with kindergarteners. Also, the importance of fluency in the evaluation of sublexical skills is unclear, and recommended PSF scoring rules may affect characterizations of performance. Working with kindergarteners (n = 87), we investigated the role of fluency and scoring rules in phoneme segmentation screening. We also piloted a dynamic assessment (DA) with a subsample of 37 students. Results revealed that although accuracy-based measures and DA did not explain more overall variance than PSF, they did explain significant unique variance. Furthermore, accuracy-based measures and dynamic assessment improved correct classification rates, compared to PSF.