This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
After a dust-up this spring over reading test results in Canyons School District, the State Board of Education has given Canyons a waiver from state rule.
Each year, all Utah school districts are required to give students in grades 1-3 the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency test — a two-minute assessment in which students are asked to read aloud to determine whether they are reading at or below grade level. Those results are then reported to the Utah State Office of Education, which releases them publicly.
This spring, Canyons gave a test called AIMSweb instead and there was a disagreement between the district and the state over whether the district disclosed its better-than-average scores were from a different test.
In September, State Superintendent Larry Shumway notified districts they could use an assessment other than DIBELS if they apply for a waiver and show that the test is an equally valid and reliable measure as DIBELS. Canyons also had to show that the results of AIMSweb and DIBELS can be accurately compared. On Friday, the state board voted 10-5 to approve Canyons' waiver.
Rosemary Winters