DRA Question

[GeorgiaPeach8]

My DD is in kindergarten and they are tested for reading using DRA. Her kindergarten teacher is very good (but on maternity leave) but she doesn't seem willing to give much information about what the DRA levels mean. So, these questions go out to any kindergarten teachers or elementary parents.

What do the DRA levels mean?

What level should a kindergarten be on by February?

How many levels should a student progress each year? I asked a friend who has a 4th grader and her DD is on a DRA level that seemed really high compared to kindergarten.

 

[portocall]

I am not sure. I think that is the books my kids use, and they go by lesson numbers... In our case, to be promoted to 1st grade, they must be to lesson 124. My son is in 4th grade and completed the program, but he was always a full grade level ahead in reading (math, no), I think he finished in level 6.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

(I teach first grade...)

At the end of Kindergarten, a good level would be about a DRA 3 or 4 (Or Guided Reading level C or D).

So by now, a level B would be fine.

What it means is that books are leveled based on difficulty. The difficulty is determined by a number of things, including text patterns, sight words, phonetics, etc.

An A, or Level 1 book may have the same text on each page except for one word, and the word would be in the picture. For example:

The balloon is red.
The balloon is blue.
The balloon is yellow.
The balloon is green.

Each page would ONLY have a picture of a balloon of that color on it.

A level B, or Level 2 book, looks very similar to an A book except that the last page may break the pattern. For example:

The car is blue.
The car is red.
The car is fast.
The car is slow.
I like my car.

Level C and D (3 and 4) bookshave slightly more sophisticated patterns, but the text is still very much supported by the pictures. Also, more variety in sight words will be introduced. Around level E (DRA 5), the text may appear in different spots on the page. In levels 1-4, the text is almost always in the same place, usually the bottom of the page or always on the left side of a 2-page spread. Simple dialogue (with ""), may appear in level C (3). Also, book length begins to increase. Most A and B books are only 6 or 8 pages long, sometimes even less. By C and D they may be 16 pages long, and some E books might be 24 pages or so.


As for the levels a student should go each year, it varies by grade. The biggest growth in terms of number of levels is usually seen in the first grade. The reading test does not just test decoding (sounding out words), but also comprehension. When you get into the higher levels, it takes longer to progress through them because the strategies and text features are more complex.

 

[GeorgiaPeach8]

Wow...that was helpful!! Way more about DRA than DD's teacher told us. When you say 3 or 4 is "good" do you mean at grade level or above.

I teach high school...we speak more in terms of grade levels. Or--is their even such a thing in kindergarten.

Also, what do you guys think about Accelerated Reader in kindergarten?

 

[EMom]

If I remember correctly....and I may not, as I now completely disregard DRAs (long story).....it does correlate to grade level in a way. This is how the teachers explained it to me.

When DD was a DRA 12, I think that was 1st grade, 2 months. At 24, that would have been 2nd grade, 4 months. So 37 was 3rd grade, 7 months. See the pattern? You take the first of the two double digits (if they have a double digit number) and that is the school year. Then you take the second digit and that is the month. Don't ask me about the 11th and 12th months of the year. I guess they just use the school months....Who knows? If a child is in first grade and reading at a 27, then they are well ahead since they're reading at a 2nd grade, 7th month level.

A child finishing Kindergarten at a 3 or 4 is reading at a 0 grade/kindergarten, 3rd or 4th month. Meaning they're at the level of a kid who is on target for the 3rd or 4th month of kindergarten. I figured they'd want kids to finish kindergarten at 9 or 10, which would correlate to an entire year of K, but if I remember correctly, they did not expect a number that high. DD was ahead, so I didn't pay close attention to the minimum level expected.

Here's the disclaimer: Reading what some posters are writing, they might be using a different scoring system that we do. So my numbers might be meaningless to you.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Wow...that was helpful!! Way more about DRA than DD's teacher told us. When you say 3 or 4 is "good" do you mean at grade level or above.

I teach high school...we speak more in terms of grade levels. Or--is their even such a thing in kindergarten.

Also, what do you guys think about Accelerated Reader in kindergarten?

As the PP said, there are different leveling systems. If you google reading levels, you can find correlation charts. My school uses "Guided Reading" levels, they are alphabet letters. They consider grade level at the end of kindergarten to be a C at my school; that appears to correlate to a DRA 3.

In order to reach a level C, the child has to have a lot of reading skills that are important but are not necessarily seen just from reading a book. Things like knowledge of how to hold a book, reading from L to R, phonemic awareness, a mastery of some sight words, some reading strategies to figure out unknown words (like decoding or using the pictures). This is partly why it seems like they are not going many levels in kindergarten; they are building a reading foundation that is not tested on DRA. That foundation of phonemic awareness is tested on another test commonly called an "observation survey" or some other literacy battery of tests where they test letter sounds, rhyming awareness, segmenting of words, etc.

Your state probably has literacy "standards", "performance indicators", or "benchmarks" for what is expected of students by the end of Kindergarten. These can be googled or found on your state's department of education website. Some states are very specific, others are not.

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

At my DS6's school here are the levels a child should be at by the end of each year to be considered on grade level. Our school district is pushing literacy, which is great.
K-Level 6
1st-Level 14 or 16
2nd-Level 24 or 26

DRAs assess reading fluency and comprehension. The students are asked to retell the story.

My DS's school also uses a universal screener called DIBELS. The teachers use a palm pilot while testing the students. DIBELS told us exactly which areas that we need to work on with DS. Short vowel sounds, nonsense words ect. As a parent, I really like it.

Lori