What is the primary purpose of the Dibels/Acadience assessment?

• A. To drive instruction
• B. To determine school funding
• C. To assess students' physical fitness
• D. To select students for remedial programs

Answer: (A)

The main idea behind Dibels/Acadience is to provide a quick, standardized picture of a child’s current reading skills and track how those skills change over time so you can tailor instruction. The data point to specific areas where a student may be struggling—like phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, or comprehension—and you use that information to plan targeted lessons and monitor progress. In other words, the test exists to inform teaching decisions and guide interventions, especially within a framework that tracks growth over time. It isn’t about funding decisions, it isn’t a measure of physical fitness, and while results can influence which supports a student might receive, its primary purpose is to drive instruction by identifying needs and monitoring improvement.