It’s been nearly 10 years now that our schools have been using the Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy (DIBELS) Next as a school-wide reading assessment.  DIBELS was first introduced as part of Reading First and fit so nicely into our new Response to Intervention initiative.  The DIBELS Next is a valid and reliable screener that can identify students at-risk for reading difficulties.  The idea is that if we can identify those students early, we can put in place interventions to actually prevent the reading problem!  Personally, I love this assessment.  It does exactly what it is suppose to do.  In the ensuing years; however, misunderstandings of the assessment have lead to inappropriate use of the data as well as inappropriate