DIBELS Next vs. Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA)

More intense face-to-face training would be beneficial. The students can utilize their accounts easily. I like the assessment three times per year & my access to see if a student has gained, and if not, then reasoning is given. Some of the reports are hard for families to follow and understand. Honestly, I preferred the computer interface from the past years as opposed to the current system.

Incentivized

I think it is well suited for K-12 schools, especially for tracking student growth over time. The ability to easily upload state assessment results and produce pre-built reports provides teachers actionable data. The online assessment system is more appropriate for secondary (grades 6-12) students in our district due to the types of assessments our elementary (K-5) students complete. I have some experience with other systems and think that the illuminate software offers more flexibility in the types of data that can be stored.

Incentivized

• On-going Reading/Phonics/Dyslexia Screening
• Monthly Progress Monitoring
• Easy for the students to use on their end

Incentivized

• Easy to use
• Item banks
• Outstanding customer service.
• Reasonable pricing models.
• Integrates well with student info systems.

Incentivized

• Presentation of the “how to”- I miss the older days of meeting for a week and learning the product inside & out.
• More user-friendly format for those giving assessments-difficult to use the home page & areas within.
• Parents/guardians have a difficult time with some of the written items, their lack of understanding.

Incentivized

• Tech support seemed good but our main issue was never resolved. We received attention and someone was working on our issue, but they could never figure out why our student count was off for 1 grade level even though they said our data looked great.
• The customized reports were powerful, but there was so much to learn for the average administrative user, like a principal, to get the detailed data they need. You would have to have a dedicated person to create customized reports.
• At some point, our representative just stopped calling and there was no further contact. Then our rep left the company and the new rep only sent one email notifying us of the change. That was almost a year ago.

Incentivized

Illuminate DnA is a very usable system. A few items to learn and set up can be a bit time-consuming. However, once set up it is easy to use and powerful for a school that staff can master quickly. It has more features then we actually use but I hope we will over time.

Incentivized

Our issue was never resolved so that we could use the software to produce accurate reports. Their tech department looked into the issue several times and could never figure out why our student was off and then they just closed the case. They confirmed we were performing the correct steps to load the data and they confirmed our data looked accurate. Great, but again why was our student count off?

Incentivized

Both provide BOY, MOY, & EOY Assessments. We Progress Monitor with both, but Renaissance is much easier for the students to use themselves. My students never complain about DIBELS Next testing (they like to see if they “move up.”) However, Renaissance is a product I have used successfully for many more years, and the ease of use is ideal when in a busy classroom.

Incentivized

Illuminate DnA offers more flexibility and additional features that our previous Data Director system offered. We were looking for a system that offered an online assessment portal and the ability to create elementary standard-based report cards when we selected the illuminate DnA software. We were impressed with the ability to easily create custom reports and liked the comprehensive student profile page.

Incentivized

• I’m not with the monetary element, but I would think our school has benefitted from this investment.

Incentivized

• Better handle on student achievement.
• Clarity around achievements on specific standards.

Incentivized