Reading fluency progress monitoring chart
Progress monitoring means measuring the same skill every few weeks and checking the trend against a goal. For reading fluency, that is words correct per minute (WCPM) on a grade-level passage. Add each score here, from our one-minute check or from school, and the chart draws a goal line to the end of the school year next to your child's actual trend, so you can see whether the current pace is enough.
Your child's chart
The goal starts at the spring median for your child's grade in the Hasbrouck-Tindal norms, by June 1. Change either if the teacher set a different goal.
Progress chart
Words correct per minute over time
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How to measure
- Every two to four weeks. More often than that, a change is usually smaller than the normal ups and downs of a single reading.
- A new passage at the same grade each time. A passage your child has read before gives a higher score that isn't real progress.
- The same conditions. Similar time of day, no rehearsal, the same counting rules for errors.
- One source per trend. School passages and ours are different texts; mixing them in one trend blurs it.
Reading the chart
The dashed goal line runs from the first score to the goal. The green trend line is fitted through all the scores once there are at least three, spread over at least two weeks. Early trends from three or four scores can swing a lot. If the trend climbs as fast as the goal line or faster, your child is on pace. If four scores in a row sit under the goal line, that is the usual signal, in schools that monitor progress, to change what the extra help looks like: talk with the teacher.
For a sense of normal growth, here is the change in the median score across the year in the Hasbrouck-Tindal norms, divided by the weeks between the testing windows (roughly 16 from fall to winter and 16 from winter to spring). These weekly figures are our estimate from the 2017 medians; the report publishes fall, winter and spring scores, not weekly rates. A classic study of week-to-week growth (Fuchs et al., 1993) found about 0.3 words a week in 6th grade, below our 0.4, so treat the figures as rough.
| Grade | Fall | Winter | Spring | Estimated words gained per week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | – | 29 | 60 | 1.9 |
| 2 | 50 | 84 | 100 | 1.6 |
| 3 | 83 | 97 | 112 | 0.9 |
| 4 | 94 | 120 | 133 | 1.2 |
| 5 | 121 | 133 | 146 | 0.8 |
| 6 | 132 | 145 | 146 | 0.4 |
1st grade has no fall score in the norms, so its weekly figure runs from winter to spring.
Questions parents ask
What is progress monitoring in reading?
Measuring the same skill every few weeks with comparable passages and checking the trend against a goal. For fluency the measure is words correct per minute (WCPM) on a grade-level passage read aloud for one minute. One score says little; the slope of several scores says whether the current help is enough.
How much should WCPM grow each week?
Between the fall and spring medians in the Hasbrouck-Tindal norms, a typical 2nd grader gains about 1.6 words a week, a 4th grader about 1.2 and a 6th grader about 0.4. These are our estimates from the medians, not published weekly rates. A classic study of week-to-week growth found less in 6th grade, about 0.3 words a week (Fuchs et al., 1993).
How often should I measure at home?
Every two to four weeks is enough at home, on a different passage of the same grade each time and in similar conditions. Weekly scores move by several words from one reading to the next, so look at the trend over several scores rather than any single change.
Can I add my child's school scores?
Yes. Choose "School test" when you add the score. Keep to one source for the trend if you can: school passages (DIBELS, Acadience, aimsweb) and the passages on this site are different texts, so their scores are not interchangeable.
Sources
- Hasbrouck, J. & Tindal, G. (2017) - An Update to Compiled ORF Norms (Technical Report 1702, Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon)
- Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hamlett, C. L., Walz, L. & Germann, G. (1993) - Formative evaluation of academic progress: How much growth can we expect? School Psychology Review, 22(1)
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