Reading Fluency IEP Goals: Examples by Grade and WCPM Targets

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes

Reading fluency IEP goals are measurable annual goals in a student’s IEP that target how accurately, how quickly and how expressively the student reads connected text aloud, usually measured in words correct per minute (WCPM) on passages the student has not read before. “Reading fluency skills” is one of the eight areas listed in the federal rules for identifying a specific learning disability (34 CFR 300.309). This guide covers how to set a WCPM target from a baseline and national norms, example goals by grade level, goals for accuracy and expression, short-term objectives, and how to measure progress.

Executive Summary

In the 2018 NAEP Oral Reading Fluency study, fourth graders in the lowest third of those scoring below NAEP Basic read 71 words correct per minute with 82% accuracy, misreading about 1 word in 6. Students at NAEP Proficient averaged 142 WCPM with 97% accuracy.

A measurable fluency goal needs three numbers: a baseline from several probes, a target set from national norms or the student’s own growth, and an accuracy floor. The most recent compiled norms (Hasbrouck and Tindal, 2017) stop at grade 6, so older students’ goals rest on their own data.

What Reading Fluency Means in an IEP

Reading fluency is the ability to read text aloud with speed, accuracy and proper expression, the definition the National Center for Education Statistics uses in its NAEP Oral Reading Fluency study. Each of the three parts can be measured, so each can anchor a goal.

Score dialect fairly: the 2018 NAEP scoring counted nonstandard pronunciations as correct when they matched the student’s general speaking pattern. For English learners with disabilities, see dually identified students.

Fluency, Decoding or Comprehension: Which Goal Comes First

Write a fluency goal when a student reads most words correctly but slowly or without phrasing; when accuracy is low, decoding comes first. At 92% accuracy, NAEP notes, a fourth grader misses about 1 word in 11, nearly one in every sentence.

Decoding goals are in our guide to reading IEP goals; when the barrier is understanding, use reading comprehension IEP goals.

How to Write a Reading Fluency IEP Goal

A reading fluency IEP goal names the passage, the rate, the accuracy, the number of probes and the measure, because IDEA requires the IEP to describe how progress toward each annual goal will be measured (34 CFR 300.320(a)(3)).

1. Take a baseline. The IRIS Center recommends three to five data points over a short span, such as one week, and plotting the median. Report it in the PLAAFP.
2. Choose the passage level. IRIS notes that students who consistently perform below grade level may need a measure from a different grade. Write the level into the goal.
3. Set the WCPM target with one of the three methods below, and say which one.
4. Add an accuracy floor, so a faster rate can never hide more misread words.
5. Name the measure, its frequency and who collects the data.

Weak: “Jordan will improve his reading fluency to grade level.” Measurable: “By the annual review, given an unpracticed 3rd grade passage, Jordan will read aloud 95 words correct per minute with at least 97% accuracy on 3 consecutive weekly probes, from a baseline of 61 WCPM, as measured by one-minute oral reading fluency probes.”

Setting the WCPM Target: Three Methods

There are three defensible ways to set the number in a reading fluency IEP goal, and the IEP should record which one the team used.

Method 1: The End-of-Year Benchmark

The IRIS Center lists typical end-of-year passage reading benchmarks based on national norms: 60 words per minute in grade 1, 100 in grade 2, 112 in grade 3, 133 in grade 4, and 146 in grades 5 and 6. These match the spring medians of the 2017 compiled norms. The method suits students who are close to grade level.

Method 2: Percentile Norms

Hasbrouck and Tindal’s 2017 compiled ORF norms average three widely used assessments (DIBELS 6th Edition, DIBELS Next and easyCBM), drawn from 6,886,582 scores, and report WCPM at five percentiles, from the 10th to the 90th, for fall, winter and spring of grades 1 to 6. The fall medians are 50 WCPM in grade 2, 83 in grade 3, 94 in grade 4, 121 in grade 5 and 132 in grade 6. Open the full table in the report to see every band.

Method 3: The Student’s Own Rate of Improvement

For students significantly below grade level, the IRIS Center describes an intra-individual framework built on the student’s own growth:

1. Split the six to nine most recent scores into three roughly equal groups; take the median of the first and last groups.
2. Current rate = (last median minus first median) divided by (number of scores minus 1).
3. Multiply that rate by 1.5 to get the expected rate.
4. Multiply the expected rate by the weeks left until the goal date, and add it to the last median.

Worked example. Maya, a 3rd grader, read 52, 55, 54, 57, 56, 59, 58 and 60 WCPM on eight weekly probes. The first median is 54 and the last is 59. Her current rate is (59 minus 54) divided by 7, or 0.71 words per week; the expected rate is 0.71 x 1.5 = 1.07. With 30 weeks to the annual review, she needs 1.07 x 30 = 32 more words: a goal of 59 + 32 = 91 WCPM. That stays below the grade 3 spring median of 112, but asks for one and a half times her current growth.

Grades 7 to 12

The 2017 update reports norms only through grade 6. The 2006 compilation, reprinted in the 2017 report, reached grade 8, with spring medians of 150 WCPM in grade 7 and 151 in grade 8. Above grade 8, use Method 3. For grades 4 to 9, the What Works Clearinghouse guide Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9 (2022) recommends fluency passages that include the multisyllabic words, letter-sound patterns and vocabulary students have been taught.

Reading Fluency IEP Goals by Grade Level

The reading fluency IEP goals below are original examples for fictional students. Replace each number with your student’s baseline and the target your team calculates.

1st Grade

• Word identification fluency: By the annual review, given a word list drawn from the 500 most frequent words, Ava will read at least 40 words correctly in one minute on 3 consecutive weekly probes, from a baseline of 14.
• Passage reading: By June, given an unpracticed 1st grade passage, Ava will read aloud 45 words correct per minute with at least 95% accuracy on 3 consecutive weekly probes, from a winter baseline of 16 WCPM, as measured by oral reading fluency probes.

2nd Grade

• Rate and accuracy: By the annual review, given an unpracticed 2nd grade passage, Noah will read aloud 75 words correct per minute with at least 96% accuracy on 3 consecutive weekly probes, from a fall baseline of 32 WCPM.

3rd Grade

• Rate and accuracy: By the annual review, given an unpracticed 3rd grade passage, Maya will read aloud 91 words correct per minute with at least 97% accuracy on 3 consecutive weekly probes, from a baseline of 59 WCPM, as measured by one-minute oral reading fluency probes.
• Self-correction: On her weekly probes, Maya will correct at least half of her meaning-changing errors without a prompt, from a baseline of 1 in 5, as counted on the probe score sheet for 3 consecutive weeks.

4th and 5th Grade

• Rate and accuracy: By the annual review, given an unpracticed 4th grade passage, Liam will read aloud 110 words correct per minute with at least 97% accuracy on 3 consecutive weekly probes, from a fall baseline of 68 WCPM.
• Expression: Given an unpracticed 4th grade passage, Liam will read with expression rated Level 4 or higher on the NAEP oral reading expression scale on 3 of 4 monthly ratings, from a baseline of Level 2.

Middle School

• Content text: By the annual review, given an unpracticed 150-word passage from his 7th grade science textbook, Ethan will read aloud 125 words correct per minute with at least 97% accuracy on 3 consecutive probes given every two weeks, from a baseline of 96 WCPM.
• Multisyllabic words: Given 20 multisyllabic words from his current science and social studies units, Ethan will read at least 18 correctly in one minute on 3 consecutive weekly probes, from a baseline of 9.

High School

• Own-growth target: By the annual review, given an unpracticed passage at her instructional level from a 10th grade course text, Sofia will read aloud 130 words correct per minute with at least 98% accuracy on 3 consecutive probes given every two weeks, from a baseline of 104 WCPM, a target set from her own rate of improvement.

For long course readings, text-to-speech can serve as an accommodation while fluency instruction continues; see dyslexia accommodations.

Goals for Accuracy, Expression and Phrasing

Expression can be rated on the 0 to 5 scale NCES used in the 2018 NAEP study, where the fourth-grade average was Level 4.

Level 0 means the sample was too short to rate. The WWC grades 4-9 guide recommends teaching prosody directly: pausing at commas, stopping at periods, raising or lowering the voice at a question mark. Those behaviors make clear goals.

• Punctuation: Given an instructional-level passage, Jayden will pause at commas and periods and change his pitch for questions in 8 of 10 sentences on 3 consecutive weekly checks, as scored on a punctuation checklist.

Reading Fluency IEP Goals and Objectives

Short-term objectives or benchmarks are required by IDEA only for students who take alternate assessments aligned to alternate academic achievement standards (34 CFR 300.320(a)(2)(ii)). Teams may add them for other students where state rules or the district IEP form call for them. For a fluency goal, read them off the goal line, as the IRIS Center describes.

Each checkpoint is 59 plus 1.07 words per week. Timing them with report cards lines them up with the periodic progress reports IDEA requires (34 CFR 300.320(a)(3)(ii)); see IEP progress reports.

How to Measure Reading Fluency IEP Goals

Reading fluency IEP goals are measured with short oral reading probes, given individually and scored the same way every time.

• Time one minute of reading aloud, as the IRIS Center describes, and count the words read correctly.
• Score accuracy as words correct divided by words attempted, with skipped words counted as attempted, as NAEP did.
• Use a new passage each time, at the same level.
• Probe frequently and graph: Hasbrouck and Tindal give weekly as an example.

Then act on the graph. Hasbrouck and Tindal list three options: change instruction, keep the plan, or change the goal. When progress stalls, the IEP team must revise the IEP, as appropriate, to address any lack of expected progress (34 CFR 300.324(b)(1)(ii)(A)). The National Center on Intensive Intervention recommends a plan naming the tool, the goal and the frequency of data collection and review; templates are in IEP data collection sheets.

For a student who is non-speaking, the team can choose a silent measure such as maze, where every seventh word is deleted and the student picks one of three choices (IRIS lists it for grades 4 to 6). See AAC IEP goals.

Instruction That Moves a Fluency Goal

The WWC guide Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (2016, revised 2019) recommends that each student read connected text every day. For grades 4 to 9, the 2022 guide recommends purposeful fluency-building: rereading a short passage three or four times, each time with a different purpose, teaching prosody, and reading a wide range of texts. To write that instruction into the IEP, see specially designed instruction examples.

Common Mistakes District Leaders Make

1. Probing on practiced passages. A rehearsed passage measures memory, not fluency.
2. A single-reading baseline. One score is noise; use the median of three to five probes.
3. Copying the grade-level median as the target without checking it against the baseline.
4. Rate without accuracy. A student can gain speed by guessing; the accuracy floor keeps the goal honest.
5. A fluency goal when decoding is the barrier. Frequent misreadings call for a decoding goal first.
6. Applying grade 6 norms to high school students. Older students need targets from their own growth.
7. Data that nobody graphs, so instruction never changes.

Questions District Leaders Should Ask

• Do our fluency baselines come from several probes on unpracticed passages?
• What do we use for students in grades 7 to 12, where national norms end?
• When fluency stalls, how quickly does instruction change, and who decides?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good reading fluency IEP goal?

A good reading fluency IEP goal names an unpracticed passage at a stated grade level, a words-correct-per-minute target set from the student’s baseline, an accuracy floor, the number of probes that must meet it, and the measure. For example: “Given an unpracticed 3rd grade passage, Maya will read 91 words correct per minute with at least 97% accuracy on 3 consecutive weekly probes, from a baseline of 59.”

What are reading fluency IEP goals for 3rd grade?

Most 3rd grade fluency goals target words correct per minute on unpracticed 3rd grade passages, with an accuracy floor. The 2017 compiled norms put the 3rd grade median at 83 WCPM in the fall and 112 in the spring. A student starting far below can work toward a target built from their own growth, such as 59 to 91 WCPM in 30 weeks.

What are reading fluency IEP goals for 2nd grade?

Second grade fluency goals target words correct per minute and accuracy on unpracticed 2nd grade passages. The 2017 compiled norms put the 2nd grade median at 50 WCPM in the fall, 84 in the winter and 100 in the spring. For example, a student starting the year at 32 WCPM might aim for 75 WCPM with at least 96% accuracy by the annual review.

What are reading fluency IEP goals for middle school and high school?

Middle and high school fluency goals usually use passages from course texts and a target based on the student’s own rate of improvement, because the 2017 norms stop at grade 6. The 2006 compilation reported spring medians of 150 WCPM in grade 7 and 151 in grade 8. Pair fluency with reading multisyllabic words, as the WWC grades 4-9 guide recommends.

Should a reading fluency IEP goal include comprehension?

Keep them as separate goals. A fluency goal measures accuracy, rate and expression; a comprehension goal measures understanding, with its own probes and criteria. The two are linked, since NCES notes that fluent readers can spend more attention on meaning, so many students have both. Our guide to reading comprehension IEP goals covers the second goal.

How often should reading fluency be progress monitored?

Frequently enough to see a trend: Hasbrouck and Tindal describe frequent probes, weekly for example, plotted on a graph against a goal. The reading itself takes one minute per student. The progress-monitoring plan should state the frequency, and the team should change instruction or revise the IEP when the trend line falls below the goal line.

Related Resources

• Reading IEP Goals: Measurable Examples by Skill and Grade
• Reading Comprehension IEP Goals
• IEP Goal Bank
• IEP Data Collection Sheets
• IEP Progress Report
• Dyslexia Accommodations

Conclusion

A reading fluency IEP goal is only as good as its numbers: a median baseline, a target the team can explain, an accuracy floor and probes on new text. With those, the graph shows week by week whether instruction is working. Whether the line climbs depends on how many supported readings fit between one probe and the next.

Sources: 34 CFR 300.309, Determining the existence of a specific learning disability; 34 CFR 300.320, Definition of individualized education program; 34 CFR 300.324, Development, review, and revision of IEP; NCES, Highlights of the 2018 NAEP Oral Reading Fluency Study (NCES 2021-026), April 2021; Hasbrouck and Tindal, An Update to Compiled ORF Norms (Technical Report 1702), 2017; IRIS Center, Progress Monitoring: Reading, types of measures; IRIS Center, Progress Monitoring: Reading, Create a Goal Line; National Center on Intensive Intervention, Progress Monitoring; What Works Clearinghouse, Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade; What Works Clearinghouse, Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9.

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