"Fluency standards are also a good litmus test of academic skills."

The Concept of Fluency as an Educational Skills Performance Measure (Page 3)

A Place to Start
Probably the most common use of frequency as a measure of fluent performance is to check the student's current status in oral reading. Students should learn to see (input channel) and say (output channel) words at 200-250 words per minute with 2 or fewer errors. Having the student practice the same passage each day and then having them read it aloud for one minute gives a continual check on progress and problems. A pencil mark at the last word read gives tomorrow's objective until it reaches 200 or more words with no more than 2 errors. Repeated readings make the first part of the passage faster and faster as all of the words become sight words. Practicing the segments that were not read in the one-minute period prepares the student for tomorrow. A common finding is that the initial reading score on each successive story tends to be higher than on the previous story until students begin reading passages at fluent levels. Given that most of the common words from the earlier stories are likely to be found in the new passage, this gradual increase comes as no surprise.

Fluency standards are also a good litmus test of academic skills. Children with reading problems and adults who do not read for pleasure tend to have oral reading scores of 100 words per minute often with numerous errors. Reading is just too laborious to be fun, so they don't read unless pressured.

Frequency scores as a measure of fluent performance are easy to measure. They are available to any teacher or parent with a watch. The performances are specific and easily repeated. The errors indicate the skills to be retaught or given additional practice. A score of 180 words read per minute with no errors from an appropriate passage yields much more information than a letter grade or a percentage score. It is a measurement, not an evaluation. If you do not know the frequency range into which this particular task might fall, simply do the task yourself and use your performance as the bottom of the range. My experience shows that students who practice will quickly surpass you. Their practiced performances are usually better than your unpractised ones. Multiply your score by 1.5 to establish the top of the range until you have more data to quantify the fluency more accurately.

Necessary Materials
Fluency measures are most easily taken and recorded when appropriate curriculum practice materials are developed for specific pinpoints or topics. A deck of flashcards with specific information is an easy format. Diagrams and graphics with and without labelled components are also useful. Practice sheets with lots of examples of the task such as multiplication facts are also helpful. Generally these have to be redesigned because most curricula do not provide a sufficient number of examples for fluent performances.

Summary
In literally a minute or less you can learn a great deal about the performance level of your child on a specific skill. You don't need to wait for a test score or a report card. You can repeat the measure whenever you need more information to help make better decisions about what to do next.

The End

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