Words Per Minute Expectations

Have you ever wondered how teachers establish whether students are "reading on grade level"?  And have you ever wondered what it means when your child comes home with a "words per minute" score on a progress report?

Words per minute, or WPM, is a measure of reading fluency.  (Reading fluency technically emcompasses both how quickly a person can accurately read, also whether they can read smoothly and with expression.  WPM, however, measures only speed.)  I have seen a variety of goals for words per minute for the various grade levels. 

Here are 3 different sets of recommendations I have seen, each separated with a comma.  (A) represents expectations for the beginning of the school year, and (B) represents the end of the year.  Each set of numbers remains in its place of first, middle, or last throughout:

1st:   (A) 10-20, 0-29, 50 
1st:   (B)  30-60, 40-60, 60-90

2nd:   (A)  30-60, 53-82, 70 
2nd:   (B)  70-100, 94-124, 85-120

3rd:   (A)  50-90, 79-100, 100 
3rd:   (B)  80-110, 114-142, 115-140

4th:   (A)  70-110, 99-125, 130 
4th:   (B)  100-140, 118-145, 140-170

As you can see, there are big ranges and a bit of overlap from the end of one year to the start of the next (which I guess allows for regression over the summer LOL.)

For further reference, here is the data listed on Jake's 2nd grade report card.  Students are expected to be within each range at the end of each grading period.  (We are in middle TN, different states and districts within states have different expectations):

2nd grade Oral Fluency Benchmarks:
1st quarter:    42-62
2nd quarter:   52-72
3rd quarter:    62-82
4th quarter:    72-92

Now as to what this actually means or how it is scored . . . that's for another day.  :)

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