Grade-Level Expectations for Reading Rate/WCPM/Fluency

How Does Reading Rate Impact Leveling?

By default, reading rate (words correct per minute) is not a major factor influencing students' levels on Literably. If a student reads at or below 7 wcpm, Literably will NOT level the student up, regardless of accuracy and comprehension. Otherwise, reading rate does not impact students' levels.

We have an optional feature, enabled for some customers, where reading rate is factored into leveling decisions. For users in those schools and districts, visit this chart to see how these rules are implemented. If you're interested in toggling this setting on your subscription in either direction, please email us at [e-mail].

Are My Students Meeting Expectations for Reading Rate?

In the WCPM column, Literably color-codes your students' wcpm scores based on their risk level. These risk levels were determined internally based on Literably's national norms and data matching Literably reading rates to students' performance on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

Initially, Literably's reading rate scores were based on Hasbrouck and Tindal's 2017 norms (see page 8 of our technical manual).  Since then, the reading rate scores have adjusted based on students reading actual Literably texts in Literably. Literably's criterion-reference cut scores below have been proven to predict student performance on the SBAC.  

Important: that WCPM expectations increase linearly over the course of the school year between seasons. For example, the "exceeds expectations" cutoff for November 7 for a second-grader would be 65.

Note: A printable copy can be downloaded at the bottom of this article.

Key

Exceeds Expectations (4)	Very low risk of reading failure
Meets Expectations (3)	Low risk of reading failure
Approaches Expectations (2)	Some risk of reading failure
Does Not Meet Expectations (1)	High risk of reading failure
N.A.	Wcpm expectations are not relevant at this grade and time

	September 1	January 15	June 1
Grade K	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
Grade 1	39	56	63
	31	49	53
	19	31	36
	0	0	0
Grade 2	60	69	80
	51	61	71
	48	57	67
	0	0	0
Grade 3	79	88	92
	70	79	82
	59	71	71
	0	0	0
Grade 4	94	104	118
	86	95	108
	79	87	100
	0	0	0
Grade 5	108	114	116
	95	101	102
	88	94	94
	0	0	0
Grade 6	113	117	132
	103	106	110
	93	96	100
	0	0	0
Grade 7	118	126	140
	105	109	112
	95	98	101
	0	0	0
Grade 8	123	136	141
	107	111	113
	96	99	102
	0	0	0

Note: Literably does not pause the clock when a student pauses or turns the page in the assessment. However, these grade-level norms were created to take into consideration the fact that Literably texts are paginated at the lower levels.  As a result, Literably's wcpm norms have page turning "baked in."