Page 33 - ABCTE Study Guide_Neat

advisor, Schlesinger has a closer working relationship with Kennedy than 161
most

of the other advisors. After the meeting of April 4, Kennedy asked
Schlesinger 174

his opinion in private. Schlesinger answered that he was opposed and,
having 186

stumbled over his explanation, submitted a memorandum to the president 197
on

the following morning. 200

In order to compute your fluency score, determine the total number of words you read correctly or
otherwise. The cumulative word counts to the right of the passage can help you determine this. Then
count the number of slashes and subtract this number from the total words you read. The difference
represents your fluency score, which is expressed in “words correct per minute,” or WCPM.

All the words you read, correctly or otherwise: 177

The number of errors you made (slashes): -6

Your fluency score (words correct per minute): 171

What Do Fluency Assessment Results Tell You?

Armed with a student’s current fluency score in WCPM, and knowing your state’s target WCPM for
your grade level (typically around 60 for first grade, around 90 for second grade, and around 110 for
third grade), you can set short-term and intermediate-term goals for each student. Of course, just like
losing weight or any other gradually attained goal, there are limits on what is reasonable. For
improvement in fluency scores, experts have determined that tacking on between one and two
WCPM per week is a reasonable expectation. Honestly, a weekly improvement of two WCPM is
excellent; recognize that students may not be able to sustain that kind of improvement over a long
period of time.

If Juanita is a first grader who scored 42 WCPM at the beginning of the year, with 32 weeks of
instruction left in this school year, what kind of fluency score should we target for the end of the fall
semester and for the end of the year?

Using the typical scores mentioned above, we’re shooting for a year-end fluency score around at
around 60 WCPM, or even as high as 80 WCPM for an advanced reader. Let’s see if we can do so
reasonably.

Best of All Possible Modest, But a Valiant