Teaching · Reading Intervention

One minute, scored
before the next student sits down.

Time a passage on screen and tap the words a student misses, or type the numbers from a paper probe. The page does the arithmetic, takes the median of three, and graphs each student's words correct per minute against your goal.

Open the calculatorWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Reading Intervention toolkit, $49 for 34 items.

The calculator

The worked example has an original practice passage and nine weekly readings for a made-up student, R-12. Change anything; your work saves in this browser.

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What you get

Teaching · Reading Intervention$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A scored reading (words correct per minute, errors, accuracy and an accuracy note) from a timed passage or typed numbers, the median of three passages, and a log by student code with a graph, an optional aim line, growth per week and the weekly growth needed to reach a goal. Prints a one-page summary per student and downloads the log as a spreadsheet.
Who it is for
Reading interventionists, reading specialists, special education teachers, classroom teachers and tutors who give one-minute oral reading fluency probes.
Format
Browser tool. Prints a summary per student; downloads the log as a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file to move between devices.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Reading Intervention toolkit ($49) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Reading Intervention space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Load the worked example, or start blank and add the passage you will use.
  2. Enter a student code, press Start as the student begins, and tap each word the student misses.
  3. When the timer ends, tap the last word read. The score appears at once; save it to the log.
  4. For readings on paper, type seconds, words read and errors on the Enter scores tab, or three passages for a median.
  5. On the Student log tab, set a goal and date to draw an aim line, then print a summary for the team.

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How the score is worked out

The formulas, the scoring rules and what the page leaves to you.

The arithmetic

Words correct per minute is the number of words read minus errors, scaled to one minute: (words read − errors) × 60 ÷ seconds. For a full one-minute reading that is simply words read minus errors. If the student finishes the passage early, stop the timer and the page uses the seconds actually read. Accuracy is words correct ÷ words read.

For a benchmark the student reads three passages and the reported score is the median words correct per minute, with the median errors taken separately, so one unusually easy or hard passage does not decide the score. Growth per week is the slope of a straight line fitted through every logged reading (ordinary least squares), shown after three readings.

Accuracy notes and goals

Accuracy matters as much as rate: a fast reading with many errors is not fluent reading. The note under each score uses the common cutoffs of 95 and 90 percent accuracy. Sources set these lines a little differently, so treat them as rules of thumb.

The page has no built-in norms or benchmark targets. Enter the goal from your screening program's published benchmarks, or one set by the student's team, and the page draws the aim line and works out the weekly growth needed to reach it.

A fluency score is one piece of evidence for progress monitoring. It does not diagnose a reading disability, and it does not replace the full measures your school uses.

Sources

  1. Deno, S. L. (1985). Curriculum-based measurement: The emerging alternative. Exceptional Children, 52(3), 219–232. The origin of one-minute oral reading probes scored as words read correctly.
  2. Hasbrouck, J., and Tindal, G. (2006). Oral reading fluency norms: A valuable assessment tool for reading teachers. The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 636–644. Words correct per minute, the median of three passages and how norms are used.
  3. Shinn, M. R. (Ed.) (1989). Curriculum-Based Measurement: Assessing Special Children. Guilford Press. Administration and scoring conventions for errors, self-corrections and insertions.
  4. Betts, E. A. (1946). Foundations of Reading Instruction. American Book Company. The independent, instructional and frustration levels behind accuracy cutoffs.
  5. National Center on Intensive Intervention, American Institutes for Research. Progress monitoring and goal setting with trend lines (intensiveintervention.org).

The worked example and its passage are made up and original to Caveat; they are for practice, not a validated probe. Use passages your school is licensed to use for real measurement. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.