When should I change a student's goal or level?

The placement guide below provides a general correlation between passage levels and a student's Correct Words Per Minute.

•If the student’s comprehension scores are above 80% and accuracy rates are beyond the ranges above, consider raising the level, especially if the student’s level is several years lower than the student’s grade level.

• If the student consistently exceeds his/her goal but generally does poorly on the comprehension questions (misses more than two in levels 1-4 and more than three in levels 5-10, do not change the level. The student is having difficulty with comprehension at the current level. However, you may still consider raising the goal and then working with the student on comprehension.

• If the student’s cold- and/or hot-timing scores improve significantly, but the student’s error rates are high during cold or hot timings due to a lack of phonics skills, do not change the level or goal.

• If the student consistently reaches his or her goal but has high error rates due to carelessness or reading too fast, keep the level and goal the same, and talk with the student about the importance of accuracy. If the problem persists, consider lowering the goal.

NOTE: To reach the long-term benchmark fluency goal, the student’s level and goal both need to be increased over time.