Every benchmark window from first grade to sixth, as a landscape you can turn: height is words correct per minute, each block runs from the 10th percentile to the 90th, and the ridge is the 50th percentile. Drop a pin for one score, trace a student's year, or paste a class list. The full Hasbrouck & Tindal (2017) table is below.
Each block is a grade, stepped by benchmark window from fall to spring. Height is words correct per minute (WCPM). Across each block, the percentiles run from the 10th along the low orange edge to the 90th along the high indigo one. The bright ridge is the 50th percentile.
At the 50th percentile, a reader goes from 29 words correct per minute in the winter of grade 1 to 146 in the spring of grade 6. Each row is one benchmark window; the highlighted column is the 50th percentile.
| Percentile | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Window | 10th | 25th | 50th | 75th | 90th |
| Grade 1 | |||||
| Grade 1 Fall | Not reported in the 2017 norms | ||||
| Grade 1 Winter | 9 | 16 | 29 | 59 | 97 |
| Grade 1 Spring | 18 | 34 | 60 | 91 | 116 |
| Grade 2 | |||||
| Grade 2 Fall | 23 | 36 | 50 | 84 | 111 |
| Grade 2 Winter | 35 | 59 | 84 | 109 | 131 |
| Grade 2 Spring | 43 | 72 | 100 | 124 | 148 |
| Grade 3 | |||||
| Grade 3 Fall | 40 | 59 | 83 | 104 | 134 |
| Grade 3 Winter | 62 | 79 | 97 | 137 | 161 |
| Grade 3 Spring | 63 | 91 | 112 | 139 | 166 |
| Grade 4 | |||||
| Grade 4 Fall | 60 | 75 | 94 | 125 | 153 |
| Grade 4 Winter | 71 | 95 | 120 | 143 | 168 |
| Grade 4 Spring | 83 | 105 | 133 | 160 | 184 |
| Grade 5 | |||||
| Grade 5 Fall | 64 | 87 | 121 | 153 | 179 |
| Grade 5 Winter | 84 | 109 | 133 | 160 | 183 |
| Grade 5 Spring | 102 | 119 | 146 | 169 | 195 |
| Grade 6 | |||||
| Grade 6 Fall | 89 | 112 | 132 | 159 | 185 |
| Grade 6 Winter | 91 | 116 | 145 | 166 | 195 |
| Grade 6 Spring | 91 | 122 | 146 | 173 | 204 |
| Grades 7 and 8 are not part of the 2017 norms. Source: Hasbrouck, J., & Tindal, G. (2017). An update to compiled ORF norms (Technical Report No. 1702). Eugene, OR: Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon. | |||||
Hasbrouck and Tindal describe two uses for oral reading fluency: screening (how does this student compare with peers, and are they at risk?) and progress monitoring (is the instruction working?). The norms answer the first question. Paraphrased, with where each point comes from:
The norms come from one-minute readings of passages the student hasn't practiced. Count the words read correctly; words misread, skipped, read out of order, or supplied after a 3-second pause count as errors.
Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2017
Fall, winter, and spring each have their own norms. A new grade starts on harder passages, so a fall score usually sits below the previous spring's, and that's expected.
From the norms themselves
The authors' usage note: a student 10 or more words below the 50th percentile, on the average of two unpracticed readings from grade-level materials, needs a fluency-building program. One reading isn't enough to decide.
Hasbrouck & Tindal, usage note
Students below or well below benchmark are at possible risk of reading difficulties, and good candidates for further diagnostic assessment to find their strengths and weaknesses and plan targeted instruction.
Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2017
A fast reading with many errors and a slow, accurate one call for different next steps. Many teachers use about 95% accuracy as a rule of thumb: below it, look at which words are costing the reader before working on speed.
Our guidance
To see whether an intervention is working, assess frequently (weekly, for example), graph the scores, and set a goal from the benchmarks or expected rates of progress. Then decide whether to adjust instruction, continue, or change the goal.
Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2017
The 2017 compiled norms average the published percentile scores of three widely used assessments: DIBELS 6th Edition (2009–10 data), DIBELS Next (2010–11), and easyCBM (2013–14), about 6,886,582 scores in all. The report gives the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles for grades 1 to 6.
Two gaps are left as gaps. There are no grade 1 fall scores, and the norms stop at grade 6, so this page shows nothing for grades 7 and 8.
In the landscape, the beads are the published numbers. The smooth surface between them, and the percentile a pin is given between two published ones, are drawn by interpolation, so treat them as approximate.
Hasbrouck, J., & Tindal, G. (2017). An update to compiled ORF norms (Technical Report No. 1702). Eugene, OR: Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon.
ERIC recordFull report (PDF)The authors' usage note
The numbers are the authors'; the table layout, chart, and landscape are ours. ReadingFluency.app is not affiliated with the authors or the University of Oregon.
Everything runs in the browser. Nothing you type is uploaded or saved, there's no account, and the tool never asks for a student's name.
It depends on the grade and the time of year. In the 2017 Hasbrouck and Tindal norms, the 50th percentile is: grade 1, 29 in winter, 60 in spring; grade 2, 50 in fall, 84 in winter, 100 in spring; grade 3, 83 in fall, 97 in winter, 112 in spring; grade 4, 94 in fall, 120 in winter, 133 in spring; grade 5, 121 in fall, 133 in winter, 146 in spring; grade 6, 132 in fall, 145 in winter, 146 in spring words correct per minute. A score near the 50th percentile is typical for that benchmark window.
Fewer than one in four students in that window read more slowly. The 2017 report treats students below benchmark as candidates for further diagnostic assessment, to find what is getting in the way, and the authors' usage note says a student 10 or more words below the 50th percentile, on the average of two unpracticed grade-level readings, needs a fluency-building program. A single one-minute reading is a screener, not a diagnosis.
The 2017 report has no grade 1 fall scores: none of its three source assessments contributed any for that window. This page leaves the cell empty too, rather than estimating one.
Not in the 2017 compilation, which covers grades 1 to 6. Hasbrouck and Tindal's 2006 compilation went through grade 8, but it came from different assessments and years, so its numbers aren't interchangeable with the 2017 set. For middle school, your assessment's own norms are the safer comparison.
Each grade is benchmarked on its own grade-level passages, which get harder. That is why the 50th percentile goes from 112 WCPM in grade 3 spring to 94 in grade 4 fall. Compare a fall score with the fall norms, not with last spring.
The 2017 update is the more recent and is built on far more scores, about 6.9 million. Across the six grades its values are about 5 WCPM higher than 2006 on average. If your school uses DIBELS, Acadience, easyCBM, or another published assessment, use that assessment's own benchmarks for official decisions.
No. The lab runs in your browser: the scores you type aren't uploaded or saved, and it never asks for student names.
In ReadingFluency.app, students read a passage for one minute and you get words correct per minute, accuracy, and AI feedback on expression, with every word marked for you to review and each reading saved to the student's progress chart.