One of the things teachers love best about the Read Naturally strategy is the concrete data they acquire about their students’ fluency development. The graphs and reports you generate in Encore and Read Live give you a clear picture of each student’s growth. Knowing how to apply this information ensures your students continue to progress at an appropriate pace.

You’ll consider many factors when making these important decisions. To help you in this process, we've developed specific guidelines, outlined below. We suggest that you bookmark or print this page and have it handy when analyzing your students’ data.

Guidelines for Changing Levels and Goals in Encore and Read Live

First, decide whether the student should stay with his or her current level/goal or whether a change is necessary. We suggest analyzing the data from 12 stories to inform this decision. Look at the student’s graphs or Read Live reports, and consider a change to the level or goal if:

  1. The student’s cold-timing scores are consistently less than 30 wcpm (words correct per minute) from the goal in grades 1 – 4 and less than 40 wcpm in grades 5 and above.
  2. The student is able to meet the goal in three or fewer practices consistently.
  3. The student consistently meets the passing criteria of meeting the goal, making three or fewer errors, reading with expression, and scoring 80% or higher on the quiz.

Next, if you decide a change is needed, you’ll need to determine whether to raise the level or the goal. We advise the following:

  • Raise either the level or the goal. Do not change both at once.
  • Consider the student’s comprehension, accuracy, and long-term fluency goal when making your decision.
  • For older students working far below grade level, it’s usually preferable to raise the level.
  • For students working close to grade level but very far below fluency norms, it’s usually preferable to raise the goal in increments of 10 words.
  • Do not lower the goal in order to raise the level.
  • When changing the goal, notice how close the cold-timing score is to the goal before evaluating hot-timing performance.

Finally, consider these specific criteria:

Raise the level if most or all of the following are consistently true:

  • The student scores greater than 80% correct on the quiz questions on the first try.
  • The student achieves a low error rate during hot or cold timings.
  • The student passes stories on the first attempt.
  • The student’s cold-timing scores are close to the long-term fluency goal.
  • The student is older and his/her current level is three to five years below grade level.

Raise the goal if most or all of the following are consistently true:

  • The student reaches the goal in three or fewer practices.
  • The student scores less than 80% correct on the quiz questions on the first try.
  • The student’s error rate is high during cold or hot timings.
  • The student underlines a number of difficult words, indicating a need for vocabulary support.
  • The student needs more than one attempt to pass the stories.
  • The student’s cold-timing scores are significantly lower than the long-term fluency goal.

Do you have additional questions? We have more information about this process in the Monitoring Student Performance section of our website. We also offer excellent coaching services if you are using Read Live and you’d like a Read Naturally expert to work with you at your school. And, as always, we’re happy to support you if you call our office at 800-788-4085 or email info@readnaturally.com.