The Need for Speed: Interrogating the Dominance of Oral Reading Fluency in International Reading Efforts

Abstract

International education policy makers, donors, and implementers have heavily emphasized correct words per minute (CWPM) to measure reading intervention impact. While fluency integrates accuracy, automaticity, and prosody, the dominant measurement approach measures rate and accuracy within 1 minute, thereby privileging the need for speed. Many practitioners pursue a universal CWPM goal; some tout CWPM as a “proxy” for comprehension. We ask whether CWPM is an appropriate, global reading goal. We review early grade reading debates and the literature regarding fluency and its relationship to comprehension. We use reading assessment data from 11 country sites to investigate the appropriateness of this goal in monolingual and multilingual populations and explore how CWPM and untimed reading accuracy relate to comprehension. We conclude that a global CWPM standard rests upon untenable assumptions: we cannot justify the need for speed. We offer suggestions to develop a more empirically informed, culturally and linguistically sensitive approach to reading improvement.