How were the easyCBM word reading fluency measures developed?

To design alternate forms of the Word Reading Fluency measure, we gathered information about the difficulty of specific words during a pilot testing session between May 15 and June 9, 2006 and created an item pool from which we could draw as we created the 20 alternate forms of the Word Reading Fluency measure at each of four grade levels, for a total of 80 different forms of this measure. The words we used during the pilot study came from a variety of sources: Dolch word lists, online grade-level word lists, and a list of ‘the first 1000 words’ found in a book of word lists. They included words with both regular and irregular sound patterns and were a variety of lengths.

To find out more go to Technical Report 40, which describes the development of the easyCBM WRF measures, and view the relevant section on page 8.

Alonzo, J., & Tindal, G. (2007). The development of word and passage reading fluency measures in a progress monitoring assessment system (Technical Report No. 40). Eugene, OR: Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon.     TechRpt_40