In short
- Five measures cover reading progress: amount read, reading rate, comprehension, vocabulary kept and level.
- Amount read and comprehension change weekly, words kept change over weeks, and reading rate and level change over a term or more.
- One test is a small sample of what a pupil knows, so judge a pupil on several results, not one.
- An average can hide the pupils who are struggling, so always look at the spread and the names behind it.
Completion counts are easy to collect, so many schools stop there. A pupil who finished twelve stories may have understood half of them. Another who finished four may have read every line with care. This article sets out five measures a teacher can use, what each one tells you and how often to take it. It reports what research says about amount read and reading rate. It ends with two common traps and what to do when the measures disagree.
How do you measure reading progress?
To measure reading progress, track five things: how much each pupil reads, how fast they read with understanding, how well they understand, which words they keep, and the level of text they can manage. Take the quick measures often and the slow ones rarely. Read them together, because each one alone can mislead.
| Measure | What it tells you | How to collect it | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amount read | Whether enough reading is happening for anything else to change | Stories finished, with the length of each in words | Weekly |
| Reading rate | Whether reading is becoming more fluent | A timed read of an easy passage, followed by a few questions | Once a term |
| Comprehension | Whether pupils understand what they read, and whether the level fits | A short check after each story | After each story |
| Vocabulary kept | Whether words from earlier stories have stayed | A short check on words met some weeks before | Monthly |
| Level | Whether pupils can manage harder texts | A level check done the same way each time | Start of year and end of each term |
The schedule is a suggestion from practice. Black and Wiliam (1998) give one reason to keep the quick checks frequent. Their review reports a meta-analysis of 40 studies of classroom testing. Performance improved with frequent testing up to a point, and several short tests were more effective than fewer longer ones.
Amount read: count words, not only books
Amount read comes first because it is the input. Jeon and Day (2016) combined 49 studies of extensive reading, with 5,919 participants, and found a small to medium effect on reading proficiency. The effect was higher for adults than for children and adolescents, so expect modest gains in school.
Books differ in length, so a count of books can mislead. Nation (2014) used corpora to estimate how much reading gives at least 12 meetings with words. Just under 200,000 running words gave that average for words at the second 1,000 level. Words at the ninth 1,000 level needed about 3 million.
Beglar and Hunt (2014) studied the 14 Japanese university students who made the largest reading rate gains over one year. They had read an average of 208,607 standard words, mostly in simplified books. The authors propose 200,000 standard words a year as a minimum. A standard word is six character spaces.
Both studies concern older learners than most school pupils, so treat the figures as a direction, not a target. The practical lesson is simple. Record the length of each story in words, and add up words read as well as stories finished. A pupil who reads four long stories may have read more than one who read ten short ones.
Reading rate: fluency you can time
Reading rate is the number of words a pupil reads per minute. On its own it rewards skimming. Beglar and Hunt (2014) define fluency as an increase in reading rate accompanied by high levels of comprehension. In their test, each passage was followed by eight comprehension questions on the back of the page.
Most of their participants started below 100 words per minute. The authors note that this is far below the goal of 200 words per minute suggested by some second language reading experts. They also report that simplified texts were more effective than unsimplified texts for building reading rate.
You can run a simple version in class. The routine below is practice, adapted from their design.
Classroom example: a termly rate check (invented numbers)
Choose a passage of about 300 words, one level below the pupil's current level.
The pupil reads it silently once. You note the time: 3 minutes 20 seconds.
Rate: 300 words divided by 3.33 minutes is 90 words per minute.
The pupil turns the page and answers five questions without looking back: 4 of 5 correct.
Next term, use a different passage of the same length and level. If the rate rises and the score holds, fluency is growing.
Rate checks make most sense once pupils read connected text on their own, usually from A2 upward. A beginner reading word by word tells you little through a stopwatch. This is practice, not a research finding.
Comprehension checks: short, frequent and at the right level
A short check after each story tells you two things: whether the pupil understood, and whether the story was at the right level. A pupil who scores low on several stories at one level probably needs an easier level. A pupil who scores full marks every time may be ready for a harder one.
Look at the questions as well as the scores. If most of the class missed one question, the problem is the question or a skill, not the pupils. Reading Comprehension Question Types, With Examples shows how to write questions that test more than recall.
Keep the stakes low. A check that feeds a grade invites guessing and copying, and the score then stops telling you what the pupil understood. This is advice from practice.
Vocabulary kept: check weeks later, not the same day
A word answered correctly on the day it was met tells you little. A word answered correctly a month later tells you it stayed. So check vocabulary with a delay.
Nation (2014) based his estimates on meeting each word at least 12 times. Few words reach that number in one story, which is why words read once often slip. How Many Times Must a Learner Meet a Word? reviews the evidence on repetition.
- Pick ten words from stories the class read three to five weeks ago.
- Test meaning: a picture, a translation, or a gap in a new sentence.
- Record which words most pupils missed, and bring those words back into this week's lessons.
This routine is practice, not a tested method. Keep it the same each month so the results compare.
Level: the slowest measure
Level changes slowly, so check it rarely and the same way each time. The start of the year and the end of each term is enough. Most pupils will not change level in one term, so count steps inside a level, such as A2 to A2+, as well as moves between levels.
How to Measure CEFR Progress by Cohort explains how to follow one group, count steps and avoid the traps in level data. How to Assess a Student's English Reading Level covers the check itself.
Two traps: one test and the class average
Trap 1: judging a pupil on one test
Koretz (2008) describes tests as very small samples of behaviour, used to estimate mastery of very large domains of knowledge and skill. A pupil's score also varies from day to day. He gives the example of a student who sleeps well before one test date and is too anxious to sleep well before another.
So do not move a pupil's level, or call a pupil stuck, on one result. Wait for two or three results that agree. Use different kinds of evidence as well: the checks, a rate read and what you saw in class.
Trap 2: an average that hides pupils
A class average of 78 per cent on comprehension checks looks healthy. It can hide five pupils who score under half on every story. The average describes the class, and the five pupils need you.
- Give the number of pupils below a threshold you set, beside every average.
- Give the middle pupil and the lowest quarter, not only the mean.
- Read the names behind the lowest numbers every week.
When the measures point in different directions
The five measures often disagree, and the disagreement tells you where to look. The readings below are likely explanations from practice, not rules. Check each one by talking to the pupil.
| Pattern | Possible reason | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Reads a lot, low comprehension | Stories too hard, or skimming to finish | Drop a level for two weeks, then check again |
| Reads little, high comprehension | Stories too easy to hold interest, or too little time | Offer a harder or longer story, and protect reading time |
| Rate rising, comprehension falling | Speed has become the goal | Remind the pupil that understanding counts, and stop timing for a while |
| Good checks, words not kept | Too few meetings with each word | Reread earlier stories and bring the words back in class |
| Everything flat for a term | Too little reading to move anything | Look at amount read first, before you change the level |
For how these measures fit on a weekly screen, see What Teachers Should See in a Reading Dashboard.
How iRead handles this
In iRead, every story, quiz and game is levelled to the CEFR, from A1 to C2. A quiz runs after every session, with questions generated from the story itself. Every game clear and quiz answer feeds one progress record per word, and a word cleared on two different days is marked Mastered. Teachers see retention per word, per game and per class, and school leaders see stories completed, words retained and levels reached by class, grade and term.
The core principle: Measure what pupils do every week and what they can do every term. No single number tells you both.
See it in iRead: Every story, quiz and game is levelled to the CEFR, and every game clear and quiz answer feeds one progress record per word. School leaders see levels reached, words retained and stories completed.
See the leadership viewKey takeaway
Track amount read, reading rate, comprehension, words kept and level, each at its own pace. Judge pupils on several results, look past the average, and use disagreements between measures to decide where to look.
Frequently asked questions
How do you measure reading progress?
Track five things: how much each pupil reads, reading rate with understanding, comprehension of each story, vocabulary kept weeks later, and the level of text they can manage. Check amount read and comprehension weekly, vocabulary monthly, and rate and level once a term.
What is reading progress monitoring?
It is the regular, low-stakes checking of pupils' reading so that teaching can change in response. In practice it means a short weekly look at who read, who understood and which words slipped, with a slower check of reading rate and level each term.
How do you measure reading rate in English?
Time a pupil reading an easy passage silently, divide the words by the minutes, then ask a few questions without looking back. Beglar and Hunt (2014) treat fluency as a rising rate with high comprehension, so a faster rate counts only if understanding holds.
How much should pupils read in a year?
There is no agreed figure for school pupils. Beglar and Hunt (2014) proposed 200,000 standard words a year as a minimum, from a study of 14 Japanese university students. Treat it as a direction for older or stronger readers, not a target for every child.
Why do my pupils' scores go up and down?
Partly because any test is a small sample of what a pupil knows, and partly because pupils have good and bad days. Koretz (2008) explains both. Wait for two or three results that agree before you change a pupil's level or plan.
Sources
- Jeon, E.-Y., & Day, R. R. (2016). The effectiveness of ER on reading proficiency: A meta-analysis. Reading in a Foreign Language, 28(2), 246-265. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66901
- Nation, I. S. P. (2014). How much input do you need to learn the most frequent 9,000 words?. Reading in a Foreign Language, 26(2), 1-16. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66881
- Beglar, D., & Hunt, A. (2014). Pleasure reading and reading rate gains. Reading in a Foreign Language, 26(1), 29-48. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66684
- Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7-74. doi.org/10.1080/0969595980050102
- Koretz, D. (2008). Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us. Harvard University Press. www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674035218