High School Reading Fluency Goals
Updated: December 23, 2025. Reviewer: Dr. Rose Sebastian, Ed.D.
High School Fluency Goals
For students at the high school level who are still struggling with decoding texts, there isn’t a lot of space in the Common Core for useful IEP goals. These fluency goals, along with the reading level goals, are pretty much your best options. At this level though, there is also the question of audio books– how much time during the day do you want to devote to teaching decoding and how much do you want to teach the student compensatory strategies? High school is a complicated balance as you have limited time and students have many classes to pass and skills to master. And for some students, fluency is one of the key skills that they still need to master. The Common Core places a heavy emphasis on reading at an appropriate rate and, as a result, we have fluency goals for elementary and middle school students as well. If you are looking for more general goal ideas and support, we have guides on how to read and evaluate IEP goals and state specific IEP guides.
- By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.10
- By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.10
At the 6-12 grade levels, this standard is the best option for either goals on decoding/fluency level or grade level comprehension. Here we have broken down how to use it for reading fluency. To see how it works for fluency, visit the reading level goals page.
- You can use any timed reading assessment for this goal– if you don’t have one, just have the student read a passage at their level for one minute and then count up how many words the student read!
Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!
Luis read a seventh grade passage at 74 correct words per minute.
For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!
- Given direct instruction in decoding and fluency, X will read literary nonfiction in the grade 7 text complexity band proficiently at a rate of 90 correct words per minute, on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.10
- Change the grade level of the text
- grade 5
- grade 4
- Change the number of words per minute the student needs to read
- Fluency is generally over 90 words per minute at this grade level and so you can increase it
- Given direct instruction in reading comprehension strategies,
- Fluency is generally over 90 words per minute at this grade level and so you can increase it
- By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.10
- By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.10
At the 6-12 grade levels, this standard is the best option for either goals on decoding/fluency level or grade level comprehension. Here we have broken down how to use it for reading fluency. To see how it works for fluency, visit the reading level goals page.
- You can use any timed reading assessment for this goal– if you don’t have one, just have the student read a passage at their level for one minute and then count up how many words the student read!
Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!
Luis read a ninth grade passage at 87 correct words per minute.
For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!
- Given direct instruction in decoding and fluency, X will read literary nonfiction in the grade 9 text complexity band proficiently at a rate of 95 correct words per minute, on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.10
- Change the grade level of the text
- grade 5
- grade 4
- Change the number of words per minute the student needs to read
- Fluency is generally over 90 words per minute at this grade level and so you can increase it
- Given direct instruction in reading comprehension strategies,
- Fluency is generally over 90 words per minute at this grade level and so you can increase it
