Middle School Reading Fluency IEP Goals
Updated: March 15, 2026. Reviewer: Dr. Rose Sebastian, Ed.D.
Find Free, Ready-to-Use Fluency Goals for Middle School Students
Common Core standards on phonics and sight words drop away for the most part at the middle school level. For students who still need support with decoding words at those levels, your best bet is often these fluency standards or the ones on reading level, which have the flexibility of allowing you to still work on phonics and sight words. The Common Core places a heavy emphasis on reading at an appropriate rate and, as a result, we have fluency goals for elementary and high 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 the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.10
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 fifth grade passage at 68 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 6 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.6.10
- 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 the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.10
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 fifth grade passage at 68 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 6 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.7.10
- 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 the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.10
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 sixth 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.8.10
- 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
