How was the readability of the RFBA passages determined?
Creating the benchmark fluency assessment passages in the Reading Fluency Benchmark Assessor was a three-step process:
- We used readability formulas to get the passages at each grade level as close as possible.
- We then field-tested the passages with students. The one-minute fluency scores were recorded for each student. Dr. Dave Heistad of the Minneapolis Public Schools evaluated the data and determined which passages were acceptable at each grade level, based on the fluency scores and national norms.
- Passages considered too hard or too easy based on the fluency scores were revised or put in another level and then field-tested again. This process was repeated until the three passages closely aligned.