Fact · Typing and writing speed
Tindal's 2017 review says grade 4 students begin the fall reading just under 100 words correct per minute and improve to about 120, a gain of less than one word per week.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“Grade 4 students begin in the fall reading just less than 100 wcpm and improve to about 120 wcpm”
Oral Reading Fluency: Outcomes from 30 Years of Research (Technical Report 1701), Gerald Tindal, Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon, 2017, Section on median values from Hasbrouck and Tindal, grade by grade summary.
Open the original- What it measures
- The review anchors its grade-by-grade summary on the median values reported by Hasbrouck and Tindal (1992, 2006).
- What it does not show
- A summary of median values from earlier norm studies, not a new national survey. It reports medians, so about half of fourth graders read faster at each point.