ORF Zero Scores

The oral reading fluency (ORF) subtask measures how quickly and accurately a student can read. It is a core reading skill measurement because it brings together lower level reading skills (such as decoding and familiar word recognition) with how quickly and easily the student can read a given word (called automaticity).

Acquiring the skills needed to learn how to read vary depending on the complexity of the language. Learning to read is also affected by many factors that vary from place to place. This makes it hard to compare EGRA subtasks across countries. Zero scores are used to compare across languages and contexts because they are logically equal. ORF Zero scores represent the percentage of students who could not read a single word of connected text (nonreaders).