11. Peabody Teach running record and fluency kit
Peabody Teach
An informal running record on the screen. Pick one of 53 reading passages or paste a text, tap a word once for an error and twice for a self-correction, start and stop the clock, and read off accuracy, error rate, self-correction ratio and words correct per minute, with every formula shown. Keep three readings for the mean and median, and print a blank record form or a class record sheet whose names are written on paper. There is no name field and nothing is sent.
Free, no sign-in and no ads; Peabody is free through the end of 2026 (as of 2026-10-31).
Watch for It is informal and not normed: it does not reprint published fluency norms, and results stay in the tab, so there is no history over the year unless you write it down.
Visit Peabody Teach running record and fluency kit ↗
22. Microsoft Reading Progress
Microsoft
A free tool built into Microsoft Teams for Education. Students record their reading on camera and submit it, and the teacher reviews it: Reading Progress collects and tabulates errors in Accuracy rate and Correct words per minute cards, and the teacher can mark self-corrections and other errors.
Free, built into Microsoft Teams for Education (as of 2026-10-31).
Watch for It works only inside a school's Teams for Education, and each reading is a video of the child that goes into the school's Microsoft account.
Visit Microsoft Reading Progress ↗
33. easyCBM Lite
Riverside Insights
Curriculum-based measures for progress monitoring. The page says that after the trial you continue with easyCBM Lite for free, with no credit card, for one teacher and up to 200 students, including progress monitoring assessments, item-level reports and individual progress graphs. Lite lists Word Reading Fluency and Passage Reading Fluency measures.
The free part: Lite: one teacher, up to 200 students, progress monitoring, item-level reports and graphs; no benchmark assessments or advanced interventions.
Lite is free; Teacher Deluxe is $69.99 for a year; district prices by contact (as of 2026-10-31).
Watch for Benchmark screening is not in Lite, and progress graphs mean entering students into an account, so check your district's privacy rules first.
Visit easyCBM Lite ↗
44. DIBELS 8th Edition
University of Oregon
A published screener of early reading skills. The materials page says the administration guide, student materials, scoring booklets and testing resources download for free, for schools' and districts' internal educational use. You give and score it on paper by its own rules.
The materials download free (as of 2026-10-31).
Watch for The terms say the materials must not be modified without written permission and should not be used for student practice or to grade students, and scoring is by hand.
Visit DIBELS 8th Edition ↗
55. Acadience Reading
Acadience Learning
A published K-6 reading assessment of foundational early reading skills. Its page says the Acadience Reading materials are available for free download in its Research Hub, with paid products in the Acadience Store.
The free part: The assessment materials, downloaded from the Research Hub.
Materials download free; the page links a store but shows no prices (as of 2026-10-31).
Watch for The page we read did not list what the download contains or its terms of use, so read those in the Research Hub before you print.
Visit Acadience Reading ↗
66. Google Read Along
Google
A reading buddy that listens as a child reads aloud and helps with pronunciation. The page says Read Along is free as an app and on the web, can be used without signing in, and processes voice mainly on the device. With the Classroom version, through Google Workspace for Education, teachers assign readings and see accuracy, speed, comprehension and progress.
Free; the Classroom version is free with Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals (as of 2026-10-31).
Watch for It is practice with feedback, not a running record you take: teacher results need the Classroom version and school Google accounts, and some voice data goes briefly to Google's servers.
Visit Google Read Along ↗
77. RunRecord Calc
Axid Studios
A free iPhone calculator: enter the words, errors and self-corrections from a paper running record and it gives the error and self-correction ratios, accuracy percentage and a difficulty level. Its App Store privacy label lists only crash and performance data, not linked to you.
Free on the App Store, with no in-app purchases listed (as of 2026-10-31).
Watch for You count on paper first, and the listing does not mention a timer or words correct per minute. iPhone only.
Visit RunRecord Calc ↗
88. Teacher Tools Grader & Running Record
Alfredo Delgado
A free iPad app with a grading calculator and a running record calculator that works out fluency in words per minute, accuracy percentage and error and self-correction rates.
Free on the App Store (as of 2026-10-31).
Watch for The App Store shows No Details Provided for its privacy label, and it is designed for iPad only.
Visit Teacher Tools Grader & Running Record ↗
How we chose
We weighed these, most important first. The order is our judgement against them, not a score or a vote, and a different teacher could reasonably order it differently. Our own tool sits where those criteria put it; we built it after studying the others, so read its entry with that in mind.
- Does the scoring. Whether it works out accuracy, error rate, self-correction ratio and words correct per minute, or leaves the arithmetic to you.
- Free for a teacher. Whether a classroom teacher can use it for nothing, and where the free version stops.
- Passages included. Whether it comes with passages to read, so you are not hunting for a text with a known word count.
- What it keeps about a child. Whether it needs a student name, account or recording, and what the page says about where that goes.
- Informal or normed. Whether it is a quick informal check or a published screener with its own rules for giving and using it.
We took no money, free products or affiliate commissions for any place on this list, and no link here carries a tracking code. Every fact was read on the maker’s own page on October 31, 2026; prices carry that date because they change. See how we choose and the ad-free promise.
Questions
- How do I score a running record?
- Accuracy is words read minus errors, divided by words read. The self-correction ratio is errors plus self-corrections, divided by self-corrections, written as 1 to that number. Words correct per minute is words read minus errors, times 60, divided by the seconds. For 100 words with 4 errors and 2 self-corrections in 60 seconds: 96% accuracy, 1:3 and 96 words correct per minute.
- What words-correct-per-minute score is normal for my grade?
- The widely used oral reading fluency norms are Hasbrouck and Tindal's 2017 report, An update to compiled ORF norms (Technical Report 1702, Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon). It is all rights reserved, so we do not reprint its numbers; look up the grade and the time of year in the report itself.
- Is a running record the same as DIBELS or Acadience?
- No. A running record is an informal check of how a child reads a text, with errors and self-corrections. DIBELS and Acadience are published screeners with their own passages, timing and rules, and their terms limit how the materials may be used.
- Do I need to type a child's name?
- Not in Peabody's kit, RunRecord Calc or Teacher Tools Grader. Microsoft Reading Progress, easyCBM and Read Along's Classroom version keep results under a student in an account, so follow your school's privacy rules for those.