FastBridge explained: the aReading, aMath, earlyReading, earlyMath, CBMreading and CBMmath screeners by grade with how long each takes, the three screening windows, the risk levels and the percentiles behind them, what the benchmark targets look like (Renaissance's Oklahoma tables for kindergarten to grade 3), the dyslexia risk flag, how to read the report, and a printable

FastBridge is the screener behind the letter that says a child is "some risk" in reading, and the name parents search most among all the classroom tests, because the word on the letter means nothing without the percentile behind it. Renaissance, which publishes it, describes the tests on its product pages and sets out the targets and the risk rules in guidance it writes for states; this page uses both.

Download the FastBridge sheet (PDF) (the screeners by grade with times, the risk levels and percentiles, the benchmark targets for kindergarten to grade 3 and a report-reading planner; two pages, free).

The screeners

Renaissance's FASTtrack recommendation for screening is, in reading, the earlyReading composite in kindergarten and grade 1 (the four subtests change through the year, from letter sounds and onset sounds toward nonsense words, sight words and sentence reading), then aReading with CBMreading from grade 2, and aReading (with AUTOreading) from grade 4; in maths, earlyMath in kindergarten and grade 1 and aMath from grade 2, with CBMmath Automaticity for facts. The adaptive tests settle on a score with as few as 25 items, which is why they are short.

The windows and the risk levels

Screening is three times a year, fall, winter and spring, with each window's own norms. Every score is placed against FastBridge's national norms for the grade and season and given a risk level:

The 15th-percentile line is Renaissance's own in its state guidance; the 40th and 70th are the default categories as districts publish them, and Renaissance notes that districts and states customise the benchmarks (Oklahoma, for instance, requires four tiers at the 40th, 26th and 11th percentiles). The report's colours follow the benchmarks the district set, so ask which.

What the targets look like

Renaissance's grade-level targets for Oklahoma's screening law, which align FastBridge's scores with the state's tiers, show the scale of the numbers. The high-risk line, the some-risk line and the low-risk line, fall / winter / spring:

Two readings. The aReading scale moves about 20 points a year at these grades, so a child who gains 10 points from fall to spring in grade 3 has grown at half the expected pace even if still low risk. And the oral reading rates (56 words a minute in the fall of grade 2, 125 by the end of grade 3) are the same skill DIBELS measures, with much the same goals: the DIBELS page has the University of Oregon's goals for comparison.

Reading the family report

1. The risk level and the percentile on each screener, for the season. The level is the decision; the percentile says how far from the line.
2. The score against the benchmark, and the fall-to-now change: growth on the aReading or aMath scale, or words per minute on CBMreading.
3. The subtests: on earlyReading, which of the four was low (sounds, letters, decoding, sight words); on aReading, the skill domains the report lists. That is what the intervention should teach.
4. The dyslexia-risk flag, if any: a fall score below the 15th percentile. It calls for further assessment, not a label.
5. Which benchmarks the district uses (default or state), and when the next screening is.

The other classroom screeners report the same decisions with different scales: i-Ready by grade-level placement, MAP by RIT against a norm.

Download the FastBridge sheet (PDF) (the screeners, the risk levels, the targets and the planner; two pages, free).

Where to get help

A 1-on-1 online class with a tutor who holds a master's degree and teaches the US curriculum from Grade 1 number work to AP Calculus, chemistry and physics, at 7 am before school, after 4 pm and on weekend mornings, US time, for US$10 to $13 an hour: the report read together in the free 30-minute first class, the domain or the skill the score is really pointing at found, and the term spent on exactly that, with the method written out the way the school marks it. How online tutoring from India to the USA works, or the 1-on-1 online tutoring page.

Sources: Renaissance, FastBridge reading assessments and FastBridge math assessments product pages (aReading K-12, built for K-5, adaptive, 15-40 minutes; AUTOreading K-12, 2-6 minutes; CBMreading grades 1-8, 1-3 minutes, English and Spanish; earlyReading K-1 with four recommended subtests; aMath K-12, 20-30 minutes; earlyMath K-1; CBMmath Automaticity grades 1-12, 4 minutes, three levels; CBMmath Process grades 2-6; FASTtrack; adaptive tests with as few as 25 items); Renaissance, FastBridge Guidance for Oklahoma (2025): the screening windows and the tests by grade, benchmarks aligned to percentile ranks, Table 3 grade-level targets for kindergarten to grade 3, risk for characteristics of dyslexia below the 15th percentile on the national norms, screening is not diagnosis, districts customise benchmarks; the default some-risk and low-risk categories are as districts publish them. Fetched 11 November 2026.

Questions parents ask

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