There is very little research that reports results from the assessment of ABE students' fluency. We know from one large-scale assessment of over one thousand young adults that those with poor fluency have a silent reading rate of about 145 words per minute or slower. This is much slower than the reading rates of average and above average readers. Another study suggests that adult beginning readers' fluency is similar to that of children who are just beginning to read.

Results from both studies suggest that it is important for teachers to assess adult readers fluency. Also, because oral reading, not silent reading, is one of the most important methods used to teach fluency, completion of assessment studies of ABE students' oral reading fluency (accuracy and rate) should be a priority.