Before administering the Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) task, please refer to the UCSF Multitudes Administration manual available here and training video content available here.
Ensuring Accurate Administration for Oral Reading Fluency: Timing
The Oral Reading Fluency task is timed, the time a child takes to read the passage (or the amount of the passage the student can read during the allotted 2 minutes) is a critical component to the child's score for the task, even small timing inaccuracies can directly impact results.
Device Time Sync Requirements for ORF
Multitudes uses your computer’s internal clock to determine the task’s start and end timestamps.
To ensure timing is accurate—and scoring is valid—you must have automatic time syncing turned on for both devices being used during the assessment. This ensures your device clock updates automatically and remains in sync with official time standards.
If you are seeing this "Clock Synchronization Issue" warning message, you must take action to ensure you have automatic time syncing turned on.
Please pause the assessment, ensure you have automatic time syncing turned on both devices used during the assessment, and then return to your assessment. Please note, if you are still seeing this warning after you have confirmed you have automatic time syncing turned on both devices, please submit a ticket to our team here.
Important reminder:
Simply adjusting your clock manually is not sufficient.
Automatic time syncing is required for these tasks to function and score correctly.
We recommend working your IT team to your computer's automatic time syncing is turned on. While every computer is different, here is some guidance on how to ensure your computer's clock syncs automatically:
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Windows (PC)
Open the Start menu → select Settings ⚙️
Go to Time & Language → Date & Time
Turn ON both “Set time automatically” and “Set time zone automatically”
If needed, click Sync now under “Additional settings.”
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Mac (Apple)
Click the Apple menu → System Settings (or System Preferences)
Choose General → Date & Time
Turn ON “Set time and date automatically”
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Chromebook
Click the time at the bottom right → select the Settings ⚙️ icon
Go to Advanced → Date and time
Turn ON “Set automatically.”
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iPad
Open Settings → General → Date & Time
Turn ON “Set Automatically.”
Using the Start and Stop timer
Please refer to the UCSF Multitudes Administration manual available here and training video content available here to review the full administration protocol for the ORF tasks.
When the administrator of the ORF task selects Start, a 2 minute countdown timer begins. When the student reaches the last word in the passage, the administrator selects the Stop and selects the last word the student read. If the 2 minute countdown timer runs out before the student has finished reading the passage, the administrator is prompted to select the last word the student read.
Accurate use of the Start and Stop buttons is essential. These actions determine the exact amount of time the student spent reading, and this timing is a critical component of the student’s score for the ORF task.
If the administrator stops the timer too early, it can result in an invalid score.
If you believe you may have incorrectly used the Start or Stop buttons, please submit a ticket to our team here and we can re-set this task for you.