The Lexile Framework for Reading
LINKING ASSESSMENT WITH READING INSTRUCTION

The Lexile Framework for Reading Overview (PDF)

Making Test Scores Actionable
Today’s students take many different types of assessments and receive many different scores. These scores provide important measures of student proficiency in content areas, but they are often static. The data can’t be used to inform instruction or to help educators and parents to select appropriate reading materials based on each child’s ability.

The Lexile Framework for Reading changes that. When an assessment is linked to the Lexile Framework, students’ test scores immediately become actionable. Lexiles are the most widely adopted reading measure in use today, measuring both reader ability and text difficulty on the same scale. Lexiles are a powerful tool for linking assessment with instruction across the curriculum, at home and in the library, by taking the guesswork out of selecting materials that can help to improve student reading ability.

Matching Readers and Text
Consider this: a father takes his son to the store to buy shoes. The salesperson asks them, “What kind of shoes do you need?” The father replies, “He needs basketball shoes.” As the salesperson leads them to the basketball shoes, he asks, “How old is your son?” The father answers, “He is 12.” And so the salesperson points to five pairs of shoes on the wall and says, “There are our age-12 basketball shoes.”

Not likely, right? We do not buy shoes by age, we buy them by size. However, for years we have matched students to books and other learning materials based on age or grade level. If a student likes science fiction books and is nine years old or in fourth grade, he is given “fourth-grade science fiction” to read. But what if that fourth grader’s reading ability is far higher than the “average” student his age, or he is not quite reading on a fourth-grade level? Like the boy’s age-12 basketball shoes, the text simply does not fit the student.

When shoe shopping, the scale used to measure the boy’s foot for his sneakers tells you his shoe size, not his age. Similarly, the Lexile Framework determines a student’s reading ability, not his grade level. With Lexiles, assessment results are used to ensure a “good fit” because the measure is used to select reading material that meets and challenges each student’s ability.

Differentiating Instruction Across the Curriculum
Lexiles provide more than a way to pick the right book for a student to read. They are a powerful tool for targeting instruction and improving achievement across grade levels and content areas. Using Lexiles, educators connect students with instructional resources that match their reading abilities. And the number of fiction and nonfiction books, textbooks, periodicals and Web sites with Lexile measures grows every day.

Consider an educator who is teaching a unit on the Battle of Gettysburg. Typically, a fifth-grade class of 30 students will have a wide range of reading abilities, with only half of those students reading well enough to comprehend the content in the textbook. When the teacher uses the students’ Lexile measures to connect them with ability-appropriate content from periodicals and Web sites, they stay on track for meeting state performance standards in social studies and continue to strengthen their reading skills.

More Information, Not More Testing
Best of all, the Lexile Framework adds value to state or classroom assessments—adding more information, not more time. It is not another test or a reading intervention program. Lexiles provide a thermometer for measuring students’ reading abilities that talented educators, involved parents and motivated students use to improve learning. Lexile measures tie day-to-day work in the classroom to critical high-stakes tests. The Lexile Framework offers a “big picture” view of growth of student reading ability from preschool through graduate school.

Measuring Student Growth on a Common Scale
Many classroom, norm-referenced and state-level assessments are linked to the Lexile Framework. This offers educators and parents a common scale for monitoring student progress throughout the school year and their entire education, regardless of what assessments they take. A Lexile can provide the same continuity for reading growth that families have when they mark a child’s height on a wall with a pencil. Like the wall, the scale never changes, so progress is easy to see even if the student changes grades or takes a different test. Lexiles range from below 200L for beginning readers and text to above 1700L for advanced readers and text.

Connecting Students to Lexiles
Lexile measures may already be available for your students. Tens of millions of students receive a Lexile measure each year from state or classroom assessments. Visit www.Lexile.com for a list of standardized assessments and reading programs that are linked to the Lexile Framework. You may already have access to this actionable tool for linking assessment with instruction.

Building Reading Abilities Year Round
Lexiles also provide parents with a powerful tool for connecting children with reading materials at home. Unlike other test results that simply get posted on the refrigerator or cause parents sleepless nights, Lexiles offer a way to take action. During the summer, after school or on the weekends, families can visit the library or bookstore and use Lexiles to select leisure-reading materials. In fact, an increasing number of automated library card catalogs include Lexile measures for books and other materials. Or they can use the Lexile Book Database at www.Lexile.com and search by author, title or Lexile range. The book database and other online resources are available at no cost.

Experts agree that the best way to build reading ability is practice. Lexiles provide a way to make that practice meaningful all year round. By reading material at their Lexile level, students can strengthen literacy skills and develop a lifelong love of reading.

The Science Behind the Lexile Framework
The Lexile Framework for Reading was developed after 20 years of research by psychometricians at MetaMetrics, Inc., a private educational measurement company based in Durham, N.C. The company’s research was initially funded with grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health. Today, MetaMetrics continues to pioneer scientifically-based measures of student achievement that help to link assessment with instruction, foster better educational practices and improve learning by matching students to instructional materials that meet and challenge their abilities.

For more information on how The Lexile Framework for Reading can help to link assessment with instruction and improve the reading ability of all students, call 1-888-LEXILES or visit www.Lexile.com.