The Lexile Framework for Reading
Linking Assessment with Reading Instruction
Making Test Scores Actionable
Today's children take many different types of assessments and receive many different scores. These scores provide important measures of proficiency in content areas, but they are often static. The data can not be used to inform teaching 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 with the Lexile Framework, children's test scores immediately become actionable. A Lexile measure is the most widely adopted metric of reading ability in the U.S., measuring both reader ability and text difficulty on the same scale. Lexile measures are a powerful tool for linking assessment with reading development across the curriculum, at home and in the library, by taking the guesswork out of selecting materials that can help to improve 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 trainers." As the salesperson leads them to the trainers, he asks, "How old is your son?" The father answers, "He is 12." And so the salesperson points to five pairs of trainers on the wall and says, "There are our age-12 trainers."
Not likely, right? We do not buy shoes by age, we buy them by size. However, for years we have matched children to books and other learning materials based on age or year group. If a child likes science fiction books and is nine years old or in Year 5, he is given "Year-5 science fiction" to read. But what if that child’s reading ability is far higher than the "average" child his age, or he is not quite reading on a Year-5 level? Like the boy's age-12 trainers, the text simply does not fit the child.
When shopping, the scale used to measure the boy's foot for his trainers tells you his size, not his age. Similarly, the Lexile Framework determines a child's reading ability, not his year group. With Lexile measures, assessment results are used to ensure a "good fit" because the measure is used to select reading material that meets and challenges each child's ability.
Personalising Teaching Across the Curriculum
Lexile measures provide more than a way to pick the right book for a child to read. They are a powerful tool for personalising learning and improving achievement across year groups and content areas. Using Lexile measures, teachers connect learners with 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 a teacher who is teaching a unit on Life Cycles in Key Stage 2 Science. Typically, a class of 30 children will have a wide range of reading abilities, with only half of those children reading well enough to comprehend the content in the textbook. When the teacher uses the children's Lexile measures to connect them with ability-appropriate content from periodicals and Web sites, they stay on track for meeting performance standards in science and continue to strengthen their reading skills.
More Information, Not More Testing
Best of all, the Lexile Framework adds value to an assessment-adding more information, not more time. It is not another test or a reading intervention programme. Lexile measures provide a thermometer for measuring reading ability that talented teachers, involved parents and motivated children 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 reading ability from preschool through graduate school.
Measuring Student Growth on a Common Scale
Any classroom assessment or reading programme can be linked with Lexile Framework. This offers teachers and parents a common scale for monitoring a child's progress throughout the school year and his or her entire education, regardless of what assessment he or she takes. A Lexile measure 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 child changes year groups or takes a different test. Lexile measures range from below 200L for beginning readers and text to above 1700L for advanced readers and text.
Connecting Students to Lexiles
Each year, about 28 million Lexile measures are reported from state and classroom assessments in the U.S.. Visit the Lexile Web site for a list of standardised assessments and reading programmes that are linked with the Lexile Framework.
Building Reading Abilities Year Round
Lexile measures 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, Lexile measures offer a way to take action. During the summer, after school or on the weekends, families can visit the library or bookstore and use Lexile measures 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 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. Lexile measures provide a way to make that practice meaningful all year round. By reading material at their Lexile level, children can strengthen literacy skills and develop a lifelong love of reading.
The Science Behind The Lexile Framework for Reading
The Lexile Framework for Reading was developed after 20 years of research by psychometricians at MetaMetrics, Inc., a privately held educational measurement company based in Durham, North Carolina (United States). 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 achievement that help to link assessment with teaching, foster better educational practices and improve learning by matching children with 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 abilities of all children, call 1-888-LEXILES or visit www.Lexile.com.
