After more than 20 years, the Lexile Framework for Reading is recognized as the most tested and widely used reading metric as a powerful tool for connecting students with material at the right level of challenge and monitoring their progress towards achieving their goals and standards.
Funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Lexile Framework for Reading has been carried out on over 20 years of extensive research. This study used a fairly different approach to measuring readership and text to result in adoption by education departments in nearly half of the states and school districts in all 50 states.
Today, tens of millions of students around the world have received Lexile measurements that can be used as a reference to help them choose the articles, books and websites that are available. This is because major book retailers, text publishers, testing companies, and use Lexile measurements.
Here’s a proof for Lexile growth per year shown in the table below!
The table 1 above really indicates how Lexile performance changed over time. It also shows the Lexile measure for students up to current period monthly. The Growth column here points to the amount of Lexile growth from the LevelSet pretest to the most recent monthly Lexile measure.
The Initial Expected Post-Test Score column indicates the forecasted Lexile post-test score which is based on the student’s LevelSet pre-test measure. While, the Current Expected Post-Test Score points to the forecasted Lexile post-test score which is based on the student’s most recent Lexile measure.
Of course, if the latter was greater than the precious one, the student has experienced accelerated growth. Well, the growth above what was expected. Last, the College and Career Readiness performs as additional feature which appears beside the name of the students who have fulfilled criteria for being on track for college and career readiness.
To note, all forecasts have uncertainty associated with them. As a general rule, approximately two-thirds of the time the actual post-test students’ Lexile measure will be within +/- 110L of the estimated initial Lexile measure and +/- 95L of the estimated mid year Lexile measure.
The table 2 above indicates a sample of how likely the students are on track for College and Career when the high-stakes state is administered. The Current Readiness column will compare the student’s current Lexile measures to Achieve3000’s college and career readiness proficiency ranges.
The students with current Lexile measures which are classified as Falls Far Below or Approaches are considered Not On Track. They will be ready for the reading demands of college and the workforce by the end of high school. The students with current Lexile measures which are classified as Meets or Exceeds are considered On Track for college and career readiness targets.
In addition, the Forecasted Readiness column really provides a forecast of a student’s likely readiness at the time of the high stakes state assessment. By using the current Lexile measure and Metematrics’ proprietary estimation algorithm, the Estimated Readiness section indicates the likelihood that a student’s Lexile measurement will fall into each of the four readiness categories at the time of the status assessment.
Even though those numbers are not a guarantee of future performance, the category of the readiness with the highest probability shows in bold which indicates the student’s Lexile performance was likely to fall into the category when the state assessment was conducted.
Keep in mind, it’s a dynamic report which will change over time as students’ Lexile measures change. Teachers can use the information to see how students are progressing towards college and career readiness performance expectations as they get closer to assessing their state and use that information to make instructional decisions in turn.
Achieve3000 really uses four proficiency ranges in each grade to identify a student’s level of college and career readiness. Students who fall into the two Not On Track categories do not meet college and career readiness targets for their grade level and are not expected to reach the 1300L level by the end of high school without significant intervention and acceleration.
The learners in the two On Track categories meet grade level targets. They can also be expected to read at or above 1300L by the time they graduate if they continue to achieve expected growth or greater each year.
The table 3 indicates an example of how the students likely perform on the high-stakes state test. It is available to schools in states in which MetaMetrics has linked the summative state mandated assessment with the Lexile Framework.
This report points out how the students tend to assess their country which is based on their current Lexile level as indicated in the Lexile column. At the beginning of the school year, Lexile is based on the Pre-Test LevelSet measurements.
As time passed, the Lexile’s measures were set based on their performance in the Achieve3000 program and the reports were also adjusted. This report indicates the learner’s current Lexile measurement, last Lexile adjustment date and possible assessments at each proficiency level at the time the state assessment was conducted.
This report also gives Lexile ranges which is based on the state proficiency levels. This is potential information for setting goals for the learners. The differences between the lower bound of the desired proficiency level and the current Lexile measure of a learner is a gap which they should address.
Moreover, this gap is determined by the number of Lexile points which are required to achieve the performance goals at the time country assessments were conducted. It can be run multiple times throughout the school year to view if the gaps are getting smaller.
Here are some points about Lexile Measurement:
- A higher lexile size will indicate a higher reading ability.
- Lexile measure can range from under 200L for new readers to over 1600L for advanced readers.
- Someone who scores below 0L will receive BR for Beginner Readers. In some cases, the code of BR is followed by a number and an L, for example, BR150L. The lexile BR150L will indicate that the Lexile reader measure is 150 units under 0L.
