Lexile
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| Creator | MetaMetrics |
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| Website | www.lexile.com |
The Lexile framework for reading is an educational tool that uses a measure called a Lexile to match readers with books, articles and other leveled reading resources. Readers and books are assigned a score on the Lexile scale, in which lower scores reflect easier readability for books and lower reading ability for readers.
The Lexile framework uses quantitative methods, based on individual words and sentence lengths, rather than qualitative analysis of content to produce scores. Accordingly, the scores for texts do not reflect factors such as multiple levels of meaning or maturity of themes. Hence, in the United States, the Common Core State Standards recommend the use of alternative, qualitative, methods for selecting books for students at grade 6 and over.
In the US, Lexile measures are reported from reading programs and assessments annually. Thus, about half of U.S. students in grades 3rd through 12th receive a Lexile measure each year. In addition to being used in schools in all 50 states, Lexile measures are also used outside of the United States.
The Lexile framework for reading is made up of Lexile reader measures and Lexile text measures, both of which are put on the Lexile scale.
The Lexile scale runs from below 0L (Lexile) to above 2000L, though there is not an explicit bottom or top to the scale. Scores 0L and below are reported as BR (Beginning Reader). These books or students may be coded as Lexile: BR. In some cases, a student will receive a BR code followed by a number (e.g. Lexile: BR150L). A measure of BR150L indicates that the lexile measure is 150 units below 0L.
A Lexile measure is defined as "the numeric representation of an individual's reading ability or a text's readability (or difficulty), followed by an "L" (Lexile)". There are two types of Lexile measures: Lexile reader measures and Lexile text measures. A Lexile reader measure typically is obtained when an individual completes a reading comprehension test. Once a field study has been performed to link Lexile Framework with the test, the individual's reading score can be reported as a Lexile measure.
For an individual, a Lexile measure is typically obtained from a reading comprehension assessment or program. These range from the adolescent level (DIBELS: Dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills) to the adult level (TABE: Test of adult basic education). A Lexile text measure is obtained by evaluating the readability of a piece of text, such as a book or an article. The Lexile Analyzer, a software program specially designed to evaluate reading demand, analyzes the text's semantic (word frequency) and syntactic (sentence length) characteristics and assigns it a Lexile measure. Over 60,000 Web sites, 115,000 fiction and nonfiction books, and 80 million articles have Lexile measures, and these numbers continue to grow. Over 150 publishers including Capstone Publishers, Discovery Ed, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, Pearson PLC, Riverside Publishing, Scholastic Corporation, Simon & Schuster,Workman Publishing Company, and World Book offer certified Lexile text measures for their materials.
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