Sample RFP Language for the Lexile Framework for Reading

Using an assessment linked with The Lexile Framework for Reading provides a mechanism for matching each student’s reading ability with instructional resources on a common scale. It serves as an anchor to which materials and assessments can be connected allowing parents, teachers, and administrators to speak the same language. In addition, the Lexile Framework provides a common way to monitor whether students are “on track” for the reading demands of various postsecondary endeavors. Parents often ask questions such as the following:

• How can I help my child become a better reader?
• How do I challenge my child to read so that he or she is ready for various college and career options?

By using the Lexile Framework, the same metrics are applied to the instructional resources students engage with, the tests they take, and the results that are reported. Educators and parents will be able to answer these questions and will be better able to use the results from the test to improve instruction and to develop each student’s level of reading comprehension.  As a student grows, he or she can be matched with more demanding resources. And, as the resources become more demanding, then the student grows.

Lexile measures can be leveraged to communicate with teachers, parents, and all stakeholders through common, consistent, auxiliary score scales. The Lexile Framework for Reading, developed to match readers with text at a level that provides challenge but not frustration, is such an auxiliary scale. More importantly, this framework—widely adopted by state education departments as well as by many publishers of instructional and/or assessment products—provides a common, consistent scale that can be used to monitor growth and track progress across multiple assessments and describe student achievement in relation to goals for college and career readiness.

Lexile measures delineate the level at which students read. The Lexile Framework is a unique tool for accurately matching readers with text. Unlike other measurement systems, the Lexile Framework provides a scientific scale that measures text complexity and, more importantly, places students on that same scale to evaluate reading ability. In addition, it can be used to evaluate reading ability and growth based on actual assessment results, rather than generalized age or grade levels. Lexile measures connect learners of all ages with resources at the right level of challenge and provide a scale in which growth towards state and national standards can be measured. Lexile measures help teachers, librarians, and parents find books, articles, and other resources within a reader’s recommended Lexile range: 100L below to 50L above his or her Lexile measure. Based on standardized reading assessment scores, books can be suggested that provide challenge, but not frustration, during reading.

To help support the advancement through progressively more challenging texts in K–2 classrooms, a team of researchers at MetaMetrics, along with experts from the field, conducted a series of studies (Fitzgerald et al., 2015a, 2015b[1]) to examine whether the Lexile Analyzer could be enhanced to provide more precise measurement for books aimed at individuals learning to read.  Based on input from teachers and reading specialists and by conducting studies on the reading behaviors of young students, researchers spent several years analyzing over 200 text characteristics that influence text complexity.  Through these research studies, nine variables were identified as most accurately and reliably measuring the text complexity of K–2 books. This nine-variable model is now incorporated to strengthen the algorithm that powers the Lexile Analyzer. These nine variables are categorized into four early-reading indicators to help identify important text features in early-reading books that could present less or more of a challenge to a reader.

MetaMetrics^® has conducted extensive research to describe what it means to be “college-ready” in relation to reading demands (e.g., Williamson, 2008 in the Journal of Advanced Academics). This research is being extended to define what it means to be “career-ready” as students graduate from high school. The first research brief was released in December 2013 and deals with the text demands for entrance into the first sample of Bright Outlook Occupations (from O*NET). Additional phases are continuing every four to six months. See: https://metametricsinc.com/research-publications/lexile-framework-reading-quantifies-reading-ability-needed-college-career-readiness/

[1] Fitzgerald, J., Elmore, J., Koons, H., Hiebert, E. H., Bowen, K., Sanford-Moore, E. E., & Stenner, A. J. (2015a). Important text characteristics for early-grades text complexity. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107, 4–29. DOI: 10.1037/a0037289.

Fitzgerald, J., Hiebert, E. H., Bowen, K., Relyea, E. J., Kung, M., & Elmore, J. (2015b). Text complexity: Primary Teacher’s Views. Literacy Research and Instruction, 54, 19–44. DOI: 10.1080/19388071.2014.954086.

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