About the Lexile Framework for Reading
The Lexile Framework for Reading is a scientifically proven approach to reading and text measurement. A Lexile® measure is the numeric representation of a student’s performance or a text’s difficulty, both followed by an “L” (for Lexile measure). The Lexile® scale is a developmental scale ranging from beginning reader measures below 0L to above 1600L for advanced text and abilities.
The Lexile scale is independent. That means that the difficulty of books, articles and other reading materials from any source can be evaluated with Lexile measures. Likewise, multiple reading assessments can report student reading ability in Lexile measures. The Lexile metric removes uncertainty by providing a scientific measure of text difficulty and student reading ability.
Students receive a Lexile measure after the administration of a test that is linked to the Lexile scale. The student’s Lexile measure marks the level of text a student can read with 75 per cent anticipated comprehension. This is the level at which the student can successfully navigate the material with the use of context clues and other comprehension strategies to fill in the gaps.
The student’s Lexile measure establishes his or her Lexile range, which extends roughly 50L above to 100L below the student’s reported measure on the Lexile scale. Educators can forecast the comprehension of students reading materials above or below their target range with the Lexile scale.
Lexile measures are:
✓ A measure of text difficulty and reader ability
✓ Scientific and objective
✓ Applied to reading material
✓ For students
✓ Complementary to other book levelling systems based on criteria that require qualitative judgements e.g. Book Bands.
Lexile measures are not:
☓ A measure of narrative complexity
☓ A measure of appropriate content
☓ An instructional programme
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