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 Lexile Framework for Reading


​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​What is the LexileÒ Framework?

Lexile measures are a resource for parents and educators that focus on improving reading skills and increasing adolescent literacy. These Lexile measures can be used to match readers with texts targeting the student's reading ability. Such targeting of reading material optimizes growth in reading ability and helps to monitor student progress towards specific learning goals.

The Lexile® Framework for Reading is an educational tool that links text complexity and readers' ability on a common metric known as the Lexile scale. A student receives a Lexile reader measure calculated from a reading test linked to the Lexile Framework; the Lexile measure describes the student's reading ability. Books and other texts also have a Lexile measure associated with them, and this Lexile text measure describes the book's reading demand or difficulty. When used together, these measures can help match a reader with reading material that is at an appropriate level of difficulty and suggest how well the reader will comprehend a text.

The Georgia Department of Education has worked with MetaMetrics®, the developers of The Lexile® Framework for Reading, to establish the link between the Georgia Milestones English Language Arts (ELA) assessments and the Lexile scale. In Georgia, students will receive a Lexile measure when they receive a scale score on a Georgia Milestones End of Grade or End of Course ELA assessment. This Lexile measure is based on the reading portion of the ELA test.

To see a visual representation of the Lexil​e scale, explore the Lexile Map, which provides examples of popular books and sample text at various points on the Lexile scale.  Once you know a student's Lexile measure, you can use the Lexile map to get a sense of his or her reading level in terms of books that are familiar to many people. 

Lexiles Measures & State Content Standards

Georgia's rigorous content standards promote that students should be ready for college or career upon exiting high school. To reach these high school graduation goals, it is important for a student to read and understand texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. The Lexile® Framework provides valuable insights into student readiness by measuring both the complexity of college and career texts and a student's ability to comprehend these texts.​

The Lexile® Framework helps to describe the text complexity necessary for students to meet the demands of colleges and careers at each grade level. Georgia's content standards focus both on the text complexity of what students read and how well students read and comprehend. The Lexile ranges in the table below help teachers and parents determine what text is appropriate for each grade level. These ranges suggest what text will help students gain in literacy skills toward these goals for college and career readiness. 

 

Grade

MetaMetrics Lexile 

Grade Level "Stretch" Bands

1

190L to 530L

2

420L to 650L

3

520L to 820L

4

740L to 940L

5

830L to 1010L

6

925L to 1070L

7

970L to 1120L

8

1010L to 1185L

9

1050L to 1260L

10

1080L to 1335L

11 and 12

1185L to 1385L

 

These grade and Lexile bands are the basis for determining at what text complexity level students should be reading—and at which grades—to make sure they are ultimately prepared for the reading demands of college and careers.



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