Frequently Asked Questions

Questions

  1. What is a Lexile measure?
  2. What is the difference between a Spanish and English Lexile measure?
  3. What can I do with my Lexile measure?
  4. Where can I receive a Lexile measure?
  5. What is the relationship between grade equivalents and Lexile measures?
  6. What is a reader's Lexile range?
  7. What if my book hasn't been measured?
  8. Why is comprehension set at 75% with the Lexile Framework?
  9. Can I measure a book or piece of text on my own?
  10. Can I get Lexile measures in my library?
  11. How can homeschool students receive a Lexile measure?
  12. What are the letters in front of the Lexile measure (AD, NC, HL, IG, GN, BR and NP)?
  13. Where did the Lexile Pathfinders go?

Answers

  1. What is a Lexile measure?

    There are two kinds of Lexile measures: the Lexile reader measure and the Lexile text measure. Students receive a Lexile reader measure as a score from a reading test - it describes his or her reading ability. Books and other texts receive a Lexile text measure from a software tool called the Lexile Analyzer - it 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 difficulty, or help give an idea of how well a reader will comprehend a text. The Lexile reader measure can also be used to monitor a reader's growth in reading ability over time. Lexile helps readers grow, and helps parents and teachers know.

    When a Lexile text measure matches or is in the range of a Lexile reader measure, this is called a targeted reading experience. The reader will encounter some level of difficulty with the text, but not enough to get frustrated. This is the best way to grow as a reader - reading text that's not too hard but not too easy.

    Click here to read more about what a Lexile measure is.

  2. What is the difference between a Spanish and English Lexile measure?

    El Sistema Lexile para Leer is a separate reading framework from the English-language Lexile Framework for Reading. The differences between the two frameworks represent the differences between the two languages. A separate research corpus of Spanish texts is necessary to determine word frequency values, and a unique Lexile equation is necessary to quantify the relationship between sentence length and syntactic complexity. Click here to read more about El Sistema Lexile Para Leer.

    Therefore, the Spanish Lexile measure for a text may be a different number from an English Lexile measure of that same text in English. Book measures bear this out. For instance, Curious George by H.A. Rey measures 400L in English, and the Spanish translation measures 270L. These two measures are not relative to each other; they each represent the separate reading demands of these two texts in their separate languages.

  3. What can I do with my Lexile measure?

    You can easily find "just right" books either for school or for pleasure reading. You can also easily know when a reader might need a little help, or a little more challenge.

    When you receive your Lexile measure from a test, try not to focus on the exact number. Instead, consider a reading range around the number. A young person's Lexile range, or reading "sweet spot," is from 100L below to 50L above his or her reported measure. Use this range in our Find a Book search. And don't be afraid to look at books above and below someone's Lexile range. Just know that a reader might find these books particularly challenging or simple.

    If a student tackles reading material above his or her Lexile range, consider what additional instruction or lower-level reading resources might help. Ask him or her to keep track of unknown words, and look them up together. Or take turns reading aloud to each other to chop up the reading experience into smaller portions. Likewise, you can reward students with easy reading just as adults like to grab a couple of pulp novels to read in the beach chair.

    Much more information can be found in our sections for teachers, librarians, and parents.

  4. Where can I receive a Lexile measure?

    MetaMetrics does not publish tests that report Lexile measures. Neither is there an online test on our Web site. Instead, we partner with state departments of education and test publishers to create assessments or link existing assessments to report Lexile measures. Currently, students can receive Lexile measures from many different tests and reading programs. See "How to get a Lexile measure" for more information.

  5. What is the relationship between grade equivalents and Lexile measures?

    There is no direct correspondence of a specific Lexile measure to a specific grade level. Within any classroom or grade, there will be a range of readers and a range of reading materials. For example, in a fifth-grade classroom there will be some readers who are ahead of the typical reader (about 250L above) and some readers who are behind the typical reader (about 250L below). To say that some books are "just right" for fifth graders assumes that all fifth graders are reading at about the same level. The Lexile Framework for Reading is intended to match readers with texts at whatever level each individual reader is reading.

    With that said, we have a more detailed explanation and a chart available that shows Lexile ranges from actual test scores across the nation in each grade. Please keep in mind, the "Reader Measures" column of this chart is not to be taken as recommended ranges. This is simply where young readers are reading. And know that students scored above and below these ranges as well -- the ranges in the table are the middle 50% of students in each grade.

  6. What is a reader's Lexile range?

    A person's Lexile range is a suggested range of texts that a reader should be reading. The Lexile range for a reader is from 50L above his or her Lexile measure to 100L below. If a student attempts material above their Lexile range, the text may challenge the student and his or her ability to construct meaning from the reading experience may decrease. Likewise, material below a reader’s Lexile range will provide him or her with little comprehension challenge.

    Click here to read more about how material above or below the reader’s Lexile range can be used for specific instructional purposes.

  7. What if my book hasn't been measured?

    If you can't find a book on Find a Book, then we haven't measured it yet. We do not choose the books that we measure. We measure books at a publisher's request. Although we work largely with publishers that publish books for the school market, many of the books in your library or media center do not yet have Lexile measures. Fortunately, we are constantly measuring books.

    If you're interested in knowing the Lexile measure of a book we haven't measured, please contact the marketing or editorial divisions of the book's publisher and encourage them to send their books to us. The publisher will need the title, author, and ISBN for each book. Information for publishers to contact us is here: www.lexile.com/publisher.

    You may also get an estimated measure for an unmeasured book by using our Lexile Analyzer on a portion of the book, according to our sampling guidelines. Please know, though, that an estimated Lexile measure will likely differ (perhaps even substantially) from the actual measure of the entire book.

  8. Why is comprehension set at 75% with the Lexile Framework?

    A primary use of Lexile measures is for forecasting how well readers will comprehend texts. A reader with a measure of 600L who is given a text measured at 600L is expected to have a 75% comprehension rate. This is the “default” setting within the Lexile Framework. This value was selected to ensure that when a text's measure matches a reader's measure, the reading experience is not so hard that the reader experiences frustration and loses the meaning-thread of the text, but is not so easy that the reader does not encounter any new vocabulary or sentence structures that help grow him or her as a reader.

  9. Can I measure a book or piece of text on my own?

    You can use our free, online Lexile Analyzer tool to measure short classroom texts or get an estimated Lexile measure for a book. This is the same tool that MetaMetrics uses to get certified Lexile measures for the full text of books.

    Once you register for the Lexile Analyzer, please follow the guidelines in the user guide for preparing a text and for sampling from a book. If you do not follow these guidelines, your Lexile measure or estimate might not be very accurate. Also please know that any measure you get yourself should not be entered into any library catalog or database. Lexile measures can only be certified by MetaMetrics. We stand behind the accuracy of our text measures.

    Please click these links to read more if you are a publisher interested in measures for your books, or a partner interested in incorporating Lexile analysis into your assessment or reading product.

  10. Can I get Lexile measures in my library?

    You can integrate Lexile measures into your library's online catalog and book search. Although MetaMetrics does not offer this integration service, you can either license the Lexile Book Database from us so you can do it yourself, or work with one of several library automation partners who integrate Lexile measures. See the topics in the "Lexile in the Library" section for more information about these options.

  11. How can homeschool students receive a Lexile measure?

    Several assessments linked to the Lexile Framework sell individual licenses, generally to the homeschool market. These include the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) from Riverside Publishing, the Stanford and Iowa achievement tests distributed through BJU Press Testing and Evaluation, and an online reading system called Total Reader.

    Click here for more information about these assessments, or read more generally about how Lexile measures can be used in the home.

  12. What are the letters in front of the Lexile measure (AD, NC, HL, IG, GN, BR and NP)?

    This is a Lexile code. It gives you more information about a book that relates to its developmental appropriateness, reading difficulty, and common or intended usage. Sometimes a Lexile measure by itself is not enough information to choose a particular book for a particular reader. See our "Lexile Codes" topic for detailed definitions of each code.

  13. Where did the Lexile Pathfinders go?

    Lexile Pathfinders were thematic, ready-made reading lists that you could download and print. We've taken them off the site because we've improved our Find a Book search in order to enable you to make your own Pathfinders quickly and easily. While browsing books in our Find a Book search, add them to your Reading List. You can name, save, email, and print your reading lists.