Readability versus Leveling: Both of These Procedures Can Help Teachers Select Books for Readers at Different Stages
Teachers of reading have long known that it is best to use introductory reading material that is not too difficult. The procedure for determining difficulty has beenvobjectified by the use of readability formulasvsince 1923 (Lively & Pressey, 1923) and continuesvto the present day. Readability formulasvusually give a numerical score to rank books or other reading matter in an order of difficulty. Sometimes this numerical score corresponds to a suggested approximate grade level. Leveling is more modern (Clay, 1991) and is similar to readability in that it employs various systems for determining the difficulty of books or reading material, but it is more subjective and is used mostly at the beginning reading levels. This article shows some similarities and differences between readability formulas and leveling procedures and reports some current large-scale uses of readability formulas.