Matching Second Graders to Text: The Utility of a Group-Administered Comprehension Measure
Lexile measures from administration of The Scholastic Reading Inventory were used to estimate student reading level and match students to trade books.
This is a study of the utility of Lexile scores for predicting adequate oral reading accuracy and oral reading rate in a tradebook. A Lexile score is a quantitative measure of readability that can be applied to
texts and also a metric for describing reading achievement through the use of standardized reading comprehension measures. Participants included 47 second-grade readers who took a group-administered reading comprehension test, yielding individual Lexile scores. Trade book titles were randomly selected to correspond to their Lexile scores. After a controlled story introduction, each participant read a single text orally, and researchers calculated oral reading accuracy and rate. Results indicated that 93% of the participants read their Lexile identified trade book with oral reading accuracy > 90% but only 57% with reading rate >70 words per minute. Implications for using Lexile scores as part of a school-level assessment plan are discussed.