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Literacy and Lexile® Measures

The Importance of Literacy

It’s much more than just reading words on a page. Literacy involves reading, understanding, and communicating effectively — all skills that are needed not only for tests, but for life.

The Lexile® Framework is a way for schools to know the difficulty of the materials your child can read and understand. All 50 states, including Texas, use Lexile®measures to improve student achievement in reading comprehension.

What the Lexile® framework does

Helps you make the best reading choices

When you know the Lexile® text measure of a book and the Lexile® reader measure of a student, you can match books to the student’s reading ability — finding books that are not too easy, not too hard, but just right.

Shows the range of readers across grade levels

Within any classroom, there will be a range of readers. Instead of classifying books by a single grade level, Lexile® measures provide a variety of choices for students with different reading abilities in that grade.

Tracks students’ progress over time

A helpful feature of the Lexile® scale is that it can be used to show whether reading ability is growing over time. If not, then teachers and parents can offer a student the extra help they need to improve.

Helps to create summer reading lists

Lexile® measures can be used to promote summer reading by helping parents guide their children to books that will not bore them by being too easy or frustrate them by being too difficult.

Using Lexile® Tools at Home

Curious about your child’s Lexile® measure and what it means? Use these tools to learn more.

Find a Book

The Find a Book tool helps you choose books that are at the right Lexile® measure for your child. Just enter your child’s Lexile® measure to see available books.

Go to the Find a Book tool

Disclaimer:

The Lexile Titles Database® is a list of books with Lexile measures provided by MetaMetrics. Neither the Texas Education Agency (TEA) nor MetaMetrics chooses the books to be measured – the book publishers do. The publishers are reputable academic and trade publishers, and the developmental levels of books are displayed when the publishers provide them. In no way should one assume that the books are recommended or endorsed by TEA, nor should the books or database search results be taken as a suggested reading list. Parents and educators should preview books to make sure they are at the appropriate developmental level and are suitable for the child.

Find A Book Tool Click to enlarge image

Lexile® Map

The Lexile® Map includes examples of popular books and sample text at different points on the Lexile® scale.

Download map in color Download map in black and white for efficient printing Learn about the Lexile® Map and more download options

Lexile® Reading Framework grid Click to enlarge image

Growth Planner

You may wonder if your child will be prepared for the reading requirements of college and the workplace upon graduation. The Lexile® Growth Planner provides some insight on this topic. With the Lexile® Growth Planner, you can chart your child’s reading growth across different annual state assessments, forecast future reading growth, compare that forecasted reading growth with the text demands of college and careers, and, if needed, identify a custom growth path to ensure your child is college and career ready when they graduate from high school.

Go to Lexile® Growth Planner

Lexile® Growth Planner Click to enlarge image

Links to Lexile® Informational Resources

Lexile® Overview Video

This six-minute animated video on the basic concepts and uses of the Lexile® Framework for Reading is the perfect resource for educators and parents who are new to Lexile® measures.

The Lexile® Infographic

Everything you need to know about the Lexile® Framework for Reading in one easy-to-understand graphic.

The Lexile® Framework for Reading Fact Sheet

A two-page description of how The Lexile® Framework for Reading links assessment with reading instruction.

Lexile® Measures at Home

This webpage contains topics and links that detail ways you can use a child’s Lexile® measure — and the Lexile® measures of books and other reading materials — to foster literacy and learning at home.

Lexile® by Chapter Guides

Lexile® by Chapter Guides explore the text complexity within a book by providing Lexile® measures for every chapter in the text. Each guide includes a graph and table displaying the Lexile® information to help educators, parents, and students better understand where the peaks and valleys of complexity reside within a text.

Lexile® Parent Brochure

A two-page overview of the value and utility of the link between The Lexile® Framework for Reading and the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR).

Summer Reading List

Over the summer months and without the structure of school, many students begin to slip in their reading abilities. This webpage offers parents suggestions for becoming more involved in their child’s summer reading.

The Lexile® PowerV Vocabulary Tool

The Lexile® PowerV Vocabulary Tool identifies up to 10 challenging words in each book that are important for students to know. These words may be difficult for a student who is targeted with the book. Parents and students can use the tool to identify words students might want to familiarize themselves with prior to reading a particular book.

Relationship between Lexile® and STAAR Reading

TEA partnered with MetaMetrics to conduct a series of studies to examine the relationship between the Lexile® scale and the STAAR reading scale. Read More » Student participants were representative of Texas student population in reading ability and were similar to Texas student population in demographics such as gender, ethnicity, economic status, and English learner status. Students were given a paper/pencil Lexile® Linking Test that contained multiple-choice reading comprehension questions. Students´ results on the Lexile® Linking Test were examined in relation to the students’ results on the STAAR reading test. Researchers were able to establish a link between the STAAR reading scale and the Lexile® scale. Although no high-stakes was associated with the Lexile® measure on STAAR report card, it can be used as a resource for parents and educators. With Lexile® measures, parents and educators now have information that can be used to promote and encourage growth in reading.

Links to Additional Resources

OCLC WorldCat

WorldCat is the world’s largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the web, where most people start their search for information. WorldCat not only allows you to find the libraries nearest to your location but also allows you to search the materials included in the library’s collection.

Digital Knowledge Central

An online database in Texas, Digital Knowledge Central, offers a search feature that enables users to search more than 100 million articles from magazines, journals, newspapers, and e-books by Lexile® measure.

Expand Your Child’s Reading

One of the best ways to nurture a love of reading that leads to improved literacy is to take your children to the library regularly. Most libraries have special summer reading programs.

Find a Library Near You

Helpful Links

Check out the links below to quickly get where you need to go:

STAAR


STAAR Alternate 2, TELPAS, and TELPAS Alternate Resources

Texas Assessment


Special Education Information and Call Center

For Districts


STAAR Out of School/Out of District Testing