Using Lexile Measurements

This topic provides guidance on using the Lexile® measures provided with the Adaptive Oral Reading assessment in English. (For background about this assessment, see Test Segments and Skills Assessed in Each Test Type.)

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Lexile measurements appear in several reports. For example, you can see the most detail in the Individual Student Report (see Results from Foundational Skills measures):

Lexile measures, including oral reading measure, oral readability, and text measure

Note: The Lexile oral reading measure is not currently available for Spanish assessments.

Comparing Lexile Measures

To put results in context, you can compare the Lexile measures:

 

Lexile measure What does it measure? How is it useful?

Oral reading

Student’s oral reading. The student’s score is based on rate, accuracy, and the readability of the text read.

Evaluating and tracking oral reading fluency.

Oral readability

How difficult passages are to read aloud. This does not include how hard text is to comprehend.

Considering the range that students typically encounter in this grade.

Text

How difficult a passage is to read with comprehension.

Comparing student’s comprehension scores across harder and easier passages.

Example Applications of Lexile Results

  • Over time, you can track growth with the Lexile oral reading score.
  • If the Lexile oral reading measure is below the Lexile oral readability measure, then consider whether scaffolding can help your student to access the text.
  • To quickly group students based on their Lexile oral reading measure, open the Benchmark Matrix report and sort students by the Oral Reading Level column.

For more examples, see the NWEA community article.

Lexile Ranges for Each Grade Level

Use the following table if you are considering typical grade-level ranges for Lexile measures in English:

 

Grade Typical Lexile Oral Readability

Pre-K

Not applicable

K 110L – 430L
1 170L – 510L
2 460L – 700L
3 640L – 850L
4 790L – 1000L
5 840L – 1130L
6 and above Not applicable

 

See also: Lexile ranges associated with Progress Monitoring.