Lexile Levels and Reading: Getting Started

A Lexile score is a standard score that matches a student’s reading ability with the difficulty of the reading material.

When reader's score and that of the reading material are the same, the student is expected to read with 75% comprehension – difficult enough to be challenging without undue frustration and to encourage reading progress.

Scores range from 200 to 1700.

Lexile measures are a measure of text difficulty. They do not address age-appropriateness, student interest or the quality of the text.

• The Lexile measure (text complexity) of a book is an excellent starting point for a student’s book selection.
• It’s important to understand that the book’s Lexile measure should not be the only factor in a student’s book selection process.
• Lexile measures do not consider factors such as age-appropriateness, interest, and prior knowledge. These are also key factors when matching children and adolescents with books they might like and are able to read.
• Lexile codes provide more information about developmental appropriateness, reading difficulty, and common or intended usageof books.

Tell us your Lexile measure, and find books you’d like to read!

The ideal for both reader and text is to match both their assessed Lexile measure. For example a book or magazine with a 770L and a reader assessed at a Lexile level of 770. The reading levels per classroom are wide-ranging and varied. There are many factors that go into matching a student to his or her ideal text. The Lexile Framework is a good place to start in picking the right book at the right Lexile level as it targets areas in need of intervention and encourages achievement across grade levels and curricula.