phey,
From my observation, I have realized that the reading grade levels are a bit inflated for elementary. I have no idea about middle or higher grades. For ex: Flat Stanley is a good first grade\second grade level book but Scholastic is showing it as 4.4. May be because a lot of kids do not develop good decoding skills by that age( beginning reading in K), they may not have patience to read it on their own but I bet most of them will understand the book if its read to them.
I would assume that when people say their child is reading at a certain level, they might be looking at these numbers only.
And different kids have different strengths, one kid might be excellent in comprehension ( comprehending 4-5 grades higher) but not a fluent decoder, other might be a fluent decoder (reading complex words) but not comprehending at that level or both. The best way to judge his to observe your child and expose him to appropriate books at his level rather than going by the norms.
