Isn't what a child actually reads, or does, more of a determining factor of their grade level, not what they may have been assessed at?
No, I don't think so because of the limitations in available reading material. There may be a child who wants nothing more than stories about safe happy stories about signing frogs written at a high school level but it doesn't mean those books exist. Like a lot of parents here we spent tons of time scouring library lists trying to find that odd old book that was emotionally young but intellectually challenging. Those sorts of books were our child's favorite, but that wasn't what he read the majority of the time because there simply wasn't enough of them.
Overall, I think the focus on grade level is probably not really helpful. Kids can be at more than one grade in the same subject and probably most are.
