Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Usefulness of Lexile Measurements

Does anyone in the group have a perspective on the accuracy/usefulness of Lexile measurements for these groups of kids?

In general, if there are no learning disabilities such as dyslexia, a gifted child may have a higher lexile reading level.

The lexile.com website explains about lexile levels and grade equivalents, here.

Indigo I am familiar with the grade level equivalents. The question is most kids on these form are better than average readers. When you get a report showing that your kids are well above the average articulated is should not be surprising. The question what do you do with it?

There is a web site to access a database of books according to Lexile level, genre, and maybe some other categories.

My dd received her first Lexile score in 3rd grade (8yo). I don't remember the number right now, but it was very high. So I put in her score and the genre "humor" to see what would turn up in the database. I think there was only one book returned by the query, and it was a very long academic treatise on humor. LOL! My conclusion was that for our case, the Lexile score was not so useful -- dh and I got to be pretty good about finding (many, many!) books that matched her interests and depth needs.

We are strong proponents of the notion that in selecting books, child engagement is way more important than stretching their reading level. For our kids, the latter followed the former pretty much effortlessly. And yes, among other things, we read tons of humor below both our reading and maturity levels.

Great advice. Just as IQ is not the sole determinant for curriculum placement and pacing, a lexile number or grade-level reading equivalent is not the sole determinant for developing a reading list. In each case, the child's interests play a strong role in making optimal decisions.

Free online book selection databases include:
- Lexile Find-A-Book,
- Scholastic book wizard,
- Every Good Book (does not include Lexile Level... choose from broad reading level bands: Elementary, Middle School, Secondary/Adult).

When my younger son was first and second grade it wasn't upsetting to him to read a book with a lower lexile. If he was reading on his own time he would read stuff below, at or above his lexile. The problem was if it was a lower lexile and he was having to read it slowly with a group or the whole class. So at that age his goal was to read every Goosebumps book ever written (there are hundreds) and generally he could read them in one sitting. Now if the class was to take that same book and drag it out for two weeks---would have gone insane. So many times throughout elementary school it wasn't the lexile but the pace. Stone Fox....great book...good for him to read. But it was a short story to him and a novel to the other kids.

Lexile is only one measurement of reading ability. It's is based mostly on the difficulty of the vocabulary in the book. It's not based on the length of the book nor if it's interesting or age appropriate. Two books can be of the same Lexile level but be either entirely appropriate or not for your child. It can be helpful in finding more challenging material for your child, but I don't think it ever should be the only criteria for choosing a book. I can find you picture books that have the same Lexile level as 300 page novels.

Lexile is more useful in my option for early reader books. Books for average kids K-3rd grade. Once you pass a certain reading level I don't believe it's a very helpful criteria for choosing a book or setting up reading groups. My kids school did this years ago and quickly found it was untenable above 3rd grade. (We had many high readers and although it was a K-8 we didn't a have books in the school library appropriate for 4th graders that were at their lexile level.)

That said.. the question was "Does anyone in the group have a perspective on the accuracy/usefulness of Lexile measurements for these groups of kids?"

It can be useful to group kids in reading groups and I believe Lexile can be one of the criteria in early grades but it shouldn't be the only one. Relying too much on Lexile for choosing reading groups can miss important details. Lexile works fairly well for grouping emerging readers. But doesn't do a good job for those who pass a certain threshold.

Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with kids reading books above or below their Lexile level. In reading instruction, teachers try to find that level that is "just right" to push kids a bit but not overwhelm them. But for "fun" reading I don't believe kids should be restricted in this manner.

We pretty much had to chalk Lexile appropriateness up to the humor genre all by itself when we looked at what our 8yo "should" be reading, according to her Lexile level.

I drew the line with Flaubert. Appropriate Lexile or not, she was not reading Madame Bovary at eight.

In other words, while this kind of measure seems useful and helpful for many children, those who are less far from typical synchronous development tend to not have this be a very helpful measure of what is appropriate. Friends whose child is developmentally delayed have also found this to be a problem-- their high schooler is NOT particularly interested in reading about the adventures of four to seven year old children with their puppy... which is exactly the same problem that we faced. Or its mirror twin, I suppose.



So no. We did not find this particularly useful. Instead, we used her apparent interest level, and basically explained to DD that the best way to "grow" her literacy was to have her reading books that she had to THINK about-- those with longer, more complicated sentences, words that she had to figure out the meanings for, that kind of thing. That books like Captain Underpants and Magic Treehouse were fine-- but rather like Pringles potato chips-- tasty, but not an adequate complete diet.

She was very capable by 6 or 7y, of determining what an appropriate challenge looked like there. I stopped tracking it when she was about ten, and quit screening anything she read at about 11 or so. I did think that some of the things that she was reading at 9-13yo might have been a bit much, but she seemed to enjoy them, and she and I talked about them, book club style.

We are somewhat dealing with this issue - where DS6's reading level is quite high, but as his teacher said, the materials at his level are either not appropriate or interesting to him... and he is the only one in his class that high, so they have pulled him to one-on-one instead of placing him in a reading group that would bore him.

Since the gap between his writing and reading is quite large (writing is basically age-level), they are using this time to work on writing (for instance, using the book that he is reading in class as prompts for writing exercises). In cases where you have a child that is so wildly asynchronous - working on the areas where the gaps are significant between skills is probably a better focus than strict Lexile numbers. This is what DS's teacher is doing... so although they are working reading wise at his level, they are shifting focus to encourage more growth in the weaker areas.

In his own free time, he reads through the large book collection in the classroom (we are very fortunate that they have books for all levels up to chapter books even though his room are all 5-6 year olds) which he loves - in fact, the big problem we are facing is that he tends to ignore the world (including teachers, sigh) when he gets into a book (and it is like that at home which drives me batty - especially when he is naked, shivering - sitting next to jammies and reading because the book caught his eye instead of putting on his jammies).

Probably shouldn't tell you this, but DS 12 still does that. Pretty much every time.