Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Lexile Score Question

I was looking at my DD's Standford tests and they list a Lexile scores. There was an anomaly that made be curious about Lexile scores and I was wondering if any of the testing geniuses might know the answer. Her 9th grade lexile (1330) is lower that her 6th grade lexile (1345). I'm not really concerned as her scores are solidly above grade level, but I find the drop in score in a three year period curious. It got me thinking about test variability and measurement error. It seems to me that a grade level test like the Stanford could only measure reading ability in a certain range. A 3rd grade stanford, for example, could not realistically access a reading level in the college level equivalents because it would not have the right questions. So the question is what lexile ranges are the grade level Stanford tests capable of testing?

I have only seen the ITBS, but from what I've seen, I would guess that what you're seeing with these 1300+ scores is an extrapolation, as I am quite sure I've never seen a reading passage that could possibly be higher than 1200 or so (and I've actually taken the ITBS as an adult up to the 10th grade level). I'm guessing that what you're seeing here is noise on the high end of the scoring.