The Scholastic Reading Measure
The Scholastic Reading Measure is a computer-adaptive test (CAT) developed by Scholastic Inc. and MetaMetrics ® that can be used by teachers and students to determine students’ reading levels, as indicated by resulting Lexile ® measures. Lexile measures are also routinely used to indicate the difficulty of a book or other text in a unique way that is not tied directly to a student’s grade level. The two, when used together, can be informative in instructional settings because Lexile measures guide teachers to identify and recommend books, articles, and short reads that will be at the right level for their students’ independent reading. Independent reading is a strong contributor to students’ reading achievement and helps them become proficient and advanced readers (Allington, 2014; Allington & Gabriel, 2012). One measure of students’ progress as readers is that they are able to read more and more complex texts—and do so on their own. A student logging into the Reading Measure begins with a brief tutorial and one practice question. Next, the student begins the measure with a few questions at grade level.² The student then progresses through approximately 33 short reading passages, followed by a series of corresponding multiple-choice questions. A student’s performance on each question determines whether the difficulty level of the next passage is lowered or becomes increasingly challenging. The Reading Measure continues to present passages and corresponding questions until a level of certainty is reached about a student’s Lexile measure or the maximum number of questions per administration (33) have been answered.
2 Prior to students taking the Reading Measure , educators can set different parameters, such as a benchmark (choosing beginning, middle, or end of year) and teacher appraisal (choosing below, on, or above grade level). Depending on the parameters that educators set for each student, the Lexile measure of the first question a student receives will vary.
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SCHOLASTIC RESEARCH & VALIDATION
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