Reporting Lexile Reading Measures

Lexile reading measures describe a student’s ability to read and comprehend text. Lexile reading measures are reported as a number followed by a capital “L” and are placed on the Lexile scale. There is no space between the measure and the “L” and measures of 1,000 or greater are reported without a comma (e.g., 1050L). Higher Lexile reading measures correspond with higher reading comprehension abilities. Measures range from below 0L for beginning readers (e.g. BR75L) to above 1500L for advanced readers.

All Lexile reading measures should be rounded to the nearest 5L to avoid over-interpretation of the measures.

For example, if:

A Lexile reading measure for a student is 572, it should be reported as 570L.
A Lexile reading measure for a student is 577, it should be reported as 575L.

For students with Lexile reading measures below 0L, the negative sign is replaced with “BR” to signify that the measure represents a “Beginning Reader.” For example, a Lexile measure of -100L would be reported as BR100L.

As with any test score, uncertainty in the form of measurement error is present; if uncertainties (i.e., numeric representations of measurement precision) are to be reported, the values should be rounded to the nearest whole number and include a trailing “L” after the number (e.g., 90L, 114L). For additional information, please see the MetaMetrics, Inc. Marketing and Branding Guidelines document.

The measures that are reported for an individual student should reflect the purpose for which they will be used. If the purpose is accountability (at the student, school, or district level), then actual measures should be reported at all score points. If the purpose is instructional, the scores should be capped at the upper bound of measurement error (e.g., at the 95th percentile point). In an instructional environment where the purpose of the Lexile reading measure is to appropriately match readers with books, no student should receive a negative Lexile reading measure. Therefore measures of 0L or below are reported as “BRxxxL” for “Beginning Reader.”

This table provides reporting caps by grade and course for English-language and Spanish-language Lexile reading measures:

Table 1. Standard Lexile reading measures reported caps by grade and course
Grade	Lexile	Spanish Lexile	ELA Course
Lowest	BR400L or BR1300L*	BR
K	850L	750L
1	900L	850L
2	1100L	900L
3	1200L	1100L
4	1300L	1200L
5	1400L	1300L
6	1500L	1350L
7	1600L	1400L
8	1700L	1450L
9	1725L	1500L	English I
10	1750L	1500L	English II
11	1800L	1500L
12	1825L	1500L

Note: The BR lower bound cap is determined by the description of the construct being measured and the presence of foundational reading items. MetaMetrics will confirm which lower bound BR cap should be used with the scoring service.

Some assessments report a Lexile reading range for each student, which is 50L above and 100L below the student’s actual Lexile reading measure. This range represents the boundaries between the easiest kind of reading material for the student and the level at which the student will be more challenged, yet can still read successfully.

All Lexile text measures produced by the Lexile text analzyer are rounded to the nearest 10L. Measures range from below 0L (e.g. BR50L) for beginning text to above 1600L for texts. For texts with Lexile text measures below 0L, the negative sign is replaced with a “BR” code indicating that these are “Beginner Reader” texts.