Reporting Lexile Oral Reading Measures and Oral Readability Measures

Lexile oral reading measures describe a student’s ability to read aloud an English-language text of a known difficulty both fluently and accurately. Lexile oral reading measures are reported as a number followed by a capital “L” for “Lexile” 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 oral reading measures correspond with higher oral reading abilities. Measures range from below 0L for beginning reading ability (e.g., BR75L) to above 1500L for advanced oral reading ability.

To avoid over-interpretation of the measures, Lexile oral reading measures are rounded to the nearest 5L, with the highest measure being capped at 1200L.

For students with Lexile oral reading measures below 0L, the negative sign is replaced with a “BR” code (e.g., -100 is reported as BR100L). MetaMetrics expresses these as “Reported Lexile Oral Reading Measures” and recommends that these measures be reported on individual score reports.

As with any test score, uncertainty in the form of measurement error is present. If the purpose for using Lexile oral reading measures is research (e.g., to measure growth at the student, grade, school, district, or state level) and not for reporting to students or parents, then actual measures should be used at all score points, rounded to the nearest integer. 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., 83L, 117L). Standard maximum Lexile oral reading measures by grade may be provided in the future.

All Lexile oral readability measures produced by the Lexile oral readability analyzer are rounded to the nearest 10L. Measures range from below 0L (e.g., BR50L) for beginning oral readability passages to above 1200L for advanced oral readability passages. For texts with oral readability measures below 0L, the negative sign is replaced with a “BR” code, suggesting that these texts are designed for “beginner readers.”