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Among the Impostors

Lexile Measures

A child’s grade level and reading ability are two different things. That’s why a Lexile® measures the child’s ability based on reading comprehension, not grade level. A Lexile measure (e.g., 850L) is the most widely adopted measure of reading ability and text difficulty. Lexile measures are valuable tools that help educators, parents and children select books that will provide the right level of challenge for the child’s reading ability—not too difficult to be frustrating, but difficult enough to encourage reading growth. The Lexile measure of a book is based on word frequency and sentence length, and is displayed on SimonandSchuster.com. The higher the Lexile measure, the more difficult the text is likely to comprehend, and vice-versa.

Please note: A Lexile measures text difficulty only. It does not address the subject matter or quality of the text, age-appropriateness of content, or the child’s interests. Parents are encouraged to preview all reading materials.

Guide to Lexile Codes