college readiness and reading proficiency: using lexiles to investigate reading gaps in texas...
TRANSCRIPT
College Readiness and Reading
Proficiency: Using Lexiles to
Investigate Reading Gaps in
Texas
Presented by:
Commission for a College Ready Texas
Houston - June 18, 2007
Regional Educational Laboratory - Southwest
Eric Rolfhus, Ph.D.Senior Researcher
Edvance Research, Inc.
June 18, 2007 1
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 2
Why Lexiles?
As requested by the Commission as part of ELAR gap analysis:
Identifying gaps between TEKS and
“Reading demands associated with Lexile analysis and measures of text complexity and comprehensibility”
• A Lexile is a widely used measure of Reading Comprehension Difficulty
• MetaMetrics has conducted research on different populations of texts
June 18, 2007 3
TAKS performanceequated to Lexiles
Lexiles available on student reports
Lexiles available from most test publishers
Lexiles available for many textbook and curriculum
materials
(from TEA; http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/lexile/index.html)
Edvance Research, Inc.
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 4
How is a Lexile Calculated?
• A regression equation was developed based on thousands of texts.
• Think FICO (credit score) formula(credit risk prediction from an equation)
• Two factors included in the Lexile formula
Word FrequencyLength of Sentence
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 5
Workplace Lexiles (from MetaMetrics, 2007 & Williamson, 2006a)
200 = 1st grade
1123 = 11-12th grade texts
1355 = 1st Year College texts
Forklift Operations Manual 890Adobe PhotoShop 5.0 Tutorial 1080Fine Homebuilding Magazine 11502008 Cadillac Eldorado Brochure 1150Attendance Policy for Hourly Employees 1210Federal Form W-4 1260Free Application for Federal Student Aid 1270Aetna U.S. Healthcare - Open Choice PPO 1280U.S. Dept. of Justice (INS) - Employment Eligibility Verification 1340
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 6
Newspaper Lexiles
(from MetaMetrics, 2007 & Williamson
2006a) 200 = 1st grade
1123 = 11-12th grade texts
1355 = 1st Year College texts
Miami Herald 1200USA Today 1200Chicago Sun-Times 1210New York Daily News 1230San Francisco Examiner 1230San Jose Mercury 1230New York Post 1280Washington Times 1290Associated Press 1310Chicago Tribune 1310Wall Street Journal 1320Los Angeles Times 1330Washington Post 1350UPI 1370Bloomberg 1380New York Times 1380Reuters 1440
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 7
Comparing Text Difficulty and Person Ability
PersonAbility
TextDifficulty
750 750
1000
1250
500
250
ExpectedComprehension
Rate
25%
50%
75%
90%
95%
1000
1250
500
250
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 8
What does Comprehension-Rate mean?
This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it, or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson as she entered the prison-door, we shall not take upon us to determine.
- The Scarlet Letter (1400L)
Cloze item: The rose-bush serves as a vibrant ______ for this tale.
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 9
Lexiles Chart – Handout
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 10
Estimates of Reading Demands by Setting(from Williamson, 2006a)
Number oftexts used inthis estimate
25 50 75 955
Percentile
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 11
Reading Demands in SecondaryAnd Beyond
(from Williamson, 2006a)
June 18, 2007 Slide 12
Standard:2100 TAKS1015 Lexile
Higher Ed:2200 TAKS1170 Lexile
Commended:2400 TAKS1490 Lexile
TAKS Performanc
e Standards Overlay on
Text Demands
(adapted from Williamson, 2006a)
7
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. Slide 13
TAKS-Lexile Midpoints By Grade(ELA - April 2005 Administration)
TAKS ELA StandardPerformanceLevel (1015 L)
TAKS ELA Higher Education
Readiness (1170 L)
Grade
Lexile
TAKS ELACommended
(1490 L)
8
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. Slide 14
April 2005 TAKS ELA Scaled Scoreswith Lexile and Performance Standard
Overlay (N=230,147)
# of
stu
dent
s at
T
AK
S s
core
Lev
el
TAKS Scaled Score
9
Higher-EdReadiness+
71%
Standard+85%
Commended+16%
Text for Grades 11-12
76%
Community College
41%
1st/2nd Year of College
35.5%
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 15
Conclusions
• This gap (HS 4-yr College) appears to be built-in to typical high-school reading levels
• University-level reading demands fall between TAKS Commended and Higher Education Readiness performance levels
• TAKS Commended performance level lines up to about 75th percentile of university reading demands.
• Only about 36% of those completing the TAKS in April 2005 are reading at a Lexile level that matches demands of college
(at a 75% comprehension level)
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 16
Further ResearchExamine Student Longitudinal Lexiles
(from Williamson, 2006b)
Actual Data
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 17
Longitudinal Lexiles (Comparing NC longitudinal to TX cross-sectional)
Grade
Lexile
1st/2nd YearCollege
CommunityCollege
NC, TXNAEP 2005
Results4th/8th Grade
Nearly Identical
June 18, 2007 Edvance Research, Inc. 18
Willamson, G. L. (2006a). Student Readiness for Postsecondary Endeavors. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), San Francisco, CA.
Willamson, G. L. (2006b). Aligning the Journey with the Destination. Durham, NC: MetaMetrics, Inc.
References