When reading levels do not match up?

[MistyMountain]

I gave my older kids quick reading assessments to see where they are now and I will test them at the end of the summer. The tests do not seem to agree but they are giving me an idea where they are. My ds tested better then I thought he would but I have an Lexile level from his teacher that is waay lower. The level from her is lower then I know he is capable of and would be below grade level. The tests I gave him also all say different things.

 

I gave him the two on the A2Z site and the 40L screening.

[ElizabethB]

Different tests use different norms, also I find that boys typically do better on my 40L test than a test using sentences and girls do better on tests with sentences than the 40L test. I would give the NRRF test and see how that compares. Girls are better at guessing from context, it elevates their grade level above what they can read with words in isolation. Also, words in isolation seem to focus boy's attention better than the stories and sentences typically used for grade level tests, they do better when focused on individual words for some reason.

[Farrar]

If you're judging in part from the ratings that books have from Lexile, I find they're pretty far off from any sense of reality sometimes.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Farrar

[MistyMountain]

Different tests use different norms, also I find that boys typically do better on my 40L test than a test using sentences and girls do better on tests with sentences than the 40L test. I would give the NRRF test and see how that compares. Girls are better at guessing from context, it elevates their grade level above what they can read with words in isolation. Also, words in isolation seem to focus boy's attention better than the stories and sentences typically used for grade level tests, they do better when focused on individual words for some reason.

He did mixed on the NRRF test too but he did a little better on that then anything else. I noticed if he got one word wrong he was likely to get the one next to it wrong if it was a harder one. He got independent for 1st, 2nd and 4th and instructional for 3rd, 5th and 6th. This is huge progress for him though. He started the year struggling to read. He still has a ways to go with fluency but has made progress there too. He still does not read much on his own and he is a very weak speller. I did notice two patterns we will need to work on by going through this.

 

His teacher put his lexile level at mid 1st and none of the tests seem to indicate that.

 

I have not had a chance to have dd take the NRRF one yet. I really think Webster's will be good for both of them.

[Tsuga]

I would trust a professional over a teacher. A teacher must evaluate many children--he or she does not have time to spot small things like a lack of interest affecting a child's response, or some other issue affecting the child's responses. 

 

Also, if the teacher tested a few months ago--when it clicks it clicks, for some kids anyway. My daughter jumped three grade levels in three months when it clicked. So I'd go for the pro test not the teacher.

[MistyMountain]

I gave him the tests not a professional. He is doing much better then that when I hear him read aloud. He did jump in his reading level a lot recently and he would have a lack of interest reading something at a lower level. His only hurdle is fluency and the few little random holes he has. He still cannot read a lot of stuff he wants to but he is finally motivated to practice so he can.

[SKL]

Both of my kids' RL test scores (taken at school) fluctuate wildly.  I think the periodic ones that they do each grading period are done on computers.  Then there are the annual standardized tests, and in 3rd grade, the state reading proficiency tests.  There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind the fluctuations.  I'm guessing my advanced reader is often in a hurry to finish the test so she can read something worth reading.  :P  My slower reader is better at comprehension, so she will generally do better on comprehension-oriented tests than on decoding type tests.  Then it also depends on whether they are feeling well that day, whether they have to finish the test in order to participate in the next activity, etc.

 

I pretty much ignore all those reports / scores.  I know from working with my kids what they can do.

[EKS]

Those tests are just decoding tests.  They only give you a piece of the picture.

 

I'd have them take the DORA, which tests a much larger range of skills.  

 

The other way to estimate level is to use the books they can read fluently (so at average for grade level speed, accurately, and with comprehension).  Actually, I think this is the best way, but it takes some experience to do it well.

[AggieMama]

There are a lot of different variables in those test, especially how the school sees the scores. Some schools are really hung up on fluency. It also depends on the Reading passage the kid has to read. They are usually very boring and dry.

[MistyMountain]

I know those measure decoding level. Ds's comprehension level is higher then he can decode. He understands everything he reads even when his reading is not perfect. I need to look into fluency levels for his age because he is still a little slow but maybe he is ok. Dd is fine with fluency. I will be working on comprehension with dd with reading detective.

Edited May 23, 2016 by MistyMountain

[SarahW]

One way I found to get a "grade level" or lexile number for reading is ReadTheory.org. It is adaptive of a sorts, it throws out reading passages and comp questions and adjusts the difficulty up or down depending on how well you answer the questions. I would say you would need a kid to do a few passages a day over a week or two to see where the lexile score line flattens out at. I had my kid do it on the kindle so it was a bit more interesting - everything is more fun on the kindle.

 

It reports lexile and grade level, but also the scores on different sorts of questions, inferences, vocab, that sort of thing.

 

It ended up telling me exactly what I thought was going on. So that was good, I guess.