Assessment

Smarter Balanced Assessments to Offer Lexile, Quantile Measures

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 11/16/16

MetaMetrics is partnering with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to link the Lexile Framework for Reading and the Quantile Framework for Mathematics to the Smarter Balanced online assessment system.

As a result of the partnership, Smarter Balanced members will be able to report student ability in Lexile and Quantile measures in an effort to better connect students to instructional materials appropriate for their abilities.

Lexile and Quantile measures are designed to measure student ability and instructional materials on the same scale. The Lexile Framework matches student reading abilities with text complexity and the Quantile Framework measures math ability with the complexity of math concepts and skills in learning resources.

The measures also "compare and describe the reading and mathematical demands of careers," according to a news release. "Hundreds of content publishers provide Lexile measures for their books or reading products. Over a million books, articles and websites have received Lexile measures. On the mathematics side, more than 600 textbooks and software programs totaling over 80,000 lessons have been calibrated to the Quantile scale. Educators, students and parents may use Lexile and Quantile measures to find books, instructional resources and activities that can improve a student's understanding of the content."

"The power of the Lexile and Quantile Frameworks is the ability to make test scores actionable," said Malbert Smith III,CEO, president and cofounder of MetaMetrics, in a prepared statement. "Lexile and Quantile measures can be used by educators, librarians, students and parents to improve instruction and learning by matching students with targeted resources given their reading or mathematics level."