How to Understand Your Child’s Reading Level Scores

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What does this reading level number mean?

If you have ever said something to the effect of: “My child’s teacher said I have to look for books that are Level G/800/480/14/insert-other-system-here,” then this is your guide to understanding the dreaded reading level designation. Because who knows what a reading level J means anyways, right? Right.

All the reading level scores your child has ever received are determined by whatever particular company your child’s school is using. The most common systems are Lexile, Developmental Reading Assessment, Accelerated Reader and Guided Reading Level. Ask what system the school is using to see if that is the best fit for your child. Scores are determined by reading fluency tests and teacher assessment and will determine what kinds of books your child should be reading.

Once you understand what the reading level score means, read this post to find a Just Right book for your child, and how to always pick the right books.

Lexile Scores 5L-2000L

Lexile determines reading level based on “semantic difficulty” and “syntactic complexity” which is a fancy way of saying sentence length and word frequency. Books with short sentences that repeat the same words will have a lower score than a book with longer sentences and more varied or unique words. If your student has a Lexile score they have either taken a school-administered reading test that is designed to measure a Lexile score, or they have taken a state-standardized test that converts a reading score into a Lexile measure.

The Lexile number is shown with an L after a number, so if your child scored an 800L then they have an 800 Lexile. The range is from 5L at the lowest to 2000L at the highest; anything below a 5L is listed as BR or Beginning Reader. What is perhaps unique about the Lexile program is that they have also provided testing for reading comprehension in Spanish, as well as an audio comprehension score.  Because of the high range in scores, this evaluation can be used up through high school. If you aren’t sure about a book’s Lexile number, you can search for it on their website database.

DRA Scores A1-80

If instead of a large L number your child came home with a more humbly sized number, your child may have been given a Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). The DRA is an actual test, rather than a level determined from a larger standardized test, usually administered individually to determine a child’s reading abilities.

The test measures different skill sets required for reading and reading comprehension. It includes skills like rhyming, alliteration, segmentation, letter naming, reading word lists, vocabulary, spelling, using context clues, analogies, understanding sentence and paragraph structure and reading aloud. The test is scored A1 (for very young readers) through 80, with of course the higher number indicating a higher reading level. The test is given annually or semi-annually depending on the needs of the child to keep up with their progress.

The score is a benchmark that indicates things children with that grade level should be able to do. For example, a student who scores between a 3 and 10 is in a range that can do some independent reading, and is beginning to recognize high frequency words, while someone who scores in a level 28 to 44 can read independently, fluidly, and longer without losing track of the story.

Testing information is usually gathered near the end of the grading period to determine if students are reading on track for their grade level.

AR Scores 0-13.5

Accelerated Reader (AR) is an online program used by many schools; it helps to monitor your child’s reading level and like any other reading level program, it is used to help students find reading level appropriate books. After finishing a book, students take a short quiz about it to determine if they understood the material or not. The main draw of this program’s format is that it allows students to choose independently what they would like to read.

Students use the Accelerated Reader database to input the AR level they are using and perhaps a few things they are looking for, and the database will spit out books at that level. Reading level is determined largely by the teacher and a fifteen-minute multiple-choice assessment test. The score corresponds to the skill level expected at a particular grade, for example, a score of 3.5 indicates a reading level of someone five months into third grade. A second grader with a score of 3.5 would be reading a year above their grade level. Students are then assigned books within a range of their score and encouraged to spend thirty minutes a day reading outside of school.

The idea of why this system could be successful is it provides students a range of books they should be successful, however in practice students with AR scores are more concerned about these scores than students with any other scoring system, because they are usually required (or even restricted) to read in a certain category.

This means that kids who could challenge themselves to read above a specific level may not because it is not required. Depending on the school, it is even possible they are only allowed to read within a certain category in order to get class credit. Or those students who have a range will choose to read at the bottom of the range rather than at the top.

The required quizzes may also be of concern if your child has test anxiety or is neurodivergent. The AR quizzes usually ask for memorized facts and information about the book, rather than comprehension of the whole message, which may be an issue for some students. One concession to the neurodivergent and bilingual is that the tests are available as audio or in Spanish if that is what your child needs.

If this is the testing format your child’s school uses it is important that the teacher is aware of your child’s reading level, abilities and any other requirements, as so much of this system is dependent on the teacher’s assessment of your child. If this is of concern, please speak to the teacher about the reading level your child received or if there is an alternate scoring system you may consider together to enhance your child’s reading experience.

Guided Reading Level A-Z

This system is used by both Scholastic and Fountas and Pinnell, they are not exactly interchangeable for each other but are very similar and for our purposes listed here together. They both use the alphabet to provide a range based on grade. The idea being that within this range you can better tailor your child’s reading needs. Books are assigned levels as well as the student, which is again based largely on teacher assessment.

This system generally only goes up to about sixth grade, perhaps not even that far depending on the skill of the reader, as opposed to DRA which can extend potentially as far as eighth grade, and Lexile measure which can extend into high school. Based on knowing your child’s GRL letter and the level of the book you can select a range of books that would be appropriate for their reading level.

This is something you will want to monitor however, because as with AR levels it is largely dependent on the teacher’s assessment of your child’s reading. Like the rest of the systems, this too will require that you know what “level” the book is, as well as the student.

What about letters or numbers that come printed on some books?

You may see short books labelled in the corners with a helpful “Level 1” or something similar. This is called a “Publisher’s Grade Equivalent” and effectively means nothing in relation to a tested reading level. There is no regulation between publishers about what should be a level one, two or three.

It will generally indicate that a level one book is the most simplistic while a level three book might be more complex, with a few more words per page. Most tested assessments would rank all of these books in a similar category. You would do better to work with a librarian, teacher or database to choose a book with your child.

Download our free Reading Level Chart below, to compare reading level scores.


*This is, of course, a general guide and is not meant to diagnose. If you have concerns about your child’s behavior or development please be sure to speak with a medical professional, your child’s physician or teacher.

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