The Hell of School Lexile Ratings

Remember when reading could be a fun escape and not a strenuous chore that made your entire family have to jump through hoops?  I do.  However, many public schools have decided to destroy reading being a positive thing and are turning it into a nightmare – and more, needless stress on already anxiety-riddled students.

A while ago I wrote a blog on why Lexile levels are basically a made up and evil thing to thrust more work on the children while the teachers have to sit back and do nothing additional to force all this extra work.  You can find that post here:  https://tryingtomom.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/lexile-levels-the-new-way-schools-are-ruining-your-children/

To this day, I still ask my children’s teachers about how these books are scored and why the system seems to frivolously assign numbers to books – and, to this day, the teachers don’t have a straight answer.  They’ll tell me to “go online,” or something like that, which translates (in my mind) as “we have no idea, we’re just forced to force your child into this mess.”  I’ve even had friends who are teachers say Lexile levels are junk and no one, not even the Lexile company, can effectively explain them, or why the Lexile numbers will change on different, unedited prints of the same title.

TODAY, I’d like to share with you the process of helping a child with their reading homework in 2016.

1. The teacher will send home something that tells you how many books your child must test on in the quarter.  Your child can read any book in their Lexile level that has a corresponding A.R. test, so that the teachers never have to be bothered to create tests or grade papers again.  The number of books required tends to run about one book per week in our district.
2. Your school’s library will inevitably be “short” on books that are a) in your child’s Lexile level, b) have an online A.R. test available, and c) are age appropriate.  For example, my son’s Lexile puts him in with Anne Rice and Steven Hawkin – neither of which are appropriate for an 11-year-old.
3. In a desperate attempt to help your kid not fail their reading class, you go to Lexile.com to search for a book by Lexile and age range.  You also may need to sacrifice a small animal to their webmaster – because that search feature RARELY works on demand, and the Lexile levels are changed on books so often that you can’t trust lists you find on other websites.  Actually, it happens so much that many times the Lexile.com site will say one level, and the A.R. testing site will say another!  Prepare to be doomed no matter what!
4. Once you finally locate a list of books, you have to arbookfind.com and verify that any book you want has an online A.R. test.  If it does not, tracking that book down is a waste of your time, grade-wise.
5. If the book has an A.R. test, then you must go to the Renaissance Home Connect website, log in with your child’s school information, and make sure they haven’t already taken a test on the book you’re looking at now.  Please note, even though you can easily access all of this at home, the A.R. tests can only be accessed at school – meaning all the more stress on your child when the media center gets shut down randomly and they cannot test for days/weeks at a time while their deadline ticks away.  Totally fair, right?
6. Finally, kneel down and pray to any entity you think might help you – because now you have to track down the books.  I am very lucky, because our county library has an online system where I can see what they have, place holds, and special order books to be sent from other libraries.  Many others are not that fortunate and will have to go to the library and ask a librarian for help in finding or placing holds on the books you need.  HOPEFULLY, those books will arrive well before your child runs out of time.
7. Get the books in your hands, have your child read them, then watch as the school frivolously “upgrades” your kid to a higher Lexile level – leaving all the books you found worthless for their grade needs.

If you have a merciful teacher, they will count POINTS, not the number of tests taken.  I have heard such teachers exist, but I have yet to meet one.  If the points idea seems confusing:  a simple Mo Willems book (he writes Elephant and Piggie, and that weird little Pigeon guy) might be worth 0.5 points and have a Lexile of 50L, whereas one of the Harry Potter books comes up at 38.0 points and 1000L.

Obviously, if you read Harry Potter, you spent a lot more time on one book, just due to the number of pages alone – hence, more points.  However, when quantity is all that matters, the 5th grade kid who reads at the Mo Willems level will be able to read and take nine online tests significantly faster than the 5th grade child who reads Rowling.  It leaves the higher Lexile level holders at a disadvantage, if not a punishment (because one Harry Potter chapter will have more words than twenty Mo Willems books).  The kids who have to read longer, more challenging novels are still forced to read nine books in nine weeks, on top of all other schoolwork and state testing nonsense, and those kids are often stressed out beyond belief trying to meet their frivolously assigned reading goals.

Lexile levels just seem like the broken BFF of the Common Core system, and both need to get the heck out education!  Let individualized reading get out of the grading process and become a source of simple entertainment again!  Kids have to put up with a lot of crap at school, and they should have mental freedom coming from somewhere.

Lexile Levels – the New Way Schools are Ruining Your Children

Remember when you used to go to the library and independently select books that you found enjoyable?  There didn’t have to be any rhyme or reason to your choice, because it was a personal decision based on what books fulfilled your reading desires.  Are you aware that children today are now having their reading choices – their free time no less – put into a quota system and turned into more standardized testing?

I can’t state enough how much I hate the Common Core system and a new method of measuring our children that seems to go hand-in-hand with it – Lexile levels.

If you are lucky enough to not know what these are, Lexile levels are these numbers that get attached to book titles, and they are supposed to reflect the reading difficulty of that book, including issues such as comprehension and vocabulary.  Children take tests on a computer and a mathematical algorithm assigns them a Lexile measure.  The books are normally paired with A.R. tests on each book, which can only be done online at your child’s school (and the schools pay a HEFTY fee to access these online tests).  In theory, it sounds like a good idea, however, the entire rating process is very cloak and dagger, and, frankly, they system is sucking every ounce of joy that children can find through reading.

These tests also do not help our teachers create great lesson plans, or even require them to supervise that what a student reads is age appropriate.  The A.R. tests are just an excuse for teachers to not have to teach.  And, it’s not necessarily because the faculty doesn’t want to teach, it’s because they are being deemed too incompetent to help their own students, so standardizing a child’s reading progression through Lexile levels is now a forced part of the curriculum.

What’s worse is that this extra, unneeded stress is usually not for a classroom grade, but is still required to meet “reading goals” at school.  To take a test, children answer multiple choice questions to prove that they have read a book.  They instantly get a score, which translates to points or a quota demanded by the school, and bam – Reading class is handled on the students time instead of the schools!  Wow!

It’s also a way for school boards to be able to wash their hands of moving children up or down.  If an 8th grader can only read See Spot Run books, for example, well they’ll just label that student at that corresponding Lexile level and act like that’s helping them achieve greater reading success.  If a child in the 2nd grade is reading at the 12th grade level, well, no need to give them special classes or promote them up a few grades in school – just give them books in that Lexile Level!  Wonderful, right?

Since each child is measured to read within their given Lexile range (ie if you have a 600L measure, you will likely be given a 550-700 Lexile; a 900L measure may earn a student a 850-950, etc) the plan seems foolproof.  However, the Lexile and A.R. testing is too incorporated with the curriculum, and the children are restricted to using their “free time” reading for only books that match their testing needs.

For example, my son was scored to read from 900-1050L.  He went to the book fair and purchased a title that caught his interest.  Twenty or so pages from the end of the book, his teacher got worked up into a snit, and started demanding to know what the Lexile of that book was.  My son said he had no idea, but he bought it from the book fair at school, he was enjoying it, and it seemed like it was on par with his level.  Instead of letting him finish the book and move on, the teacher required my son to stop reading that title and to pick up a book in his Lexile level – solely for the sake of taking online tests so that the school can justify paying for the A.R. access (a charter school I toured said the access runs $10,000 a year per school).  So, for “free time” reading in the 4th grade, each student must read 2 books in his Lexile level, 2 science books, and 2 picture books each 9 week period.  In the 5th grade, each student must read 7 books in their Lexile measure.

That may not sound too out-of-control, but consider the different complexity of the books.  If the kid sitting next to you has a picture book Lexile measure, they have to read seven different See Spot Run books (again, just an example of a commonly known picture book title).  Even though that child has a lower Lexile level and may struggle to read about Spot, the low amount of pages, words, and content in the book will let a child with a low level finish at least a book a day.

But what if you’re a good reader who is progressing steadily?  You have to meet the same classroom requirements by reading 7 thick novels.  Even if you are a great, advanced reader, chances are you are going to start spending all of your free time furiously reading to make that quota during a 9-week school cycle.

Depending on the student’s age, kids may very well be punished for having strong reading skills.  At my son’s schools, his Lexile for the 5th grade is 900-1050, which excludes him from almost every book title that is deemed as a 5th grade book/reading level.  Even more disturbing is that his Lexile level also excludes him from many high school/adult books, such as Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, and even most of Shakespeare.  Apparently, having dialogue in a book will steadily lower it’s Lexile level, which makes me worry that, by the time my son gets into middle school, his Lexile measure will be so high that boring, dry college textbooks will be all that’s left to him.  And when I try to bring this up to the teacher, she tells me their only goal is for his Lexile level to rise over the year.

That issue brings me to the biggest flaw of the Lexile/A.R. testing issue – the way that these books are rated makes no sense, and the score assigned to books often differs between Lexile.com and the A.R. testing site (which supposedly gets its scores from Lexile.com).  No one can explain this inconsistency, not even the teachers, not even the principals, not even the school board.  Which, of course, a system full of flaws and confusion should definitely be taking over our children’s reading education, right?

Here are some examples of my own research on https://lexile.com/ :

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck – my favorite book, and, while it can be quite emotional and mature in it’s nature, it has historically been approved for high school level reading and is a fairly simple read.  Lexile is 1530L

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking – generally known to be a college level book about the universe, written by one of the greatest scientific minds of all time.  Lexile is 1290L.

For anyone unfamiliar with the scores, the higher the number, the harder the book should be to understand. Somehow, reading a narrative about a Chinese man’s life should not rate at a higher difficulty than a factual book about how the universe works.  Just saying…

Other examples include:

Fellowship of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien – since we’ve all likely seen the movie, I will just say that the text is pretty dense and long winded in places.  It’s also filled with made up names, locations, and characters/words that are not part of daily conversation in real life.  Most appropriate for middle school or older readers (due to more complex plots and themes).  Lexile 860L.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – a lot of pages, a lot of unusual names and terms, but overall it is considered to be an easy ready for ages eight and up (although a good bit darker toned than previous books).  Lexile 1030L.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl – a simply written children’s book about touring a magical-esc candy factory.  Lexile 810L.

Meet Julie by Megan McDonald – an American Girl book with a cute, very simply written story line that is easily understandable to most children.  Lexile 770L.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton – the adult level book that sparked the film phenomenon.  Lexile is 710L (the usage of Dinosaur names alone should let this book rate higher than the previous two listed!).

The Lost World by Michael Crichton – the adult level sequel to the Jurassic Park novel.  Lexile 670L.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie – I read this in the 11th grade, it’s a murder mystery that takes some moderate comprehension skills to keep tracks of the clues.  Lexile 570L.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney – an elementary to possibly middle school level book.  Very simple read, and loads of pictures in the book.  Lexile 1060L.

Clifford for President by Mark McVeigh – a Clifford the Big Red Dog picture book that is listed at 32 pages.  Lexile is 540L, just 30 points lower than Agatha Christie’s adult level/themed novel.

Hopefully that’s a wide enough range that you can see what’s wrong with this picture.

Essentially, the Lexile brand throws numbers, fairly arbitrarily, onto book titles, then sells a test so that school’s can supposedly tell where a students Lexile level is at.  Then Lexile sells you a program so that you can test your students on how well they can take a multiple choice test on approved books.  This seems like some backroom deal to make a private company billions of dollars a year…

Honestly, this system didn’t initially strike me as odd.  Everything is getting standardized, children are not allowed to make choices or think independently, and, at first, the Lexile requirements seemed to make sense.  Then I went to tour the local charter school.  During the tour a parent asked about A.R. testing, and the Vice Principal proclaimed that they did not use that method because it was insanely expensive and discouraged many children from being able to read for enjoyment.  Yes, yes I can certainly see that happening first hand myself!  The lack of information or accountability for these scores, and the fact that teachers want their students to progress regardless of what age-appropriate titles are available in a Lexile measure, proves that this is one more broken system that will not help American children be better at anything.

Loot Create Feburary 2015 Unboxing

Okay, so subscription services are becoming more and more popular lately.  If you’ve found yourself completely lost already – the services I’m referring to are where a company boxes up a number of surprise and/or exclusive items and mails them directly to your house.  They make them for all kinds of things now, but the “geek subscription boxes” seem to have the most services available, and are one of the fastest growing markets.

A little 4-1-1 basics:

• You have no say-so on the items.  So you may end up with things you do not want, you may get awesome gems that you love, or you could get exposed to something you never knew about that you end up adoring.  It is a bit of a gamble, but typically the exclusive items make it worth the effort.
• The retail value of what you get is supposed to be well above what you pay for the box – usually around double what you pay for the box.  Keep in mind, that double is when you find a comparable item in a retail store.  The resell value of subscription service items on eBay or Amazon can be much lower since everyone on the subscription service will get the same items.
• This is not a good service for picky consumers.  Items in boxes may not be identical.  For example, if there is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure in a box, you may end up with Rafael (the red-masked one), while a box down the street gets Donatello (the purple one), and so on.  Again, you can’t pick, and items like this are randomly inserted, so it is what it is.
• This was a gift subscription that my son requested from my parents, but be aware that Loot Crate, and many other, similar subscription services, are NOT designed for children.  They are primarily aimed at older teens and adults, and while my son is only 10, I don’t particularly have a problem if he opens a box and finds some gory figurine or a download code for a violent/adult game.  If that is an issue for you, please investigate a service in detail before signing up.
• The last important tidbit that I can think to mention is that most of these services are by automatically renewing subscriptions.  Which means, if you order a one month subscription to try a service out – don’t forget to cancel or else you will be billed again!  The same goes for a 3, 6, or 12 month subscription – cancel after your last box arrives, or else you’ll get billed for a 3, 6, or 12 month subscription, respectively, all over again.

Okay, with the nuts and bolts out of the way, let me share with you my son’s unboxing video for the February 2015 Loot Crate box. This is my son’s first ever subscription box, so we had no real idea what to expect, and I believe every item was something foreign to him, but he seemed pretty happy with everything overall.

I apologize for the less-than-spectacular audio/visual qualities of the film.  We tried using the $20 “HD” camcorders that we found from Walmart around Black Friday.  They are not up to par with my Sony camera, but, unfortunately, you can only truly unbox something once.  Next month we will have this down a lot better! 🙂