SRI & the Common Core State Standards
The Common Core State Standards recommended that teachers build on students’ abilities by systematically exposing them to increasingly complex text.
SRI & Common Core
State Standards
Alignment
Download [PDF]
SRI provides an accurate measure of reading ability and text difficulty on a single vertical scale. With this clear and immediate view of what students can do and are positioned to learn next, educators can set rigorous goals, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards.
- The Common Core State Standards
- College and Career Readiness
- Stretch
Bands
Key Points of the
Common Core State Standards
How SRI Supports the Standards
College and Career Readiness
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) call for students to demonstrate a wide range of skills to read, understand, and evaluate texts from print and digital sources. This higher expectation will serve to help them navigate their personal and professional lives in the 21st century.
Scales of Text Complexity in SRI
- SRI allows educators to set goals based on SRI performance standards:
- Students meeting SRI Proficient Performance Standards are on the path to college and career readiness
- Students meeting the SRI Advanced Performance Standards are solidly on a trajectory for college and career readiness.
In addition to Lexile measures, SRI uses qualitative measures to help teachers ensure that their students are exposed to a diverse array of genres, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards
Read, Think, and Respond Critically to Increasingly Complex Information
The CCSS expect students to be exposed to increasingly complex texts.
SRI Empowers Students and Teachers by Evaluating Growth Trajectories with Accurate, Actionable Data
- SRI measures student growth on the Lexile Framework for Reading, a vertical scale of interpretable across all grade levels.
- SRI measures students’ reading growth over time.
- SRI provides actionable real-time data for goal-setting and differentiated instruction.
- SRI supports teachers in providing students with texts that provide an appropriate level of challenge, allowing students to systematically grow to higher levels of achievement.
Staircase of Increasing Text Complexity
The CCSS call for a carefully calibrated “staircase” of text complexity. Simply put, each student should be reading text that grows in complexity as the school year progresses, and grows in complexity from grade to grade.
Text complexity, as defined by the CCSS, has three dimensions:
Expose Students to Increasingly Complex Text with SRI
SRI facilitates the process of systematically exposing students to a staircase of increasingly complex text, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards.
- SRI provides fast and accurate benchmarking assessment for educators to set attainable goals toward college and career readiness.
- SRI assesses on passages of authentic literature that students will experience in text they read in school and in life.
- SRI supports a 50%-50% mix of fiction and nonfiction items.
Three Dimensions of Text Complexity QUANTITATIVE:
The Lexile Framework for Reading utilized in SRI is useful as a quantitative measure of text complexity because of its advantage of placing both readers (ability) and text (difficulty) on the same scale, thereby facilitating the matching of students with texts of appropriate complexity.
The Lexile Framework examines two features of text to determine its readability—semantic difficulty (determined by word frequency and sentence length) and syntactic complexity.
QUALITATIVE:
SRI uses the Lexile Framework for both qualitative and quantitative measures. Texts are also evaluated by reading purpose, format, and interest level.
These qualitative measures help teachers ensure that their students are exposed to a diverse array of genres, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards.
Learn more about the designations used in conjunction with Lexile measures to indicate special characteristics of texts.
READER AND TASK:
The Recommended Reading Report can be generated by students’ Lexile levels, grade ranges, and their stated reading interests. Suggested titles represent fiction and nonfiction selections from a frequently updated database.
The Recommended Reading List can be generated after each assessment. A similar list is available in Scholastic Reading Counts! and can be generated by students more frequently.
The Targeted Reading Report allows teachers to view the upper range of text complexity that students can manage, with support, in order to accelerate their reading growth.
Key Points of the
Common Core State Standards
How SRI Supports the Standards
Importance of Informational Text
The CCSS are informed by the NAEP framework, which reflects the increased importance of informational text for college and career readiness.
SRI Supports a 50%-50% Mix of Fiction and Nonfiction
To help teachers select informational texts, SRI uses qualitative designations in conjunction with Lexile measures to indicate special characteristics of texts.
- For instance, a text designated as Illustrated Glossary (“IG”) consists of independent pieces of text, such as in a glossary. “IG” texts typically contain some of the following characteristics:
- The definitions of words or their pronunciations are contained directly in the text.
- Technical vocabulary is printed in a contrasting type (e.g., bold, italic).
- Each topic is presented on one to two pages, with titles and/or captions for each paragraph.
- Illustrations are incorporated into the text.
Texts designated as “IG” are good resources when conducting research on an unfamiliar topic.
Increasing Opportunities for Independence
The CCSS expect students to demonstrate independence while becoming self-directed learners.
Students are Empowered to Read Independently with SRI
SRI makes reading growth clear and visible for students, propelling them to take ownership of their progress and build motivation to achieve a higher Lexile level.
Students can generate a Recommended Reading Report after each SRI assessment, narrowed by Lexile measure, grade range, and stated reading interests. Suggested titles represent fiction and nonfiction selections from a frequently updated database.
Students can also use their SRI data as a jumping off point for utilizing Book Expert Online to select new texts with the appropriate level of challenge. This searchable database provides information about books that are supported by Scholastic Reading Counts! quizzes . This easy-to-use database helps teachers, students, and parents locate the right title to read next.
Use Technology and Digital Media Strategically and Capably
The CCSS asks students to employ technology in their learning.
Computer-Based Assessment
SRI brings assessment into the 21st century with computer-based adaptive software. Students take each personalized SRI assessment entirely on the computer. The data is accessible in a variety of reports, so students and teachers can use technology to strategically monitor progress and set goals.
Key Points of the
Common Core State Standards
How SRI Supports the Standards
In literacy, developing college and career readiness refers to closing the gap between reading ability and the expected text demand associated with postsecondary life.
Recent research from MetaMetrics, an endorsing partner for the Common Core State Standards Initiative and the developers of the Lexile Framework, reveals:
- The text complexity of K–12 textbooks has become increasingly less rigorous over the last 50 years.
- The text demands of college and careers have remained consistent or increased over the same time period.
- The typical high school graduate may not possess sufficient reading skills to succeed in college or the workplace.
- The text demand for most postsecondary endeavors is about 1300L; the typical 12th grade text is at 1150L.
Visit the Lexile Framework website to learn more about this research.
Stretch Bands: Reading Targets for College and Career Readiness
SRI uses the Lexile measure for both reading ability and text difficulty to help teachers systematically match readers with texts of appropriate complexity, driving reading comprehension growth.
Exposing students to a “staircase” of increasingly complex texts is an instructional strategy that prepares students for the college and career readiness level. The new Stretch Proficiency bands are incremental targets starting with Grade 2 and continuing through Grade 12 to a Lexile measure of 1300L—the average difficulty of postsecondary texts found in first-year, credit-bearing college courses and in the work force, including military service.
The Stretch Proficiency bands are reading targets, not normative expectations. By stretching the current K–12 text continuum to the target of 1300L for Grade 12, we can prepare students by continually familiarizing them with texts they will have to stretch to reach, facilitating a process of steady growth.
