2013
DOI: 10.1002/pits.21740
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Can Readability Formulas Be Used to Successfully Gauge Difficulty of Reading Materials?

Abstract: A grade level of reading material is commonly estimated using one or more readability formulas, which purport to measure text difficulty based on specified text characteristics. However, there is limited direction for teachers and publishers regarding which readability formulas (if any) are appropriate indicators of actual text difficulty. Because oral reading fluency (ORF) is considered one primary indicator of an elementary aged student's overall reading ability, the purpose of this study was to assess the l… Show more

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Cited by 65 publications
(41 citation statements)
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“…The 8-item multiple-choice numeracy scale for upper elementary students had a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level index of 4.2, and the 11-item numeracy scale for middle school students had a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level index of 6.8. Though this formula is considered a coarse estimate of reading level (Begeny and Greene 2014) these results suggest that the readability levels are suitably matched to the targeted grade levels. The reliability estimates for the levels of the numeracy scale were evaluated.…”
Section: The California Critical Thinking Skills Test -M Seriesmentioning
confidence: 92%
“…The 8-item multiple-choice numeracy scale for upper elementary students had a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level index of 4.2, and the 11-item numeracy scale for middle school students had a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level index of 6.8. Though this formula is considered a coarse estimate of reading level (Begeny and Greene 2014) these results suggest that the readability levels are suitably matched to the targeted grade levels. The reliability estimates for the levels of the numeracy scale were evaluated.…”
Section: The California Critical Thinking Skills Test -M Seriesmentioning
confidence: 92%
“…This grade level means that a person should have at least completed a certain grade (number of years) of school education to be able to fully understand the information. Text creators often resort to "simplifying" the texts by using shorter words and/or sentences in the hope that this would make for more "readable" texts (Begeny & Greene 2014). To complicate matters, South Africa, a middle-income country, is affected by the impact of the contextual factors discussed above.…”
Section: Total: N=15mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…These formulas incorporate many text factors in order to calculate the equivalent US grade level that matches the readability score of certain text. These factors include average sentence length, average word length, number of syllables per word, and different combinations of these factors which are greatly differ from one formula to another [7].…”
Section: Related Workmentioning
confidence: 99%