Assessing readability through a website or using a readability formula can give the classroom teacher a general idea of the level of a reading passage. It is just that, a general idea. There is wide discrepancy between the formula used and the results. In addition, a readability formula does not take into account the student’s motivation for reading and interest, or background knowledge. Furthermore, formulas do not take into account the organization (or lack of) in a passage. Keeping those concerns in mind, taking a look at the readability of a passage is often beneficial for a student. Two of my favorite websites for electronic readability are Automatic Readability Checker (readability formulas.com) and Lexile Framework for Reading.

These seven formulas are available from the website by entering one passage and clicking a button.

Automatic Readability Checker

This website allows you to check readability using seven readability formulas with typing a passage one time. Below is a list of the formulas with a brief description of how they are computed.

The Flesch Reading Ease Formula

This formula has been around since 1948 and has been the standard formula used by many US Government agencies. The Flesch Reading Ease Score is based on the average sentence length and the average number of syllables per word. Using the formula will result in a number between 0 and 100. Readability is based on the following chart:

0-30, Easily understood by college graduates.

30-49, Difficult

50-59 Fairly Difficult

60-69, Easily understood by 8th and 9th graders

70-79, Fairly Easy

80-89, Easy

90-100, Easily understood by the average 5th grade

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level

This is a second version of the above formula, improved on by John P. Kincaid. It produces grade-level scores

The Gunning-Fog Formula

Robert Gunning believed many reading difficulties were actually writing problems, and worked with newspapers and magazines to help them write clearly without unnecessary complexity. The formula uses a weighted average based on the average number of words per sentence and the number of long words.

The SMOG Readability Formula

The SMOG readability formula looks at 10 sentences in the beginning, 10 in the middle, and 10 at the end of 30 sentences. Words with three or more syllables are counted and based on their formula, a conversion chart determines an appropriate grade level from 5th grade to post college graduate.

The Coleman-Liau Readability Formula

This formula is different because it counts the number of characters per word. The sample size needs to be 300 words and using the computer formula, a grade level readability score is determined. The formula works for non-English texts as well as those  written in English. Although the score with non-English texts is not directly applicable to grade level equivalency, it does allow the comparison between texts.

Automated Readability Index

The Automated Readability Index is based on a ratio of word difficulty (determined based on number of letters per word) and sentence difficulty (based o the number of words per sentence). The website breaks down the results as follows;

• 5-6 yrs. old — Kindergarten
• 6-7 yrs. old — First Grade
• 7-8 yrs. old — Second Grade
• 8-9 yrs. old — Third Grade
• 9-10 yrs. old — Fourth Grade
• 10-11 yrs. old — Fifth Grade
• 11-12 yrs. old — Sixth Grade
• 12-13 yrs. old — Seventh Grade
• 13-14 yrs. old — Eighth Grade
• 14-15 yrs. old — Ninth Grade
• 15-16 yrs. old — Tenth Grade
• 16-17 yrs. old — Eleventh grade
• 17-18 yrs. old — Twelfth grade
• 18-22 yrs. old – College

To use all of the above formulas at a time, simply copy the text to evaluate into the text box on the website (no sign in required) and check the box indicating you are human. In a matter of seconds a list of results will appear.

These readability formulas are available on the site but require separate entry to access the passage.

The Linear Write Readability Calculator

The US Air Force developed this formula to assess their technical manuals.  A 100 word sample is used. The number of “easy” words (2 syllables or less) and the number of hard words (3 syllables or more) are multiplied by 1 (for easy words) and 3 (for hard words). These two numbers are added together then divided by the number of sentences. If the answer is larger than 20 your answer is divided by 2. If the answer is less than 20 you subtract 2 and then divide by 2.

Fry Graph Readability Calculator

This graph-based test determines levels from primary through college grade levels based on the number of sentences and syllables in  randomly chosen 100-word passage. The site plots these points on the Fry Graph producing a readability level. It is often used in the healthcare industry.

Raygor Estimate Graph Calculator

The Raygor Graph uses a formula to determine readability based on the average number of sentences and letters in 100 words.It was developed by Alton Raygor and is very similar to the Fry Readability graph.

Dale-Chall Readability Calculator

Creators of this formula were Edgar Dale a(education professor at Ohio State) and Jeanne Chall (founder of Harvard Reading Laboratory and advocate for phonics instruction). This formula compares the “hard” words found in a passage against a list of words (3000 in the revised version) to determine if they are on a list of words familiar to most fourth grade students. Based on a formula an adjusted score is converted to a grade level which spans from grade 4 and below to college graduate.

A breakdown of the analysis is available by selecting SHOW WORD STATISTICS.

Spache Readability Calculator

This formula is very similar to the Dale-Chall with lists of words students at third grade and below do not recognize. It should be used for texts equivalent to third grade or below.

Powers-Sumner-Kearl Readability Formula Calculator

This formula is designed for primary children. It is a recalculation of the Gunning Fog Index Formula.

Free access to all of the above formulas may be found at the easy to use website www.readabilityformulas.com.

Another wonderful resource lexile.com

There are multiple facets to the website lexile.com. Three discussed today will be

• Find a book
• Look up a book
• Analyze text

A lexile is a unit to measure both reading ability and text complexity using the same scale.  The basic premise according to the website “if we know how well a student can read and how hard a specific book is to comprehend, we can predict how well that student will likely understand that book.”  Lexiles range from beginning reader to above 2000.

Find a Book

After navigating to fab.Lexile.com, a parent/student/teacher can enter the lexile of a student or answer questions about how they read grade-level resources. A category screen will appear and student interests will be selected. From a database of over 308,000 books, a list of results will appear. I entered a lexile range of 700-830 with the categories of animals, mystery, and biography. Results of 1,871 books meeting this criteria appeared. It can be sorted based on popularity, title, lexile, number of pages, or author. Student can peruse and click on the titles they would like to add to their reading list.

Look Up a Book

Using the author, title, or ISBN number, the Quick Book Search feature will give you a exile measure of a book. If you do not have that information, the advanced feature will allow you to search by the name of a series, publisher or keyword. The quick book search feature is found in the upper right hand corner on the fab.Lexile.com page.

Lexile Analyzer

Text complexity can be measured using the Lexile Analyzer for both Spanish and English. This algorithm takes into account length of sentences and word frequency. A free version is available for teachers using passages of less than 1000 words. You may not publish or distribute your results from the free account.

The website is a gold mine of information. Free webinars are available from MetaMetricks and their blog provides valuable resources at https://metametricsinc.com/about-us/blog/.

Products with differentiated reading levels using a minimum of 5 readability formulas are available from my store. Check out my Day in History passages which include a passage based on a historical event for each school day.  Each day a passage is available at a 9-10 grade reading level, an 8th grade level, and a 6th-7th grade reading level. Monthly bundles make these available at a discount. Following each passage you will find a main idea, vocabulary, organizational pattern, inference, and summary question. Track student progress in each area and diagnose patterns of difficulty and areas of success.  A link to the September bundle and a list of passages for September is available below.

September 1, Titanic
September 2, V-J Day
September 3 Frederick Douglas
September 4, Little Rock Desegregation
September 5, Voyager I
September 6, Princess Diana
September 7, Panama Canal Treaty
September 8, Ford Pardons Nixon
September 10, History or Rickshaw
September 11, 9-11
September 12, Lascaux Caves
September 13, Walter Reed
September 14, Star Spangled Banner
September 15, Sandra Day O’Connor
September 17, Mount Rushmore
September 18, Brief History of the US Capitol
September 19, First Hot Air Balloon Ride
September 20, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
September 21, Stonehenge
September 22, Dead Sea Scrolls
September 24, Supreme Court
September 25, Benedict Arnold
September 26, Federal Trade Commission
September 27, Henry Ford
September 28, Confucius
September 29, John D. Rockefeller