Common Core

Text Complexity

The Common Core State Standards, as well as many specific state standards, define Text Complexity as a metric that determines how challenging a material is for a child at their specific grade level. Three factors are used to determine the complexity of the text: qualitative measures, quantitative measures, and considerations relating to the reader and task, all of which have to be rated on the basis of grade-level appropriateness.

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Learning A-Z Products That Address CCSS Text Complexity

Reading A-Z and Raz-Kids

Reading A-Z and Raz-Kids offer books designed and written to 29 levels of difficulty. Great care has been taken to analyze each and every book using multiple quantitative and qualitative factors. Teachers can be sure that each leveled book their students have access to meets CCSS standards.

Science A-Z

Science A-Z has an extensive collection of informational texts written to 3 levels of difficulty within a grade span. In order to determine the complexity of the text, each book is analyzed by both quantitative and qualitative factors. Resources are offered at multiple reading levels within each grade span.

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Text Complexity Measures

Qualitative measures examine text attributes that can only be evaluated by the person who is reading the book or passage. The reader is required to consider such factors as:

Levels of meaning:

• Is the purpose explicitly stated, or is it vague?
• Does it have a single level of meaning vs. multiple purposes?

Clarity and conventions of language:

• Is the language clear, or is it vague and purposefully misleading?
• Is the language contemporary and familiar, or is it unfamiliar and archaic?
• Is the text conversational or academic?
• Is there wide use of figurative language, idiomatic expressions, etc.?
• Is the text cohesive, or does it lack cohesion?

Knowledge demands:

• Is it a single-themed text and relatively simple as opposed to multiple-themed and complex?
• Does the text deal with common everyday experiences, or does it present experiences that are likely, vastly different from those of the reader?
• Is the text presented from single or multiple perspectives? Are there frequent changes in the setting? How many, if any, references to other texts does the text contain?

Structure:

• How is the text organized: chronologically or in another logical fashion?
• Is the text randomly arranged with complex and loosely connected content?
• Do the structure and organization make sense?
• Are sections and features clearly labeled?
• Is the text free of unnecessary distractions?

Visual device complexity:

• Are graphical devices relatively simple, or are they complex?
• Are the graphics "for show" or to help the student understand the material being presented?

Quantitative measures are what publishers traditionally relied upon to determine the difficulty of a text. There are dozens of formulas used to figure text difficulty. Many of these formulas consider only two factors: They look at sentence length and the number of difficult or unfamiliar words, or they look at sentence length and syllable count. Needless to say, these factors are fairly limiting when it comes to determining the complexity of a text.

Considerations relating to the reader and tasks is the vital 3rd component. Each reader brings different skills, background, and motivation to the act of reading. For example, a student who is interested in the topic being read is likely to bring more background knowledge to the reading task and want to learn more.

The importance of the assignment itself can also influence the reading activity. Skimming a book or article for a key piece of information or reading leisurely places less demand on the reading task than if a student is preparing for an exam, assembling a piece of equipment, or reading for long-term retention.

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