ETS and MetaMetrics® Partner to Close the Reading Skills Gap for U.S. Students, Widened by the COVID-19 Pandemic
ReadBasix™ will provide teachers and parents with an evidence-based tool to identify students’ reading levels to enable targeted interventions and reading materials
DURHAM, N.C. – October 25, 2022 – Today, ETS and MetaMetrics announced their new collaboration aimed at closing the literacy gap exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic among U.S. students in grades 3 through 12. Literacy tests for the ETS ReadBasix™ Assessment will be linked to the widely adopted Lexile® Framework for Reading, an independent, evidence-based approach to pair students with books and materials at their reading level. The connection of these tools will assist educators in improving students’ literacy skills, that for many children were negatively impacted by disruptions to their education caused by the pandemic.
“Now we are bringing the Lexile Framework — the world’s most used reading metric — to U.S. classrooms through ReadBasix to provide teachers with support to assist in closing reading gaps for students in grades 3 through 12,” said Vince Dean, Executive Director of K–12 Assessments at ETS. “This tool will help educators identify students who are struggling with basic reading skills and provide them with detailed information to enable targeted intervention to help more students read on grade level.”
The 2022 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) showed the most dramatic drop in student reading scores in three decades, further demonstrating the critical need for innovative assessment intervention more than ever before. Beginning next school year, teachers who use ReadBasix with their students will be able to use the Lexile measures to track student progress toward reading on grade level to accelerate student literacy skill growth to help close the persistent literacy gap.
“While the reading crisis didn’t start with the pandemic, student skills are currently at alarmingly low levels across all demographics,” said Malbert Smith, CEO and co-founder, MetaMetrics. “By collaborating with an industry leading organization, such as ETS, to grow their use of Lexile measures, we are giving more teachers the tools needed to help their students accelerate their reading skills and get back on the path to success.”
When students read materials at their Lexile level, they are appropriately challenged which helps them to grow as a reader. More than 100 million books, articles and websites use Lexile text measures.
For more information about ReadBasix, including Lexile scores, please visit ReadBasix Assessment.
About ETS
At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language-learning, and elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, and by conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® tests and The Praxis Series® assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org
About MetaMetrics
MetaMetrics is an award-winning education technology organization that offers the only scientifically valid, universal scales for measuring silent and oral reading and listening (Lexile) and math (Quantile) with plans to develop measures for writing. The Lexile and Quantile Frameworks measure student ability and the complexity of the content they encounter. Lexile and Quantile measures and related technologies link assessment to instruction and provide next steps for students of all ages and abilities. The measures also provide valuable insights about students’ potential for growth. MetaMetrics’ measures, products and services are licensed to dozens of education product companies to help achieve that growth. For 35 years, MetaMetrics’ work has been increasingly recognized for its research-based approach to improving learning. For more information, visit https://metametricsinc.com/.