OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - September 20, 2010) - As the Government calls for parents to get more involved with their child's literacy progress, Raintree Publishers announced today that Lexile® measures have been added to the majority of their popular book series.
The Lexile Framework for Reading, developed in the USA by MetaMetrics®, enables educators and parents to match children at every age, stage and ability level with books that will support the development of their reading skills, on topics that will interest them and that they will enjoy, inspiring them to build an essential life skill -- the ability to read.
The Lexile Framework offers a scientific approach to measuring reader ability and text difficulty on the same scale. Highly successful in the US for improving children's achievement in reading, the Lexile Framework allows for more detailed grading of text than reading age or key stage level indicators that are currently widely used by schools and publishers in the UK. With Lexile measures, readers can be matched with books that are not too difficult to be frustrating, yet difficult enough to be challenging and to encourage reading progress. For more information and to search for books with Lexile measures, visit www.improvemyreading.co.uk.
MetaMetrics introduced Lexile measures in the UK in 2009 in partnership with GL Assessment, the leading independent provider of tests and assessment services for education. The companies linked GL Assessment's Progress in English (PiE) assessment for seven to 11 year olds with the Lexile Framework, enabling the 400,000 UK children who take the test each year to receive a Lexile measure. GL Assessment linked the PiE test with the Lexile Framework in the hope that it would change the way schools support the development of literacy skills across the curriculum and to provide parents with a means to support their child's reading growth outside the classroom.
"Lexile measures are an ideal tool for teachers, librarians and parents to ensure that every child has access to books that are right whatever stage they've reached," says Miles Stevens-Hoare, Managing Director of Raintree Publishing. "With Ministers calling for parents to be more involved in their children's literacy development, these measures make it easy to check a child's reading ability and then match it with the right books. The ability to read is one of the most important life skills -- the Lexile measure makes it so much easier to support this vital aspect of development."
Raintree publishes some of the UK's best known fiction and non-fiction collections, as well as original series for reluctant and struggling readers www.raintreepublishers.co.uk. Many of these collections, including DC Super Heroes, Graphic Resolve, Life Cycles, Sci-Hi and Sport Stories, now have Lexile measures and are available in the UK "Find a Book" search tool at www.improvemyreading.co.uk. Educators and parents can use this free online book search to build bespoke reading lists that complement each child's reading ability and interests.
MetaMetrics President and co-founder Malbert Smith III, Ph.D., comments: "By adding Lexile measures to its book series, Raintree is further demonstrating its commitment to helping all readers unlock their potential and improve their chances for success in life."
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