What does it mean to read at grade level?

If you’re reading this, you, like me, probably care a great deal about literacy. You probably believe that improving reading proficiency in elementary school is really, really, really important for improving life outcomes. You’re probably used to citing statistics like “only one-third of American 4th graders are proficient readers” or  “two-thirds of American 12th graders read below the proficient level.” You’re definitely a lot of fun at dinner parties. 

And perhaps you, like me, have wondered: what do these statistics actually mean? What does it mean to be a proficient 4th or 8th or 10th grade reader? What will you struggle to understand? What can you read? What can’t you read?  What do you do when you encounter a text that is beyond your grade level? What does that challenging encounter look and feel like? 

Initially, I thought I would explore these questions by quoting examples of well-known texts at different grade levels. I wanted to illustrate what these reading levels looked like, and I wanted to demonstrate what students (or adults) reading below these levels wouldn’t be able to access. 

I spend a lot of time thinking about ways to communicate about America’s reading crisis, and I thought that concretely illustrating the limitations imposed by reading ability would be a clever strategy. If I could simulate the extent of the problem, if I could demonstrate what’s lost when you’re not a proficient reader, then surely more people would care about the problem. Right? 

But as I set out to write this post and started googling terms like “example of 4th grade reading text,” I realized what a challenging problem I’d created for myself. 

I realized that I didn’t know how the “grade-level” of a text is determined. What does it mean when we say that the New York Times is written at a 10th grade reading level? Who decides that? Does that mean that the average 10th grader can understand it? Or something else entirely? 

Then, I recalled my Natalie Wexler and E.D. Hirsch and started wondering: since background knowledge is a greater determiner of reading comprehension than any set of abstract skills is, what does it really mean to read “on grade level?” Does your “grade level” change depending on the content of the passage and your prior knowledge?  

From there, I got curious. Assuming you’re able to decode effectively, what happens when you encounter a text that is beyond “your grade level?” You might slow down and move more slowly through the text, focusing more on basic comprehension and retention than meaning-making and analysis.  You might skip over the most opaque parts until you find words and phrases that you have some familiarity with (I think that’s what I do). Would it be possible to simulate this experience? 

I still think my original idea—sharing examples of texts that low-literate readers struggle to access—is a good one. But before I even explore that, I need to address the above questions about text grade-level, standardized reading tests, and the experience of a struggling reader. Stay tuned as I explore these questions this summer!