To better understand Tennessee's new standardized science assessments, this quantitative study utilized a nonexperimental, descriptive-comparative design to compare the readability of the long-used science TCAP assessment with the newly created science TNReady assessment in grades three, four, and five. As new standards in the state boast higher…

Textbooks remain as major learning aids in all levels of education worldwide. Thus, textbooks must constantly be subjected to critical analysis in order to establish their curricular usefulness. This paper analyzed four commercial science textbooks designed for third grade Filipino learners. The four textbooks were analyzed according to…

Common to all models of reading comprehension is the assumption that a reader's level of comprehension is heavily influenced by their standards of coherence (van den Broek, Risden, & Husbye-Hartman, 1995). Our discussion focuses on a subcomponent of the readers' standards of coherence: the coherence threshold. We situate this discussion within…

Standard 10 of the Common Core State Standards attends to students' capacity with complex text. This standard distinguishes the Common Core State Standards from previous standards documents. This article describes a process--the Text Complexity Multi-Index (TCMI)--that supports teachers in studying texts to support their students in…

The widely adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS) call for raising the level of text complexity in textbooks and reading materials used by students across all grade levels in the United States; the authors of the English Language Arts component of the CCSS build their case for higher complexity in part upon a research base they say shows a…

A focus of the Common Core State Standards/English Language Arts (CCSS/ELA) is that students become increasingly more capable with complex text over their school careers. This focus has redirected attention to the measurement of text complexity. Although CCSS/ELA suggests multiple criteria for this task, the standards offer a single measure of…

The issue of readability vs academic standards in college textbooks is addressed. Problems in balancing both needs and other problems involving textbooks and the publishing industry, including textbook resales and routine revisions of texts, are discussed. (JMD)