A recent Educational Testing Services report (2016) found that international graduate students with a TOEFL score of 80--the minimum average TOEFL score for graduate admission in the United States--usually possess reading subscores of 20, equating to a 12th-grade reading comprehension level. However, one public flagship university's international…

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…

Reviews readability research and suggests priorities for future research in the area. (MKM)

Reports that the Fry readability graph can be adapted to measure Spanish readability at the primary level. (DD)

This paper describes the Harris-Jacobson Readability Formula A, a revision of a readability formula based on word lists from "Basic Elementary Reading Vocabularies." Section one of the paper discusses procedures for using the formula, including the selection of samples, scoring the variables, and applying the formula. The next section…

Findings indicate that different readability formulas will not record the same degree of change in readability level if easier synonyms are inserted, sentences shortened, or text rewritten for simplification. (MKM)

Using 48 college texts, comparisons were made of Dale-Chall Readability Formula results based on samples taken from various page intervals. (HOD)

Reports on a study that examined 15 randomly selected issues of a newspaper to determine if the readability scores for stories written in different writing styles are consistent when assessed by different tests. (HOD)

Identifies and describes major factors interacting with readability measures in 36 experimental studies analyzing the validity of such measures. (RB)

Concludes that test results are essentially the same for both the Flesch and Gunning reading indices. (RB)

Analysis of variance applied to measured working times indicated that the Flesch takes significantly longer to use than Automated Readability Index and the Fog Count. (RB)

Discusses the accuracy of the Fog Index and the SMOG grade (two readability formulas) as predicators of readability. (MAI)

Found that standard readability indexes by themselves are not useful in measuring readability and comprehensibility of income tax material. Also casts doubt on the use of only readability indexes to measure insurance, labor, and real estate contracts. (PD)

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was analyzed by readability formulas which represent varying criterion of comprehension from 50 to 90 percent. If an examiner wishes to ensure 90 percent comprehension of the inventory items, nine years of successful schooling seem necessary. (Author/SJL)