MetaMetrics Partners with Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to Link the Lexile and Quantile Scales

DURHAM, NC--(Marketwired - November 16, 2016) - MetaMetrics®, developer of the widely adopted Lexile® Framework for Reading and Quantile® Framework for Mathematics, is pleased to announce its partnership with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. MetaMetrics collaborated with Smarter Balanced to link its online assessment system to the Lexile and Quantile Frameworks. This alignment provides the option for Smarter Balanced members to report a student's reading ability as a Lexile^® measure and his or her mathematical ability as a Quantile^® measure. By reporting Lexile and Quantile measures, the Smarter Balanced assessment helps connect students to instructional materials that match their abilities.

The Lexile and Quantile Frameworks place both the student and instructional material on the same scale to match the learner with appropriate math and reading resources at each student's ability level. A scientific approach to reading measurement, the Lexile Framework for Reading matches readers to text. The Lexile Framework involves a scale for measuring both the reading ability of an individual and the text complexity of materials he or she encounters. Similar to the Lexile Framework, the Quantile Framework matches students with instructional materials by measuring the mathematical ability of a student and the complexity of mathematical skills and concepts on the same developmental scale.

"The power of the Lexile and Quantile Frameworks is the ability to make test scores actionable," stated Malbert Smith III, Ph.D., CEO, President and Co-founder of MetaMetrics. "Lexile and Quantile measures can be used by educators, librarians, students and parents to improve instruction and learning by matching students with targeted resources given their reading or mathematics level."

Smarter Balanced members that choose to report Lexile and/or Quantile measures help connect their students to leveled materials that aid in learning and promote growth toward evidence-based, grade-level benchmarks for college and career readiness. Additionally, Lexile and Quantile measures are the only metrics available to compare and describe the reading and mathematical demands of careers. Hundreds of content publishers provide Lexile measures for their books or reading products. Over a million books, articles and websites have received Lexile measures. On the mathematics side, more than 600 textbooks and software programs totaling over 80,000 lessons have been calibrated to the Quantile scale. Educators, students and parents may use Lexile and Quantile measures to find books, instructional resources and activities that can improve a student's understanding of the content.

"Smarter Balanced and MetaMetrics share a common goal to provide information and resources that serve to improve teaching and learning so that students leave high school better prepared for college, work and life," said Tony Alpert, Executive Director of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. "I am excited that our members now have the option to report Lexile and Quantile measures. Lexile and Quantile measures added to Smarter Balanced score reports provide an additional set of information that together can be used by students, teachers and parents to make informed educational decisions."

About MetaMetrics

MetaMetrics is focused on improving education for learners of all ages and ability levels. The organization develops scientific measures of academic achievement and complementary technologies that link assessment results with real-world instruction. MetaMetrics' products and services for reading (The Lexile^® Framework for Reading, El Sistema Lexile^® para Leer), mathematics (The Quantile^® Framework for Mathematics) and writing (The Lexile^® Framework for Writing) provide unique insights about academic ability and the potential for growth, enabling individuals to achieve their goals at every stage of development. Connect with the organization at: http://blog.lexile.com.

About Smarter Balanced

Smarter Balanced is a public agency supported by 15 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Bureau of Indian Education. Through the work of thousands of educators, Smarter Balanced created an online assessment system aligned to the Common Core State Standards as well as tools for educators to improve teaching and learning. For more information, please visit www.smarterbalanced.org.