myON Reader Lexile Assessments

If you have purchased myON Reader, Lexile® assessments are used instead of the myON placement test or students' Star assessments.

Students begin by taking a Lexile® placement exam after they first log in and complete the Interest Inventory. The Lexile placement exam is required; students must complete the test before they can continue using myON. This is how the exam works:

1. The student starts the placement test, and the timer begins. (If you close the window without clicking Next, the timer doesn't work. If you click Next and then immediately close the window, the timer may not have time to submit results.)
2. Each time the student presses Next, the timer updates, along with the question information.
3. The test ends when one of the following conditions is met:
• The student has been active in the test for 25 minutes.
• 4 questions in a row have been answered incorrectly.
• All 35 questions have been answered correctly within the 25-minute time limit.

Note: Students can pause the placement exam by closing the browser window, and they can resume the exam by logging in again. However, if the placement exam is not resumed within 7 days, the exam will start over at question 1 the next time the student logs in.

4. The Lexile® information will then be submitted to the myON site. (This takes a few minutes.) The student is assigned a Lexile® level and will be directed to the library.

Once at least 14 days have passed since the last Lexile® exam was taken, the student becomes eligible for a benchmark if the student has either read five books or read for three hours. Students who qualify for another Lexile® benchmark exam will see a purple envelope in the top left corner of the myON page that they can select to begin the benchmark exam; they may also be asked to complete the exam after they take a myON book quiz. Once students begin the exam, they must complete it in that sitting; they cannot exit the test and restart it later.

For teachers, there is no visual indicator for this; however, if you view the student's activity and the time since the student's last benchmark exam, you will be able to determine whether the student has qualified for a benchmark or not. The criteria to qualify for an automatic Lexile® benchmark are:

1. At least 2 weeks (14 days) have passed since the last Lexile® Benchmark. A student will not be able to take more than one Lexile® benchmark test in a 2-week period unless otherwise manually assigned by the teacher in a project.
2. The student has read 5 books (or more if required as described above), or the student has read for a total accumulative time of 3 hours. You can check a student's reading time or the number of books finished by running a Core report or Reading Details report for the time since the student's last Lexile® benchmark exam. To learn more about running reports using a Faculty account, see How to View Reports (Faculty).
   
   For individual students, the teacher can change the required number of books read before a new Benchmark to 25 books. To do this, select Classroom > Students. Then, click the student's name in the list. Check the Exempt from Benchmarks box to the right.
   

By giving students a series of benchmarks after the initial placement exam, myON gives you a more accurate view of the student's ability over time. See Managing Multiple Measures (MetaMetrics, Inc.).

Frequently Asked Questions about Lexile® Assessments

The following questions provide more information about the assessment included with myON Reader.

How long does a benchmark take?

The length of benchmark tests varies depending on the student's grade and Lexile® level. Younger students typically take 10 minutes, and older students typically take 10-15 minutes.

Students need to be sure they are not rushed as they complete benchmarks. Please ensure students have plenty of time to complete the exam. 

Why is the initial placement exam given at grade level?

Each grade level has a different placement exam, and each placement exam includes a floor (the lowest possible Lexile® level) and a ceiling (the highest possible Lexile® level). The initial Placement Exam is given at a student's grade level in order to give the student his or her initial Lexile® number. Benchmark assessments given after the initial placement are given at a student's reading level. After a few benchmark assessments are taken, the student's Lexile® will adjust naturally.

In some instances, students are enrolled in a grade that is above their reading level. In these instances, educators can either let the student take the grade-specific assessment and allow the level to self-correct as the student takes benchmarks, or they can increase or decrease the student's grade level to artificially change the Lexile® level range that can be assigned to the student based on the placement exam results. For more information on Lexile®, see the MetaMetrics website.

Why can't assessments be read to students?

Per lexile.com: "The Lexile Framework is a scientific way to match readers with text using the same scale." Audio on a Lexile® assessment would negate results, skew them, or provide inaccurate results because the assessment is measuring reading comprehension rather than listening comprehension.

Can a Lexile® score received previously be used in place of the existing score?

There is no way to revert to a student’s previous Lexile® assessment. A student should only have one initial Lexile® assessment. Only students who have moved into a different school district will be presented with a new Lexile® assessment. When a student completes 5 books or 3 hours of reading, and 14 days have passed since the last benchmark, the student will see a purple envelope in the top left corner, which tells them they're ready to take a benchmark assessment; this assessment will update the student's Lexile® score. If the student has not met the criteria in 14 days, the benchmark assessment will be presented once the student has met the reading requirements.

How do I assign a Lexile® test to a student?

If you want students to take a Lexile® placement test or to take a new benchmark before they're asked to do so automatically, you can assign a Lexile® test in a project.

How can I ensure that students only take assessments at school?

Initial Lexile® tests cannot be restricted to specific times. To prevent students from receiving help during the test, educate parents/guardians about the importance of the initial test, the integrity of the test, and its importance in establishing a more accurate benchmark score for students.

For benchmark exams, the District Administrator can set the time of day for all students in the district so they can only take benchmark exams during school hours. Building Administrators and teachers should check with their District Administrator to find out what the testing window is for their district.

Why aren't Lexile® placement tests available in other languages?

The placement and benchmark tests are based on the MetaMetrics Lexile® Framework. Ultimately, myON is a program to help develop English reading ability, not to help Spanish speakers improve their Spanish, so even a native Spanish speaker (or a speaker of another language) should be able to take the English placement exam.

Why aren't my students offered the Lexile® placement exam after logging in?

Students in Pre-K do not take a placement exam. Students in other grades who have been enrolled in myON and have taken a placement exam before will not take another one.

To see which students have taken initial placement exams, use the Lexile® report, the Core report, or the Extended User Activity report. (If you need to see data outside of the current school year, use the Extended User Activity report.) When running the report, be sure to specify a date range that would cover any period of time that a student could have possibly been enrolled in myON – even if the student has been enrolled in myON at a different school in the district.

What are BR Lexile® Levels?

Beginning (BR) Lexile® measures are like negative numbers, so a score of BR 40L would be like saying -40L. If you are trying to find the average Lexile®, and BR values are included, replace the BR with a – sign. BR scores should not be perceived as an inability to read. Instead, it is a scale that progresses, showing growth. For more information, see BR Lexile® Values.

How do Lexile® reader measures and Lexile® text measures differ?

There are two kinds of Lexile® measures:

• The Lexile® reader measure: Students receive a Lexile® reader measure as a score from a reading test - it describes the student’s reading ability.
• The Lexile® text measure: Books and other texts receive a Lexile® text measure from a software tool called the Lexile® Analyzer - it describes the book's reading demand or difficulty.

Both of these measures are on the same scale. When used together, these measures can help match a reader with reading material that is at an appropriate level of difficulty, or they can help give you an idea of how well a reader will comprehend a section of text. The Lexile® reader measure can also be used to monitor a reader's growth in reading ability over time. Lexile® helps readers grow and helps keep parents and teachers informed.

When a Lexile® text measure matches or is in the range of a Lexile® reader measure, this is called a targeted reading experience. The reader will encounter some level of difficulty with the text, but not enough to get frustrated. This is the best way to grow as a reader - reading text that's not too hard but not too easy.

For more information on Lexile® Measures, see Understanding Lexile® Measures on lexile.com.

How to View Lexile® Assessment Results

Faculty, Building Administrators, and District Administrators can view Lexile® assessment results for individual students or for multiple students (in reports). Reports also allow you to track how the student is progressing in reading and comprehension skills.

Viewing Assessment Results for Individual Students

1. District Administrators begin by selecting My District, then Users. Building Administrators select My School, then Users. Faculty select Classroom, then Students.
2. District Administrators may need to select a school.
3. On the Users or My Roster page, find the student and select the student's name.
4. On the student's page, select Assessments. You will see a list of the assessments the student has taken, including the score, type, and date and time for each.
   

Viewing Assessment Results in Reports

1. District Administrators begin by selecting My District, then Reports. Building Administrators select My School, then Reports. Faculty select Classroom, then Reports.
2. On the reports page, select Lexiles.
   
3. Use the report options to choose the students to include, a building (if necessary), and the start and end dates. Then, select Run Report. After the average scores, you'll see how many Lexile tests have been taken, how often, the starting score in the time period, the first score, and the ending score. You'll also see information about students' growth.

How Students View Their Assessment Results

Students and their parents can see their assessment results when the student logs in to myON. The student selects their name, then Lexile to see a graph of their scores.