I think I will have to write you, Maureen, off the listserv, since we seem
to be career-aligned. I have a private practice, but have also worked in
schools, and this is the first year in a long time that I have not gone to
IDA. Too $$$ and far from Seattle.

Grade Level - How to Determine Gains?
I always suspected Sylvan of cooking the numbers when they say they can
bring a kid up 3 levels in a year. And how exactly do we measure vocabulary
growth, which a few postings here have referred to? I have been looking for
a decent vocab assessment for 15 years. I have been able to use the
Critchlow with some pre and post situations.

Lexile, Flecsch, Frye, AR, and others - Grade Level Systems for books and
readers - I have waded through many of them eventually coming to use them
with a large grain of salt. They often do not seem to correlate with the
normed tests such as TOWRE, CTOPP, WJ, DIBELS, and others. 10 years ago I
exchanged long emails with Frye himself about this, and one thing he said
was that "grade level" has actually gone DOWN in the last few decades, since
it is determined from samplings of readers from that particular grade level,
across the country. My colleagues in the UK have harder level reading
materials than we do for certain grades, for example. 

Just another thought to add to this pot of smart contributors.


Kendra Wagner
Academic Therapist
Literacy Consultant
Seattle, WA
www.readingwritingthinking.net