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Understanding Achieve3000 Literacy Student LevelSet Assessments

Learn more about what Achieve3000 Literacy LevelSet assessments are and how they're administered.

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What are LevelSet Assessments?

LevelSet is a proprietary assessment that measures your child's ability to comprehend text. Based on the research of MetaMetrics, the company that founded the Lexile measure, the LevelSet assessment is administered at the beginning and end of the school year to identify your child's reading level. That level is measured in Lexiles, with results displayed as a number with the letter L after it, such as 350L or 980L. The LevelSet assessment may also be administered in the middle of the school year depending on the progress monitoring plan in place in your child's school or district. The results of the LevelSet assessment are used by schools to measure reading progress and to assign students to the appropriate levels of content.  For more about how Achieve3000 Literacy uses Lexiles, be sure to read the Understanding Achieve3000 Literacy Student Lexile Levels article.

Your child's teacher will prepare them for the assessment, often showing this introduction video available in both English and Spanish. For the most accurate results, ensure that your child is well rested and has breakfast or a snack before the test is administered.

In between LevelSet administrations, Lexile progress is measured at the end of each month based on your child's completed work.

 

When is LevelSet administered?

LevelSet can be administered up to three times a year. Typically, it is administered once at the beginning of the school year (or the first time students log in) and again at the end of the school year. For the Pre-Test, the assessment displays automatically, and students cannot use the Achieve3000 Literacy features until it is completed.

An Interim assessment is also available and is administered mid-year. By default, the interim assessment is set to off. It can be turned on for all or sub-groups of students and the administration dates can be modified. Remember when scheduling the interim LevelSet, it should be scheduled at least eight weeks from the completion of the pre-test to allow students time to make progress.

The LevelSet Post-Test is scheduled to be administered on the first Monday in May, unless you have scheduled an alternate date with your account management team. If scheduling an alternate date, the LevelSet post-test should be scheduled for at least 8 weeks after the interim LevelSet if administered or close to the end of your school year to get an accurate measure of growth for the entire school year.

 

How many and what type of questions are on the test?

The LevelSet assessment has 30 questions. New students could receive up to 40 items:

  • For the English version of the assessment, the very first pre-test will include a 10-item Locator Test to determine which level of the LevelSet assessment each student will receive. New students complete these items before beginning the actual LevelSet assessment.
  • For new students taking their very first pre-test using the Spanish version of the assessment, the number of items could vary from student to student. If a student answers incorrectly on each of the first 5 items, or answers incorrectly on 5 or more of the first 10 items, the test will move to an easier version.

The assessment itself contains short reading passages and four answer options. Students read the passage, mark the option they think best answers the question, and then move on to the next question. Students do not receive feedback while answering questions.

 

What is the LevelSet Locator Test?

For students using the English version of Achieve3000 Literacy, the Locator Test is an initial gauge of a student’s reading ability. New users’ performance on the Locator Test will allow the Achieve3000 Literacy system to assign them to a level of the LevelSet pre-test that best matches their actual reading ability.

There are three forms of the Locator Test, one to measure reading ability at the elementary school level (grades 2-5), one for the middle school level (grades 6-8), and one for the high school level (grades 9- 12). New users will receive the Locator Test form that corresponds to their grade level.

 

How are students assigned the appropriate level?

New students who do not already have a Lexile measure in the Achieve3000 Literacy system will be required to complete the LevelSet pre-test the first time they log in.

  • If taking the test in English, students will be presented with the Locator Test items, which will automatically assign students to the appropriate version of the LevelSet assessment.
  • If taking the test in Spanish, students receive a level of the assessment that corresponds to their grade in school.

For all students, interim, post-test, and subsequent pre-test assessment placement will be determined by students’ current Lexile level.

 

Can LevelSet be taken at home?

Yes, if necessary due to scheduling challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disaster, or other situations that prevents students from attending school for long periods of time. The testing conditions should mirror those in place when the student is testing in school. Students should take the assessment without assistance from anyone, in a quiet environment with minimal distraction, using well-functioning computer equipment and a reliable internet connection.

 

Are LevelSet scores from assessments taken from home valid?

Yes, provided the test taker (student) did not receive any help from another person and took it in an environment with few distractions. To the extent that either of these conditions were not met, a student’s Lexile could be a less accurate estimate of a student’s ability.

 

Is the LevelSet assessment considered a norm-referenced test or a criterion-referenced test?

LevelSet is both a norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessment.

As a norm-referenced assessment, scores on the LevelSet can be compared to MetaMetrics’ National Lexile Norms to determine how a student performed compared to other students of the same grade. For more information, visit the Lexile Grade Level Charts site.

As a criterion-referenced assessment, scores on the LevelSet can inform on whether a student is at a certain level of reading proficiency. Specifically, LevelSet scores can be used to determine if a student is on track for College and Career Readiness. 

 

How can students view their LevelSet results?

Students can see their LevelSet results in the Lexile Tracker, a tool that helps them monitor their reading progress across the school year. For more information on navigating the Lexile Tracker, refer to the Accessing and Navigating the Achieve3000 Literacy Student Lexile Tracker and Scoreboard article.

 

How should I interpret Lexile scores?

Achieve3000 Literacy follows MetaMetrics recommendations regarding interpretation of Lexile scores: Students’ Lexiles should be compared to the Lexile bands for being on track for College and Career for the students’ grade.

The chart shows the College and Career Readiness bands used within Achieve3000 Literacy. These bands were developed by MetaMetrics and are based on the current ‘stretch’ Lexile bands put forth by Common Core. To use the chart, look for the row corresponding to the grade level and find the column corresponding to the student’s current Lexile. This will tell you how the student is progressing toward the college and career readiness goal.

For example, Sonya is a 5th grade student and has a Lexile of 700L. Looking at the Lexile bands within the grade 5 row, we can see that Sonya is approaching being on track for college and career readiness.

 

How are Lexile levels reviewed and updated throughout the school year?

Student Lexile levels are reviewed by the system at the end of each month. Students needs to complete at least four sets of multiple-choice questions in the Respond step of lessons since the last time their Lexile was updated. This provides the system has enough information to evaluate student’s Lexile level to ensure students are properly placed. The system examines students’ responses to these multiple-choice questions and combines that with information it already knows about the student to yield an updated Lexile score. Sometimes the Lexile score stays the same, suggesting the student is properly placed. An increase in Lexile suggests the student has gained reading skills. This might result in more difficult content being delivered to the student to match the progressing reading level.

 

How does the system combine Respond step performance and past information about the student to arrive at an updated Lexile level?

The formula used to update student Lexile levels in between LevelSet assessments is known as a Bayesian Algorithm. Bayesian methodology is a statistical approach for controlling the level of uncertainty in predicting a student’s score by incorporating the student’s prior scores into an adjustment to the current score. The more confident we are about the prior information, the lower the uncertainty and the smaller is the standard deviation of the prior information (Yen and Fitzpatrick, 2006). The result is that the adjusted score is a more accurate measure of the student’s “true” ability level. Because it is a complex algorithm that relies on statistical probabilities, it may be difficult to understand why the system makes adjustments for some students and not others. As a general rule of thumb, students need to score routinely above 75% on the Lexile-level activities to increase their Lexile level in any given month.

Since the activities connected to lessons are only available down to a Lexile-level of 100L to 150L, Emerging Readers will often be matched to lessons that are above their reading ability. As such, Emerging Readers may experience an increase in their Lexile measure even if they routinely score below 75% on the activities assigned to them because the monthly auto-adjustments accounts not only for their performance on the activities, but also that the activities are above their reading level.

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