"Lasbarhetsindex" ("Lix") is a readability formula developed in Sweden that holds promise for assessing text difficulty in other languages, including English. So far three separate studies have been conducted to test Lix with French and English texts, with German and English texts, and with Greek and English texts. In all three…

A method proposed by McCuaig and Hutchings to assess the internal readability variation of books using the Fry readability formula was empirically tested in an analysis of six elementary basal and ten secondary remedial readers. Each book was treated as a series of consecutive 100-word samples. Means and standard deviations were computed for both…

CALIFORNIA STATE-ADOPTED MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS FOR GRADES 1 THROUGH 8 WERE ANALYZED TO DETERMINE THE READABILITY LEVELS, THE AMOUNT OF EXPOSITORY AND STORY-PROBLEM READING REQUIRED, AND THE FREQUENCY OF MATHEMATICS VOCABULARY USED. READABILITY WAS DETERMINED THROUGH THE DALE-CHALL FORMULA AND THE FINDINGS OF AN EARLIER STUDY USING SPACHE'S…

A study was conducted to compare the reading levels of beginning students in a two-year community college with the readability levels of the materials they are required to read in selected courses. Subjects, all the students enrolled at an open door community college in Tampa (Florida), took the Nelson-Denny Reading test. Readability levels of…

Every year the purchase of unsuitable books for disadvantaged children wastes millions of dollars. The use of these unsuitable books results in extensive reading failure. In order to overcome this waste of money and human resources, book committees need to employ standards and methods of evaluation to identify books appropriate for disadvantaged…

It was the purpose of this study to determine the readability level of all social studies textbooks authorized for purchase in the adoption made by the Textbook Commission of the Indiana State Board of Education on December 12, 1968 for five years beginning July 1, 1969. A thorough search of the literature and research did not reveal that their…

This study attempted to validate both the Fry-Kernel Distance Theory and the De Pierro findings, in determining the suitability of text material for the students to be instructed. First-year community college students were presented with sentences arranged in pairs, each representing two of four prescribed types. Subjects were to select the harder…

Reviews using the cloze procedure for evaluating the readability of science textbooks. (SL)

Offers an analogy between passing a written driving test and actually driving a vehicle, and evaluating textbooks by the number of syllables in words and by sentence length and the students' ability to actually read the textbook. Provides an open textbook inventory to evaluate how well students interact with the book. (JC)

Describes the Luiten, Ames, Bradley Readability Variation Method for estimating the variation within a text. Concludes that it is practical and relatively accurate. (HOD)

Study was concerned with whether there is a practical difference between the reading ability of the eight, ninth, and tenth grade students and the readibility levels of their assigned textbooks in English, science and social studies. Findings show that most of the textbooks assigned were too difficult for effective instructional usage. (RB)

Forty-two experienced teachers rated a set of reading passages by the SEER and the Rauding procedures. Findings indicated that the two procedures resulted in significantly different ratings, that teaching experience did not affect the rating, and that the SEER ratings agreed substantially with readability formula estimates of the same passages.…

Findings from a Fry readability test indicated that the readability of "This Is America's Story" was about ninth-grade level but that many junior high school students would find the text too difficult because of readability variation. (DB)

Argues that readability formulas accurately predict how easily a passage will be understood by considering sentence length and word difficulty. Claims that the misuse of readability formulas as writing guides is responsible for much of the criticism. Challenges the critics to come up with something better. (RS)

Evaluated and compared 12 science textbooks with respect to their readability levels and agreement with the intended reader level. Four of the books were determined to be unsatisfactory for their intended grade levels. (20 references) (MDH)