Science curriculum standards were mapped onto various texts (literacy readers, trade books, online articles). Statistical analyses highlighted the inconsistencies among readability formulae for Grades 2-6 levels of the standards. There was a lack of correlation among the readability measures, and also when comparing different text sources. Online…

Writing, editing, and printing texts for schools has been the accepted role of publishers, while text researchers have concentrated on typography, content, and readability. The hundreds of readability formulas now available make readability the most sophisticated of these three areas. Research in reading comprehension suggests that publishers…

It has been customary to simplify texts to increase their readability for young readers. Recent studies suggest that it is the predictability of texts that is the key to their readability and that simplification may actually create problems for the reader. (RBW)

Readability formulas were originally conceived of as being evaluative measures. However, if a text is being rewritten or revised so that it matches a particular level of ability in its intended readers, it is rather inescapable that readability formulas will influence the changes made. Tacitly or not, formulas now are used to diagnose what causes…

Designed to appeal to students who want a short but up-to-date overview, researchers who are interested in a critical appraisal, and consumers who would like to know what leaders in the field think, this collection of articles highlights the changes that have occurred in readability research from the past to the present and makes predictions about…

Provides guidelines for analyzing and evaluating textbooks based on their comprehensibility rather than their readability. (MKM)

Argues that health educators must learn to predict readability levels of textbooks to be sure that they are challenging and understandable to the student. Concludes that this can be accomplished through the use of readability formulas. (FL)

Reviews the literature critical of readability formulas as used in second-language reading contexts. It is suggested that such formulas not be used as guides to text production/adaptation or as measures of the difficulty of naturally occurring texts. (Author/CB)

Explains why applying a readability formula to a content text is not enough to determine whether a student can read and understand the book. (MKM)

Examines the practical side of readablility in the United Kingdom as well as some theoretical considerations focused on research on text difficulty, microcomputer prediction of difficulty, validity of cloze procedure, and the effect when students rewrite textbook prose. (HOD)

Drawn from a symposium presented at the 1979 National Reading Conference, the four papers in this collection describe a notion of conceptual readability, an approach contrasting with traditional readability computations (number of words per sentence and degree of familiarity of individual words) and focusing on the concepts communicated by the…

Readability formulas have varied uses. In education they are used to match children's reading ability to the difficulty level of material, select stories and books for classroom use and for individual students' particular needs, select textbooks and other reading materials, aid educational research, and check reading materials of newly literate…

The purpose of this paper is to make classroom teachers on all educational levels aware of the limitations of readability formulas and the factors affecting readability that are not accounted for by the readability formulas. delineated in discussions of readability formula assumptions, problems, and limitations. Some of the specific factors that…

The constituting elements of distance education are the course and the interaction between students and supporting organizations. Compared with students at traditional universities, distance students are generally older, have jobs, and often have families. In distance education, learners are usually isolated and want to broaden their education,…