Standards for literacy in the twenty-first century raise the bar on the complexity of texts and the tasks for which they are used. The strengths and limitations of contemporary approaches to text complexity are discussed with respect to major points raised in the six articles in this special issue. In addition, four features of text that are of…

The Fry Graph for Estimating Readability (Extended) and George Magginnis' formula for passages shorter than 100 words were used in an investigation of the reading levels of 18 mathematics textbooks produced for grades one through six by three major publishers. The results indicated that the readability levels of the textbooks were inaccurate. Few…

This article discusses how text variables interact with reader, strategy, and task variables to affect readability, including text coherence, text organization, signaling, and text structure. It considers how classic readability formulas, in concert with consideration of text, text reader, and strategy variables, can be used to match texts to…

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…

This article explores the relationships between vocabulary knowledge and text readability. It discusses how procedures used by readability formulas to assess the vocabulary factor can over- or underestimate text difficulty by counting syllables rather than assessing what the reader knows about the words in a text. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Reading Grade Levels (RGLs) of 185 Rate Training Manuals (RTMs) and 188 Non-Resident Career Courses (NRCCs) were determined using the Flesch Reading Ease Score. Results indicated that the majority of the RTMs and NRCCs were written at the lower college grade level. The RGLs vary widely within each RTM and NRCC, ranging from the seventh grade to…

Focusing on readability and interest factors of instructional materials for adult education, the study examined the possible relationships between performance and expressed interest in individual reading passages and in categories of passages. Passages on one of three levels of difficulty were administered to 180 adult education students from…

Undergraduates read a prose passage and were tested on its contents. Difficulty, permission to underline key phrases, and financial motivation were varied. Non-highly motivated subjects performed better on the easy version; underlining aided highly motivated subjects and those reading the difficult version. (Author/RD)

This article outlines computer courseware evaluation reviews. Summarizing the criteria and procedures used in the five major review efforts, it discusses ways evaluations can be more useful. Six areas of review concern are delineated: instructional design, content, student use, teacher use, presentation, and technical aspects. (MD)

Three passages of fifth-grade readability were read and recalled by 24 high- and low-ability fifth graders and college students. These passages were characterized as either narrative (high degree of temporal linkage), expository (logical linkage and abstract content), or mixed (logical linkage but with content suggestive of a narrative). The…

Three experiments, in which subjects read passages of variable readability, measured "cognitive capacity usage" (the attention level to reading material) by recording by subjects reaction times in a secondary task (responding to a "click"). The data indicated that the easy texts filled cognitive capacity more completely than the difficult texts,…

Reading selections from six Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) administered from 1947 to 1975 were analyzed to determine whether a decrease in the difficulty level of elementary and secondary textbooks, workbooks, and teachers' guides corresponded with the SAT score decline. Various indices of reading difficulty and challenge were used. Readability…