What reading level should a 1st grader be at?

By the end of 1st grade, F&P's goal is Guided Reading level J and Pearson's DRA cut-off is 16, with AR books around 1.9. Their own Lexile score is lower than many parents expect: the national median for 1st graders in the spring is about 110L. In the fall of 1st grade, Pearson's DRA cut-off is level 3, and F&P's 1st-grade letters start at E. The normal spread is wide - roughly a full grade band in either direction - so a single level below the target is watch-and-support territory, not an emergency.

What Lexile level is 3rd grade?

It depends on whether you mean books or kids. Books written for 3rd grade run roughly 520L to 820L, the Common Core stretch band most schools reference, and a book at 750L is legitimately both a 3rd- and a 4th-grade text. 3rd graders themselves score lower: the national median is about 415L in the fall and 535L in the spring (MetaMetrics norms, 2021-2025). The Lexile converter in our free tools places a score against students in the same grade and season.

Are Lexile and AR levels the same thing?

No. Both are readability formulas, but Lexile runs on a 0–2000 scale (with BR for beginner texts) while AR's ATOS scale is grade-decimal, so 4.5 means mid-4th-grade difficulty. They usually rank books in the same order, and the chart above gives the rough correspondence, but there's no exact conversion between them.

What's the difference between Guided Reading and DRA levels?

Mostly notation. Both come from a teacher listening to your child read leveled passages; Guided Reading uses letters A–Z and DRA uses numbers 1–80. There is no official conversion between them, but their grade goals line up (M and DRA 28 mark the end of 2nd grade, P and DRA 38 the end of 3rd), so the chart translates one into the other approximately.

Should I stop my child from reading books above their level?

No. Level-matched text is for skill-building practice, where high accuracy grows fluency fastest. Self-chosen reading is where volume and love of reading come from, and kids routinely punch above their level when the topic is theirs. Use the five-finger rule to tell the difference between a stretch and a frustration, and keep reading harder books to them aloud either way.

Reading Level Chart by Grade: Lexile, F&P, DRA, and AR in One Table

By Readigo editorial team · 2026-07-20 · 9 min read

Short answer

A typical reader finishing 2nd grade is at Guided Reading levels K–M, DRA 18–28 or AR 2.0–2.9, and books written for 2nd grade run about 420L–650L. By the end of 5th grade it's T–V, DRA 50, AR 5.0–5.9 and 830L–1010L for books. A child's own Lexile score runs lower: the national median is about 335L at the end of 2nd grade and 860L at the end of 5th. This chart was compiled by Readigo, an iOS reading-practice app for children ages 6–12, from MetaMetrics' Lexile data, the Common Core text bands, the Fountas & Pinnell text gradient, Renaissance's ATOS scale and the usual DRA equivalents. Our Lexile converter checks a score against students in the same grade. The full grade-by-grade chart is below. Two caveats before you use it. First, the four systems measure different things, so every conversion is approximate - a book can sit at 3rd grade in one system and 4th in another, and neither is wrong. Second, a level describes text difficulty, not your child. Kids read above and below their level all the time, and should.

The conversion chart

The table below aligns the four systems you'll actually meet: Lexile (the number on state test reports and many book jackets), Guided Reading levels (the A–Z letters teachers use, from Fountas & Pinnell), DRA (the numeric levels from the Developmental Reading Assessment), and AR (the grade-decimal levels from Accelerated Reader). Ages are typical for US grades. Read the Guided Reading, DRA and AR columns as end-of-grade targets: a child finishing 3rd grade typically reads at N–P or DRA 30–38. If you're at the start of a school year, look one row up. The Lexile column is different: it is the difficulty of books written for the grade (520L–820L for 3rd), and it sits above what a typical child in that grade scores on a Lexile test.

Reading level chart: grade, age, Lexile, F&P, DRA, and AR

How the four common US leveling systems line up by grade. Every cell is approximate: the systems measure different things, and neighboring grades overlap.

Grade	Age	Lexile (books)	Guided Reading (F&P)	DRA	AR (ATOS)
K	5–6	BR40L–230L	A–D	A–4	0.1–1.0
1	6–7	190L–530L	E–J	6–16	1.0–1.9
2	7–8	420L–650L	K–M	18–28	2.0–2.9
3	8–9	520L–820L	N–P	30–38	3.0–3.9
4	9–10	740L–940L	Q–S	40	4.0–4.9
5	10–11	830L–1010L	T–V	50	5.0–5.9
6	11–12	925L–1070L	W–Y	60	6.0–6.9
7	12–13	970L–1120L	Z	70	7.0–7.9
8	13–14	1010L–1185L	Z	80	8.0–8.9

The Lexile column is the difficulty of books written for each grade: the 2012 Common Core “stretch” bands, split by grade (BR = Beginning Reader, below 0L). A child's own Lexile score usually runs lower than the band for their grade. Guided Reading levels are the Fountas & Pinnell text gradient. AR levels use the ATOS grade-decimal scale, where 4.5 reads like mid-4th-grade text.

Have a Lexile score from a test report? Check it against students in the same grade.

Have a DRA level or an F&P letter instead? See where it falls in the school year.

What each system actually measures

Lexile (MetaMetrics) is a formula. It scores a text mostly on sentence length and word frequency, on a scale from below 0L (marked BR, "Beginning Reader") past 1300L. Kids get a Lexile measure too, usually from a state test or the MAP Growth assessment, so you can match reader to book directly. Because it's a formula, it's consistent - and occasionally absurd. The Grapes of Wrath scores 680L, squarely in the 3rd-grade band, because Steinbeck wrote short sentences. Guided Reading levels (Fountas & Pinnell) are the letters A through Z. They combine measurable text features with human judgment about content, themes, and structure - which is why the levels catch things formulas miss, and why two publishers sometimes disagree about the same book. DRA levels come from the Developmental Reading Assessment, a one-on-one check where a teacher listens to your child read and retell a leveled passage. The scale runs A/1 through 80. There is no official conversion between DRA numbers and Guided Reading letters, but the two publishers' grade goals line up: the end of 2nd grade is M in F&P's goals and DRA 28 in Pearson's, so one points you to roughly the same place as the other. AR (Accelerated Reader, from Renaissance) uses the ATOS formula on a grade-decimal scale: a 4.5 book reads like mid-4th-grade text. Kids take a STAR test at school that produces a matching score plus a recommended range. AR levels say how hard the words and sentences are - not whether the content is age-appropriate. Plenty of YA novels score below 5.0.

Question 1 of 5

Q1. Can your child read CVC words?

Words like cat, dog, sun, hat, run, bed.

DRA levels by grade

DRA levels run from A and 1 up to 80. These are the typical DRA levels by the end of each grade, the same rows as the chart above: - Kindergarten (ages 5–6): DRA A–4 - 1st grade (ages 6–7): DRA 6–16 - 2nd grade (ages 7–8): DRA 18–28 - 3rd grade (ages 8–9): DRA 30–38 - 4th grade (ages 9–10): DRA 40 - 5th grade (ages 10–11): DRA 50 - 6th grade (ages 11–12): DRA 60 - 7th grade (ages 12–13): DRA 70 - 8th grade (ages 13–14): DRA 80 The numbers climb fast in the first three grades and then move in steps of 10, one step a year. There is no official DRA-to-letter conversion, but the end-of-year goals line up (M and DRA 28 at the end of 2nd grade, P and DRA 38 at the end of 3rd), so a DRA number from school points you to the same grade in the next section.

Fountas & Pinnell levels by grade

Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading levels are the letters A to Z. The typical letters by the end of each grade, from the same chart: - Kindergarten (ages 5–6): A–D - 1st grade (ages 6–7): E–J - 2nd grade (ages 7–8): K–M - 3rd grade (ages 8–9): N–P - 4th grade (ages 9–10): Q–S - 5th grade (ages 10–11): T–V - 6th grade (ages 11–12): W–Y - 7th grade (ages 12–13): Z - 8th grade (ages 13–14): Z 1st grade covers six letters, more than any other year, because 1st grade is the year decoding takes off. The scale runs out at Z, so past 6th grade the letter stops telling grades apart, while Lexile and AR keep climbing.

Lexile to AR to Guided Reading conversion

The same chart, read across: the Lexile band of books written for each grade, the matching AR (ATOS) level, and the Guided Reading letters. - Kindergarten: BR40L–230L ≈ AR 0.1–1.0 ≈ Guided Reading A–D - 1st grade: 190L–530L ≈ AR 1.0–1.9 ≈ E–J - 2nd grade: 420L–650L ≈ AR 2.0–2.9 ≈ K–M - 3rd grade: 520L–820L ≈ AR 3.0–3.9 ≈ N–P - 4th grade: 740L–940L ≈ AR 4.0–4.9 ≈ Q–S - 5th grade: 830L–1010L ≈ AR 5.0–5.9 ≈ T–V - 6th grade: 925L–1070L ≈ AR 6.0–6.9 ≈ W–Y - 7th grade: 970L–1120L ≈ AR 7.0–7.9 ≈ Z - 8th grade: 1010L–1185L ≈ AR 8.0–8.9 ≈ Z Treat every row as a neighborhood, not an exact conversion. The Lexile bands overlap from one grade to the next, Lexile and AR are different formulas with no exact conversion between them, and the Lexile column describes books, not children: a child's own Lexile score usually sits below the band for their grade.

Where to find your child's level

Ask the teacher first. Most US elementary schools benchmark reading two or three times a year and can tell you a Guided Reading or DRA level on the spot. For a Lexile measure, check the state test report or MAP report - the number is usually printed there. The Lexile Find a Book tool then matches books to the measure for free. For AR, schools that run the program give a STAR reading test that outputs the score and a suggested range; AR BookFinder looks up the level of nearly any children's book. No school data at all? Our free reading level test takes five questions and maps your child to a reading stage with a next step - it won't print a Lexile number, but it tells you where to start. Pair it with the one-minute fluency check from reading speed by age and you have a solid home picture.

Why the systems disagree

Because they weren't built to agree. Lexile and ATOS are formulas over sentence length and word difficulty. Guided Reading and DRA fold in judgment about ideas, structure, and pictures. A graphic novel with sparse text scores low on any formula while its story does real comprehension work - which is one reason formulas and letters diverge, and one reason graphic novels count as real reading. The bands also overlap. Look at the chart: 3rd grade's Lexile band (520L–820L) overlaps 4th grade's (740L–940L). That's not sloppiness; MetaMetrics notes that overlap is typical of the books published for each grade. A strong 3rd-grade reader and a typical 4th-grade reader genuinely read the same books. So when the school says level N, the library sticker says DRA 30, and the book jacket says 600L, nothing is broken. All three sit in the same late-3rd-grade neighborhood. Use the chart to translate, and expect fuzz of half a grade in either direction.

How to use levels without hurting reading

Levels were invented as a matching tool for instruction, not as a fence. Fountas and Pinnell themselves have said publicly that levels were never meant to follow kids to the library. Here's how to keep them useful: Use the level for school-style practice, not for pleasure reading. When your child reads aloud to you for practice, text near their level (roughly 95%+ of words read accurately) builds fluency fastest. When they curl up with a book they chose, level doesn't matter. A motivated kid reading "too hard" books with a parent nearby, or "too easy" comics by the flashlight, is doing exactly the right thing. Check fit with the five-finger rule. Have your child read one page and put up a finger for each word they can't work out. Zero or one finger - easy. Two or three - the sweet spot for practice. Five - save it for read-aloud together. Let interest beat level. A dinosaur-obsessed 2nd grader will fight through a 4th-grade dinosaur book and grow from it. The same kid handed a level-appropriate book about a topic they don't care about reads two pages. Volume builds readers, and interest drives volume. Keep read-alouds above level. Your child's listening comprehension runs about two grades ahead of their reading level through elementary school. Books you read to them can and should be harder than books they read themselves - that's where the vocabulary and story structures come from.

A level is not a progress report

Parents often track the letter the way they track shoe size - and it's a poor growth signal. Levels move in steps, plateau for months, and depend on which passage got tested that morning. A child can grow plenty as a reader while sitting at "M" all winter. Better growth signals: words correct per minute on grade-level text (the norms and a one-minute home test live in reading speed by age), whether reading aloud is starting to sound like talking (see what prosody is), and whether they can tell you what happened in the chapter, unprompted. Those move week to week - and they're the things a level is trying to approximate anyway. If the level itself worries you - your child sits well below the chart's band for their grade and hasn't moved through a school year of practice - read reading below grade level for what schools look for and when an evaluation makes sense.

Where Readigo fits

A level chart tells you which shelf to look at. It can't tell you what's happening when your child actually reads - which words trip them, whether pace is growing, whether "level M" reading sounds fluent or is being ground out word by word. Readigo fills that gap: it listens while your child reads aloud, flags misread words in real time, and tracks accuracy and words-per-minute week over week. So instead of learning your child's level twice a year at benchmark time, you watch the underlying skill - the thing levels approximate - move (or not) every week, and you know when a plateau is real. Book matching plus a live fluency signal beats either one alone.

The bottom line

Print the chart, translate whatever code your school uses, and then hold levels loosely. Match practice text to level, let interest win everywhere else, keep reading aloud above level, and track growth with signals that move - fluency, expression, retelling - rather than a letter that changes twice a year. The level is the map. The reading is the territory.