Lexile to grade level: check a score or a book
A Lexile number means one of two things. On your child's test report it is a reading score. On a book it is the book's difficulty. The two run on the same scale but not at the same height: the median 3rd grader scores about 415L in the fall, while books written for 3rd grade run 520L to 820L. That gap is normal, and mixing the two up is how a typical child ends up looking a grade behind. The converter below handles both.
Check a Lexile score or a book level
For a score, pick your child's grade and when they took the test. The converter places the score against national results for that grade and season. For a book, it shows which grades the level usually belongs to.
Lexile converter
What does this Lexile number mean?
MAP Growth prints a range like 590L-740L. You can paste it as is. Or try one:
What Lexile scores are typical by grade
These are MetaMetrics' national norms, built from about 20 million students tested between 2021 and 2025. The median is the middle student: half score higher, half lower. The last column is the middle half of students in the spring, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Grade | Fall median | Winter median | Spring median | Middle half, spring |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | BR315L | BR215L | BR140L | BR345L to 60L |
| 1st grade | BR45L | 45L | 110L | BR90L to 310L |
| 2nd grade | 200L | 275L | 335L | 135L to 540L |
| 3rd grade | 415L | 485L | 535L | 335L to 735L |
| 4th grade | 605L | 665L | 710L | 510L to 910L |
| 5th grade | 770L | 820L | 860L | 660L to 1055L |
| 6th grade | 905L | 950L | 980L | 780L to 1175L |
| 7th grade | 1015L | 1050L | 1075L | 880L to 1270L |
| 8th grade | 1105L | 1125L | 1145L | 950L to 1335L |
Two things stand out. The spread inside one grade is wide: the middle half of students covers about 400L in every grade from 2nd to 8th, so two children in the same class can be two grades apart and both be fine. And growth slows down. The spring median rises about 200L a year in the early grades and less than 100L a year by 7th and 8th.
Book levels by grade
The chart below is about books. Its Lexile column is the 2012 Common Core text bands, split by grade. Those bands were raised on purpose, a “stretch” meant to close the gap between high school and college reading, so they sit above what a typical student in the grade scores. The other three columns are the usual equivalents in the systems schools report instead.
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.
The full story on each system, and when to stop worrying about levels at all, is in the reading level chart by grade.
Matching your child to books
A book gets its Lexile from a formula that looks mostly at sentence length and how common the words are. A child gets theirs from a test: MAP Growth, many state reading tests and some school screeners report one. It marks the text difficulty your child can read with about 75 percent comprehension, which is some challenge but not a struggle.
To pick books, MetaMetrics suggests a range around the score: from 100L below it to 50L above. A child scoring 700L would look at books from 600L to 750L. The converter prints that range under every score.
The formula can't see themes, though: The Grapes of Wrathscores 680L because Steinbeck wrote short sentences. A high score also doesn't mean books for older kids are a good fit, because the content may not be. Use the Lexile to find the right shelf, then let your child pick from it by topic. Lexile Find a Book searches titles by level for free.
No Lexile score yet? Start here
Five questions, answered from memory. It places your child at a reading stage and names one next step. You don't need a test report.
What a Lexile score can't tell you
A Lexile score is a snapshot, usually taken two or three times a year. It says nothing about how the reading sounds: whether your child reads smoothly or word by word, and which words trip them up. Those change week to week, and they are what the score is trying to approximate.
For that, listen. A one-minute read of a grade-level passage gives you words correct per minute, and the WCPM chart by grade shows what is typical. If the score itself worries you, read reading below grade level for what schools look for and when an evaluation makes sense.
Frequently asked questions
What Lexile level should a 3rd grader be at?
The median 3rd grader scores about 415L in the fall, 485L in winter and 535L by spring, and the middle half of 3rd graders score 215L to 615L in the fall and 335L to 735L in the spring (MetaMetrics national norms, 2021-2025). Books written for 3rd grade run higher, 520L to 820L, because the Common Core text bands were set as a stretch. So a 3rd grader at 450L in October is right in the middle, even though that number sits below the 3rd-grade book band.
What grade level is 1000L?
It depends on whether it's a book or a child. A book at 1000L sits in the book bands for 5th grade (high end), 6th (middle) and 7th (low end). A child scoring 1000L is close to the median for 6th grade in the spring (980L) and 7th grade in the fall (1015L). For a 5th grader, it's in the top quarter in the fall, where the 75th percentile is 965L.
What does BR mean on a Lexile report?
Beginning Reader. BR marks scores and books below 0L, and the number after BR counts down toward zero as reading gets harder, so a BR300L book is easier than a BR100L one. BR is normal early on: in the fall, most kindergartners score BR, and so do about half of 1st graders (the national median for 1st grade in the fall is BR45L).
Is my child's Lexile the same as a book's Lexile?
Same scale, different meaning. A book's Lexile describes the text. Your child's score marks the text difficulty they can read with about 75 percent comprehension, which is some challenge but not a struggle. MetaMetrics suggests books from 100L below the score to 50L above it. MAP Growth reports print that range instead of the score, so the score is the low end plus 100L: a report showing 590L-740L means 690L. The converter does this for you.
How do I find my child's Lexile score?
Check the score report from the MAP Growth reading test or your state reading test first. Many of them print a Lexile score or range. If the school reports Guided Reading letters or DRA numbers instead, the book chart on this page lines them up by grade. Without any school data, our five-question reading level test places your child at a stage and gives you a next step.
Sources
- MetaMetrics - Lexile grade level charts: national student norms, 2021-2025
- MetaMetrics - Lexile Measures and Grade Levels (typical reader and text measures by grade)
- MetaMetrics - Texts and Lexile Measures (kindergarten band, BR)
- Common Core State Standards - Supplemental Information for Appendix A: text complexity bands
- Fountas & Pinnell - Text Level Gradient
- Renaissance - ATOS and AR BookFinder
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