TCAP Family Portal Now Includes Lexile Reader Levels for Students

 

Helping Parents Understand and Support Their Student’s Reading Progress

Nashville, TN— With the 2022-23 school year in full swing, the Tennessee Department of Education concludes the “Know More, Learn More TN” back to school campaign with an encouragement to all families to support their student’s reading progress by learning about their Lexile level. Newly added this week in the TCAP Family Portal, Lexile levels for each student provide parents and families with the information they need to support their student’s reading skills and find reading materials to match and further develop the student’s reading skills.

Tennessee parents and families with students who took a TCAP ELA assessment in spring 2022 will now see a Lexile Reader Measure in the TCAP Family Portal. Lexile Reader Measures give parents information about their student’s reading progress and help them select reading materials that are matched to their academic needs. A Lexile measure assesses a student’s reading ability and what level of text a student can read and understand on their own.

“The TCAP Family Portal is a free resource to help parents understand how their student is progressing toward their academic goals, and the department has added new resources to make it easy for families to support learning,” said Commissioner Penny Schwinn. “Along with interactive TCAP assessment reports for students, the TCAP Family Portal now provides a student’s Lexile level—giving parents an important tool to assess their student's reading ability and support learning inside and outside classroom.”

Aligned to the Tennessee Academic Standards for English language arts, students should read within the range of their grade-band and should also experience supportive texts in the lower ends of the range to prepare them for the more challenging texts in the upper ends of the range.

The Lexile framework and scale for reading compliment the state‘s TCAP English language arts assessment to accurately measure each student’s reading level. The Lexile measure is shown as a number with an “L” for Lexile measure and can range from 0L for beginning readers to above 1600L for college-level readers. Books and other texts have a Lexile measure associated with them, which describes how difficult the text is to comprehend. When used together, these measures can help parents and families find a book for their student that is at an appropriate level of difficulty and suggests how well the student will comprehend the text. 

“I appreciate the Tennessee Department of Education including Lexile levels for parents to view in the TCAP Family Portal,” said Tracy McAbee, Director of Schools, Lewis County Schools. “Knowing the Lexile range can empower parents to foster a love of reading in their child by scaffolding books that are interesting to the child and within a range that the child can comprehend. The Lexile is also one component of helping parents see progress in reading ability of their child.”

“Tennessee parents looking for ways to accelerate their child’s achievement will want to take a few minutes to log into the TCAP Family Portal. They can review available TCAP data and see suggested next steps specific to their child,” said Tiffany Hogan, Literacy Coach, Johnson City Schools. “Lexile scores for individual students are now provided. These numbers are especially helpful for teachers, parents, and students to consider when selecting texts that offer the right amount of challenge for students’ current reading abilities to promote academic growth.” 

“The TCAP Family Portal supports many key ingredients for our continued drive for success in Rutherford County,” said Dr. Clark Blair, Principal, McFadden School of Excellence. “Our schools value communication, partnership, and data driven decision-making. At McFadden School of Excellence, the portal gives families not only testing information but opens the door for great conversations between families and our school. Together, we can see student performance, celebrate success, and set goals for improvement.”

“We are fortunate at Blackman Middle School to have an involved community of parents that utilize resources like the TCAP Family Portal,” said Rachel Jernigan, Instructional Coach, Blackman Middle School. “This portal allows parents to access student data and helps us strengthen our partnership with parents. Together we can monitor student progress, celebrate learning, and help students continue to grow. We are excited to continue our work with parents as we strive to make data-informed decisions to help every student reach their full potential.” 

For more information on the TCAP Family Portal, parents and families can watch this short video, reference this one-pager or view this graphic.

Visit the department’s TCAP webpage for more information on Tennessee’s assessment program. 

For Tennessee Department of Education media inquiries, contact Edu.MediaInquiries@tn.gov.

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