Grade 3 ELA Sample SR Item Form C2 T8
Worksheet: Text Complexity Analysis
A basic explanation of how laws are
made at the national level
Recommended Placement for Assessment: Grade 3 or 4
Both the qualitative and the quantitative measures suggest
that an assignment at grade 5 is appropriate. Since passage is
organized in sequential order and contains generally simple
language and unfamiliar ideas are explained in full, this
passage is recommended for placement as a challenging
passage at an earlier grade. Based on these sets of measures,
this passage is recommended for assessment at grade 3 or 4.
Qualitative Measures Quantitative Measures
Meaning/Purpose:
Slightly complex: The title sets clear expectations
for the purpose of the passage. The focus is clear
and concrete.
Text Structure:
Moderately complex: The passage is organized
in sequential order, though there are many
asides and exceptions noted. Headings provide
clear structure to the passage. The text
features are very clear and offer solid visual
support to the text.
Language Features:
Slightly complex: Style is conversational and
language is generally simple. Most difficult
words are defined, though a few require use of
context clues to discern their meaning. There
are a variety of sentence structures, but the
language in general is straightforward and
accessible.
Knowledge Demands:
Moderately complex: Text includes discipline-
specific information, though ideas that may be
unfamiliar to students (e.g., constituents) are
explained in full.
Common Core State Standards Appendix A
Complexity Band Level (if applicable):
Lexile or Other Quantitative Measure of the
Text:
Lexile: 980L; upper grades 4-5 or lower grades
6-8
Flesch-Kincaid: 6.3
Word Count: 582
Considerations for Passage Selection
Passage selection should be based on the ELA
Content Specifications targets and the
cognitive demands of the assessment tasks.
Potential Challenges a Text May Pose:
•
Accessibility
•
Sentence and text structures
•
Archaic language, slang, idioms, or other
language challenges
•
Background knowledge
•
Bias and sensitivity issues
•
Word count
Adapted from the 2012 ELA SCASS work