From MUSE: Text Complexity

Kansas has created a process for determining the complexity of a text that uses quantitative data such as lexile score as one part in a multi-part consideration. From what I have seen, some people are concerned that low-lexile texts will, under the more expansive considerations, be categorized as more complex and more appropriate for older students, thus dumbing down the curriculum.

Those fears seem short sighted to me.  The complexity of a text certainly depends upon more than lexile score.  As we know, knowing the words in a text does not necessarily mean that you can understand the text.  

This process takes into account a lot of important considerations, which are divided into three categories: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Reader/Task, as described in the image below.  The full presentation is attached.

This post was also published on MUSE '13