MetaMetrics Launches Science Of Reading-Aligned Phonics Instructional Tools

Lexile Find a Decodable Book and Lexile Decodable Passages will help students break the alphabetic code and become proficient readers

Durham, NC (PRWEB) - Thousands of K-2 teachers around the country are looking for tools to accelerate student literacy development by teaching phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. To support them as they strive to ensure that all children become strong readers, today MetaMetrics launched two new science of reading-aligned phonics instructional tools on the Lexile® & Quantile® Hub.

The need to change the way reading is taught is dire. On the 2022 National Assessment of Education Progress – the Nation’s Report Card – the average fourth-grade reading score was lower than all previous assessment years going back to 2005. Only one in three students met proficiency standards. To change this downward trend, more than 30 states have codified using structured literacy instruction - the science of reading.

“Decades of research demonstrates children benefit from learning to read by learning letter sounds via explicit, systematic and cumulative phonics instruction which helps developing decoding skills,” said Neena Saha, Ph.D., MetaMetrics’ vice president, science of reading. “Our new tools will support teachers as they help their students break the alphabetic code and become proficient readers.”

Available free on the Hub, MetaMetrics’ new Lexile® Find a Decodable Book allows teachers to search for decodable books by short and long vowel sounds, such as “short a.” At launch, the tool includes nearly 200 books by published decodable authors and will continue to grow as more are added to the tool. With Find a Decodable Book, teachers will save valuable time by using one central source to browse and find decodables across publishers and curricula, supporting their teaching by finding a variety of decodable books by vowel sounds. The tool also allows teachers to see the words and sound spellings of books when planning instruction.

To grow the resources available for teaching phonics, MetaMetrics also partnered with published decodable authors to create a collection of fun and engaging passages. At launch, Lexile® Decodable Passages includes more than 100 decodable stories. The one-page passages focus on the most common phonics skills such as short vowels, blends and digraphs. Lexile Decodable Passages accommodate popular scopes and sequences and are categorized by popular sound spellings. Each passage features an illustration and two comprehension questions. The passages are free for educators in MetaMetrics’ partner states or with a Premium Hub membership.

To explore MetaMetrics’ new phonics instructional tools, visit the Hub at hub.lexile.com.

About MetaMetrics
MetaMetrics is an award-winning education technology organization that offers the only scientifically valid, universal scales for measuring silent and oral reading and listening (Lexile) and math (Quantile) with plans to develop measures for writing. The Lexile and Quantile Frameworks measure student ability and the complexity of the content they encounter. Lexile and Quantile measures and related technologies link assessment to instruction and provide the next steps for students of all ages and abilities. The measures also provide valuable insights into students’ potential for growth. MetaMetrics’ measures, products, and services are licensed to dozens of education product companies to help achieve that growth. For 35 years, MetaMetrics’ work has been increasingly recognized for its research-based approach to improving learning. For more information, visit MetaMetricsInc.com.