Some of those challenges are described here so that you can better guide your student or child in the use of this search feature, and so you know that we are continuing to research ways to improve this already powerful tool. Many Web sites do not have much text. Some Web pages don't contain enough text to allow us to determine a reliable Lexile measure. Since Lexile searches are based on a child's reading comprehension level, we average text on both the home page and several subsequent pages of that site to determine the site's overall measure. We do not include sites with insufficient text in Education Web searches where grade level is employed.
Some sites contain purely reference data.
It is possible that the Lexile associated with a site will be erroneously low if a large portion of the site includes information such as a bibliography, a form, or simple single-line reference information. It is our experience that even young learners can easily determine that a particular site does not contain the information they require. This ability to weed out superfluous information is important as the learner is weaned from this search feature. Web sites often grow organically, with little to no planning. Media that is subjected to standard editing practices typically reflects a narrow range of reading comprehension levels.