The Pace system is competency-based; its content is not leveled by “content grade level.” Students are instead placed into Pace according to standardized measures of independent reading level. Pace students do not learn according to their age or grade, but instead learn according to their most pressing personal learning needs.
View independent reading levels of Pace Lessons:
Pace tutorials are leveled by Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level. This measure is one widely recognized objective measure of text complexity. There are many other measures; however, the F-K measure has been used for a wide range of applications since the late 1970s to provide consistent measures of readability. There are several recognized measures of quantitative text complexity that provide consistent results and are calculated in different ways.
Quantitative Measures of Text Complexity
| Common Core Band | Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level | ATOS (Renaissance Learning) | Degrees of Reading Power (Questar) | The Lexile (MetaMetrix) | Reading Maturity (Pearson) | SourceRater (Educational Testing Service) |
| 2.0-3.9 | 2.75-5.14 | 42-54 | 1.98-5.34 | 420-820 | 3.53-6.13 | 0.05-2 48 |
| 4.0-5.9 | 4.97-7.03 | 52-60 | 4.51-7.73 | 740-1010 | 5.42-7.92 | 0.84 5.75 |
| 6.0-8.9 | 7.00-9.98 | 57-67 | 6.51-10.34 | 925-1185 | 7.04-9.57 | 4.11-10 66 |
| 9.0-10.9 | 9.67-12.01 | 62-72 | 8.32-12.12 | 1050 -1335 | 8.41-10.81 | 9.02 -13.93 |
| 11.0-CCR | 11.20-14 10 | 67-74 | 10.34-14 2 | 1185-1385 | 9.57-12 00 | 12.30-14 50 |
The formula for the Flesch Kincaid method is:
F-K Grade Level = 0.39 (words/sentences) + 11.8 (syllables/words) – 15.59
It is important to note that there is no perfect objective measure of text complexity. Experts in the field generally use a 3 step approach to analyzing text complexity, which involves both qualitative measures of text complexity and learner/task considerations, in addition to valid quantitative measures. PaceWare readability has the added benefit of 50 years of refinement to ensure a precise understanding of content difficulty.
Learn more:
Heibert/Pearson – Understanding Text Complexity
Pace Curricula Reading Levels by Subject and Title