[AAACE-NLA] Question about Flesch-Kincaid and Grade Levels

[andresmuro@aol.com]

 To qualify for finacial aid to get into college a potential candidate needs to demonstrate that he/she has the ability to benefit from financial aid. This means that the person has to have a HS diploma or GED, or to score in a standardized test about one standard deviation below the average reading level of a high school grad. The average reading level of a high school grad was equivalent to 8th grade a few years ago. I doubt that this has changed much. I would bet that the average HS grad would test at approximately 8th grade reading level on the TABE. This info is in the Federal REgister in the section on financial aid. 
 
 Note that readibility formulas can be misguiding. Presidential candidates may use words with a high number of sylables and readibility formulas may judge as requiring a higher reading level. However, the words with high numbers of sylables may be common place in the political discourse and most people may be familiar with them at a given time. 
 
 Moreover, I would guess that there may be a correlation with readibility formulas and speech comprehension, but not all the time. For example you may find that educated immigrants may score very high on readibility formulas but they may understand very little speech. On the other hand, less educated native speakers will understand more speech but less print. 
 
 Andres
 
 
    Please take a look at my artwork: www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html   
 -----Original Message-----
 From: jsandlin at coe.tamu.edu
 To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
 Sent: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 2:07 PM
 Subject: [AAACE-NLA] Question about Flesch-Kincaid and Grade Levels
 
  Hello,  
 I have a query from a friend who is a political scientist who is working on a project where he is examining the ability of presidential candidates to speak well and clearly to voters and the impact of communication, issue distance, and the interaction of the 2 on vote choice. He has coded presidential debates based on a Flesch-Kincaid reading level (e.g., Al Gore speaks at a 9th grade level; Ronald Reagan speaks at a 12th grade level, Ross Perot speaks at a 6th grade level). 
  He wants to match these "speaking grade levels" to actual education levels of voters (e.g., is a 9th grade reading level = the average H.S. graduate? or is it a 11th grade level?). He can't seem to find a recent article detailing this. All he has found is that a 12th grade reading level is the grade levels of reading/speaking that a HS grad is SUPPOSED to have, but not necessarily what the average American HS grad has. 
 I have been looking around but I can't find any good information to tell him. Do any of you have any leads or information or places I could tell him to look, detailing the connection between Flesch-Kincaid reading levels and actual education levels? I really appreciate this! Thanks in advance. 
 Jenny 
 
   Jennifer A. Sandlin Assistant Professor Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development MS 4226 Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4226 979.458.0508 (work) jsandlin at coe.tamu.edu 
  
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