Measured Insights, May 2026

The Editor’s Note

Mastering complex texts is a critical pathway to literacy growth. But when it comes to multilingual learners, it’s critical that we strike the right balance between introducing texts that build the rich vocabulary and nuanced ideas essential for literacy and content mastery without pushing students to the point of frustration.

A better approach is to offer multilingual learners a range of texts—alongside the appropriate scaffolding—to support vocabulary development and reading comprehension. In this way, text complexity becomes a catalyst for language development and literacy growth, enabling multilingual learners to strengthen their literacy skills and become strong, fluent readers. 

[Research] Tiered Texts as a Pathway to Complex Text Comprehension

Developed in collaboration with the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Doctoral Student and Graduate Research Assistant, Yuzi Gao, PhD in Education (Culture, Curriculum, and Teacher Education)

When multilingual learners and readers who struggle are asked to read complex texts, the challenge is often not willingness but access. In this study, “A Tiered Texts Approach for Scaffolding Reading Comprehension for English Learners and Struggling Readers,” Zhang and Smolen (2022) examine how a tiered texts approach can support multilingual learners and readers who need extra support in accessing complex texts by building background knowledge, academic language, and comprehension through scaffolded instruction.

The study is based on an action research project involving 65 in-service teachers in a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) endorsement program. Teachers designed tiered text units, presented them, and wrote reflections on what they learned from the process and how useful they found the approach for their own teaching. The researchers analyzed these reflections to identify common themes.

The Operational Model of The Tiered Texts Design
The trainee teachers were provided with an operational model for tiered texts adapted from Moss and colleagues (2011) to guide them to develop their own tiered text units. The model centers on three levels of support. 

• In Tier 1 (Building Vocabulary), teachers build background knowledge and introduce key vocabulary, often using multimodal resources such as visuals, videos, and discussion.
• In Tier 2 (Practice), students work with a more accessible companion text and receive additional language and comprehension support. 
• In Tier 3 (Target Text), students move to the grade-level target text with greater independence. 

Across tiers, the approach emphasizes both content learning and language development, along with formative assessment and differentiated instruction.

Main Findings

• The action research study supported the usefulness of the tiered texts approach in helping in-service teachers gain essential instructional knowledge and skills for teaching complex texts.
• A majority of teachers (67%) reported successful student learning outcomes, and 41% specifically noted that students were engaged and motivated by the activities included in the tiered text approach.
• Teachers found that the approach effectively bridged gaps in background knowledge and vocabulary, enabling multilingual learners and struggling readers to successfully navigate rigorous, grade-level academic material.
• Teachers were able to transfer their training experience to their own classroom practice, becoming more adept at delivering scaffolded and differentiated instruction.

Practical Takeaways for Educators

• Design units using a three-tier model: Tier 1 focuses on building background knowledge; Tier 2 provides practice with a more accessible parallel text; and Tier 3 involves the independent reading of the target text.
• Integrate language and content objectives simultaneously at every tier, ensuring students receive explicit instruction in academic vocabulary and sentence-level grammar (such as pronoun referents) alongside content concepts.
• Use evidence-based scaffolding strategies throughout the unit, such as Word Graphic Organizers and Syntactic Synergy to show connections across sentences.
• Prioritize differentiation by incorporating various media (videos, photos), using flexible grouping based on language proficiency, and allowing students to complete tiers at their own pace.

Limitations
The study is based on teachers’ written reflections in a teacher-training context, so the findings tell us more about teachers’ perceptions and learning than about direct effects on student achievement. Teachers also identified several implementation challenges: 39% cited difficulty locating appropriate materials across multiple tiers, 34% noted the heavy time investment required for planning, 46% anticipated insufficient instructional time to deliver all tiers effectively, and 17% raised concerns about meeting the needs of students with widely varying language proficiency and ability levels. Together, these constraints suggest that while the tiered texts approach holds promise, its real-world feasibility depends on substantial planning time, access to quality materials, and instructional support. 

Relevance for the Lexile® Framework for Reading
This study speaks directly to the utility of the Lexile Framework for Reading. Zhang and Smolen (2022) show that helping multilingual learners and struggling readers access complex text requires careful attention to text demands, learner needs, and instructional supports, not text complexity in isolation. Notably, the authors used a Lexile measure to select the Tier 2 text in their sample unit, illustrating how the Framework supports the precise, sequenced text selection that tiered instruction requires.

The Lexile Framework offers a valid, quantitative scale that helps educators efficiently identify and order texts of progressively increasing complexity, freeing time for the meaningful scaffolds that build background knowledge, academic language, and comprehension. For educators, the main takeaway is clear: measures of text complexity are most useful when they inform a broader plan for matching students with text and moving them toward successful, independent reading.

Read the study

References
Zhang, W., & Smolen, L. (2022). Tiered texts approach for scaffolding reading comprehension for English learners and struggling readers: Tiered texts approach. International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 14(2), 1249-1269.
Moss, B., Lapp, D. & O’Shea, M. (2011). Tiered Texts: Supporting knowledge and language learning for English learners and struggling readers. English Journal, 100(5), 54-60.

Turn the Page and Press Play: What We’re Reading and Listening To

[Article] English Learners Need Equal Access to Rich Texts: How One School Made That Happen, Education Week, Sarah Schwartz, January 15, 2024
Giving English learners (ELs) easier texts often backfires. It limits their exposure to complex vocabulary and ideas and ultimately stunts comprehension growth. A better approach is to introduce complex, content-rich texts alongside proper support structures. 

[Article] What Multilingual Learners Actually Need to Succeed, Carnegie Learning, Kelly Denzler, November 12, 2025
When it comes to multilingual learner education, we’ve discovered many practices that don’t work. Here are seven best practices that do. 

[Article] Perspective | ‘I Can Read, But I Don’t Know What It Means’: Rethinking Literacy for Multilingual Learners Terri Ashchi, EdNC, February 4, 2026
Multilingual learners often make good progress on decoding—but they still don’t understand what the words mean. That’s why expanding the definition of literacy matters. 

[Article] How to Address Text Complexity and Help Students Understand What They Read, Julie Richardson, NWEA, December 4, 2025
Preparing students to tackle complex texts requires more than just providing the appropriate scaffolds. It also requires sparking their interest and motivation through engagement, relevancy, accessibility, and meaning. 

[Article] Helping Multilingual Learners Develop Literacy and Language Proficiency, Medium, Dr. Jana Echevarria, July 5, 2023
Learning new literacy skills and mastering grade-level content in a new language is daunting. But helping multilingual learners improve their literacy skills doesn’t require a new way of teaching.

[Podcast] Multilingual Learner Support: Practical Strategies for Upper Elementary Teachers, Stellar Teacher Podcast with Sara Marye, Episode 272, September 29. 2025
Many believe that multilingual learners need to master English before they can access grade level texts. Podcast guests Dr. Jana Echevarría and Dr. Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez explain why that’s simply not true. 

Did You Know?

5.3+ million public school students in the U.S. are English learners (ELs)

ELs represent the fastest growing population of students in K-12 schools, growing 15% from 2011 to 2021.

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