Putting Text Complexity in Context

Abstract

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts have prompted enormous attention to issues of text complexity. The purpose of this article is to put text complexity in perspective by moving from a primary focus on the text itself to a focus on the comprehension of complex text. We argue that a focus on comprehension is at the heart of the Common Core Standards for ELA and that characteristics of the text represent only one of several factors that influence comprehension. Using both theoretical and empirical sources, we highlight the relationship between texts and tasks. We propose a Text-Task Scenario framework in which the simultaneous consideration of text and task results in a more nuanced and more instructionally responsive estimate of the comprehension of complex text.