1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 1 R T The Reading Teacher Vol. xx Issue xx pp. 1–10 DOI:10.1002/trtr.1280 © 2014 International Reading Association WHAT RESEARCH SAYS ABOUT TEXT COMPLEXITY AND LEARNING TO READ Richard L. Allington ■ Kimberly McCuiston ■ Monica Billen I nherent in the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is the notion that students should be reading “complex works of literature” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA Center] & Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010, p. 3). The greatest increases in text complexity occur for grades 2–5 (Hiebert & Mesmer, 2013). This development stems from the push for college-ready individuals and “unambiguous” evidence that school texts had been decreasing in complexity over time (NGA Center & CCSSO, 2010, p. 2). However, the NGA Center and CCSSO did not provide empirical evidence that this is the case. Both studies reviewed for the CCSS actually indi- cated a curvilinear relationship for the complexity of school texts over time. Both studies (Chall, 1977; Hayes, Wolfer, & Wolfe, 1996) reported that texts began becoming less complex around the 1930s, and this trend extended through the 1950s. But in the late 1960s, school texts began increasing in complexity, a pattern of change that has continued through today. Thus, at least in grades 3 and 6, school texts have higher levels of complexity today than at any time in the past 65 years (Gamson, Lu, & Eckert, 2013). This finding undermines the argument for the need to increase text complexity in the elementary grades made by the NGA Center and CCSSO and leaves us wondering about the role complex text should have in the elementary classroom. Throughout this article, we discuss the research on text complexity. We begin by grounding the impor- tance of this topic in current events; namely, the implementation of the CCSS. From there, we briefly Richard L. Allington is a professor of literacy studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, and past president of the International Reading Association; e-mail rallingt@utk.edu. Kimberly Flanders McCuiston is a PhD candidate in teacher education with a concentration in literacy studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; e-mail kmccuist@utk.edu. Monica Billen is a PhD candidate in teacher education with a concentration in literacy studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; e-mail mbillen@utk.edu. 15 1