Students using Lexia Core5 Reading make significant progress in literacy compared to their peers
In California, U.S., students in grades three, four and five at 525 schools using Lexia Core5 Reading made significant progress in literacy compared to their peers in 4,362 schools not using the program.
Lexia, a literacy education provider owned by Cambium Learning Group, studied more than 1 million Californian students’ performance on the Smarter Balance English Language Arts/Literacy assessment during the 2022-23 school year.
The results showed that Core5 helps to improve foundational and advanced literacy skills for all students - including those at-risk, on-level or advance - in elementary grades.
The Core5 program provides a systematic approach to phonological awareness, oral language, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.
Both the students using Core5 and those not using it had similar average scores on the 2022 SBAC ELA, but in the 2023 assessment, third graders using Core5 scored an average of 3.49 points higher than their peers.
The cores for students using Core5 in fourth and fifth grade were, on average, 2.81 and 3.35 points higher than those not using it respectively.
Nick Gaehde, President at Lexia, comments: “That fact drives home the point that improving students’ literacy outcomes boosts their achievements in other areas. Since post-pandemic federal relief funds expired in 2024, school leaders have had to decide whether they should continue investing in interventional programs. These results show that Core5 is helping California educators address the critical need to improve student reading proficiency.”
Earlier this year, Cambium Assessment announced it had completed more than 130 million assessments in 2025, breaking a record as it shares plans to provide K-12 educators with further tools to improve student outcomes.
