This paper suggests that teachers concentrate on the ideational and structural properties of text rather than on information acquired from readability formulas when selecting and using texts. Emphasis is given to the importance of context in the analysis of text, and a framework is suggested for examining the text considering the functions texts are intended to serve in the classroom. Suggestions to teachers for examining the ideas, the relationships between ideas, and the structural qualities of texts include: (1) ideas might be examined by first isolating the essential understanding students are expected to derive from a text, then examining the extent and nature of support for these understandings provided within the idea units of a text; (2) relationships between ideas might be evaluated in terms of the probability with which the relationships are readily understood, implying that factors such as context, background knowledge, and reader purpose should be considered; and (3) the structural qualitites of expository text might be examined in terms of the ease with which ideas can be mapped hierarchically and relationally. Suggestions are also given for assessing the structural qualities of narrative. (MKM)