actually seventh grade is pretty good. The NY Times is, I believe, done in 8th grade English - oh, what the snobs who read it don't know! It used to be 6th grade. Either they've improved or our standards have been lowered.
I might have said it before, but 'way back when, I was grading tests for my mom and studying for the graduate record exam - they look at that to see if you're smart enough for grad school. What a shocker to find words on her test that were on my vocabulary list. What was she teaching? Third grade. She said those words were standard third grade, from her teacher's prep books.