Formative Assessment & Differentiated Support

American Reading Company’s Independent Reading Level Assessment^® (IRLA^®) is a game-changing formative assessment for reading that changes the daily behaviors of teachers, students, and administrators.

Formative Assessment

The IRLA's Developmental Reading Taxonomy^® begins with phonics and proceeds through vocabulary & knowledge developmental sequences. The IRLA delivers specific, actionable data that tells the teacher where a student is, why, and the sequence of skills/behaviors needed to learn next to accelerate reading growth.

The Evaluación del nivel independiente de lectura^® (ENIL^®) is a developmental reading taxonomy for students, paralleling the Independent Reading Level Assessment (IRLA) while reflecting how the stages of learning to read differ between Spanish and English.

How It Works

Each scenario below will give you a peek into the power of the IRLA as a formative assessment tool, scripted and aligned intervention program, and digital progress monitoring tool. This three-pronged approach works quickly to put students in need of additional support on a path to proficiency.

Example 1 — Student A
Example 2 — Student B
Example 3 — Student C

Example 1 — Student A

The teacher uses the IRLA's Phonics Infrastructure to screen every student for Phonics Gaps. Let's go over what happens with Student A.

1

Student A can decode greater than 70% of the short vowel VC, CVC or CCVC, CVCC words in the 1G/2G column.

2

Student A is unable to decode greater than 70% of the words in the 1B column. The student specifically struggles with VCe words.

3

From Step 1, we know Student A has the phonics skills to independently read and comprehend decodable texts in 1G/2G. The teacher confirms this with a short cold read passage.

4

Student A can now independently practice reading in lots of decodable (2G) books.

5

Based on the initial assessment it seems like what Student A needs to learn next is the CVCe rule. The teacher double checks and confirms using the one-syllable decoding check.

6

The teacher uses the recommended set of CVCe scripted lessons and decodables to help Student A master this skill as quickly as possible.

7

As soon as Student A learns this skill, teacher and student move on to R controlled vowels, vowel teams, or whatever the next skill they identify. This cycle of assessing, instructing, and monitoring progress continues for each skill gap Student A has as they march towards proficiency.

Watch It in Action

Watch educators use the IRLA formative assessment to conference with students and determine what they know now and what they will learn next.

The Guide to IRLA Coaching with Multilingual Learners is organized to provide high-leverage Power Goals specific to students who are developing reading skills as they acquire English-language proficiency, and vice versa.

Learn More

IRLA Validity
ENIL Validity
Online Performance Management
Text Complexity

Study of the relationship between the IRLA and State ELA Tests

Study of the relationship between the IRLA and Interim ELA Assessments

IRLA validity study published in The Journal of At–Risk Issues