Understanding IRLA

IRLA (Independent Reading Level Assessment) is Hillsborough Township's reading assessment, produced by American Reading Company. Within IRLA, students move through a variety of color levels.  Each level has points awarded for decoding and/or comprehension skills that are used to show a child's progress within that level. Expected color levels for each grade level are:

K - 1Y-3Y (Yellow) to 1G (Green)
1 - 2G (Green) through 1B and 2B (Blue)
2 - 1R and 2R (Red)
3 - White
4 - Black

Primary students (grades K-2) will have a heavy focus on decoding in the levels through 2R.  As they move into White, and, ultimately, Black, the shift changes to comprehension and vocabulary.  Knowing what words mean (including words with multiple meanings) and how to figure out what words mean becomes extremely important for understanding text.  Reading aloud to your child every night, talking about what is happening in the story, and what words mean will reinforce these comprehension skills and help them as they progress through IRLA.

Please see attached file for explanations of each color level. You may also refer to the websites tab for American Reading Company's site.

IRLA levels snapshot (pdf)