Description:

Monitoring Instructional Reading Levels (MIRL) is a districtwide strategy being implemented in MCPS to improve reading instruction and increase reading performance for K–5 students. MIRL is a strategy which uses “assessment FOR learning” as a tool for diagnosing a student’s immediate need so that instruction can be adjusted appropriately to improve student performance in reading.

The purpose of this report is to examine effects of the first year of MIRL strategy on Grades 3–5 students’ performance in reading during the 2015–2016 school year by comparing the performance of students in Grades 3–5 on Measures of Academic Progress in Reading (MAP-R) to performance in 2014–2015, before the implementation of MIRL.  

Recommendations:

• Continue to examine the effects of the MIRL strategy on student performance in reading with each successive year of implementation. Examining effects of MIRL after teachers and students have had sufficient time to master the use of the strategy as intended, will be more definitive. 

• Examine the extent to which MIRL practices are implemented as intended for a) subgroups of students and b) schools still performing at low levels in reading before and after MIRL Year 1.

• Extend the study of effects of the MIRL strategy to include growth in specific aspects of reading: 1) Literary Text, Informational Text, 2) Vocabulary, 3) Writing Expression, and 4) Knowledge and use of Language Conventions. 

File Name: MIRL Year 1 Outcome report.pdf (622.9KB PDF)