The Accelerated Reader

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Developed by Renaissance Learning, the Accelerated Reader (AR) program has become widely used in schools as a literacy tool for encouraging students to read more and increasing their reading comprehension. AR consists of three fundamental components: First, students are given the opportunity to choose a series of books in accordance with the book's reading levels. In addition, students who have read the books also earn a specific number of points that can be exchanged for tangible rewards. Second, students are expected to complete a computerized quiz consisting of an average of ten multiple choice questions to determine their understanding of the book. Third, teachers monitor the students' reading proficiency through computer-generated reports based on 24 higher-level reading skills (Education Commission of the States, 2000; Pavonetti, Brimmer, & Cipielewski, 2002).

The widespread adoption of the AR program by many schools, without a comprehensive evaluation of its effectiveness in increasing students' desire to read and reading comprehension, has generated tremendous controversy. In the remainder of this paper, the effectiveness of the AR program will be discussed by highlighting the findings of various research studies and the criticisms raised by educators and parents.

One of the key reasons why the AR program continues to be embroiled in controversy is the inconsistency in the findings of research studies. While some studies have shown that students who particip

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esults at the district level, Pavonetti et al. (2002) reported no statistically significant difference between students who had been exposed to AR in elementary schools and those who had not in the exurban school district. In one of the suburban school districts that did not provide the AR program in the middle schools, students who did not participate in the AR program in the elementary schools actually fared better than those who did. On the other hand, the suburban school district that had AR programs at the middle school level showed that students who had been exposed to AR programs at the elementary school level outperformed their counterparts who did not participate in AR programs in elementary school. The conflicting outcomes of the study failed to validate the effectiveness of the AR program its objective of promoting long-term interest in reading and increasing test scores. In fact, in two of the three districts that did not offer AR programs at the middle school levels, students who did not participate in AR programs at the elementary school level did better than the AR students. As for the district that had AR programs in middle schools, the positive outcome of the AR students suggested that these students were sim
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Approximate Word count = 1536
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

The Accelerated Reader

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