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 participate in AR programs have higher scores on standardized tests than those of their control group counterparts, others have elicited the opposite result (Krashen, 2002). In their longitudinal study comparing students who participated in the AR program with a control group, Peak and DeWalt (1994) found that students in the AR program increased their scores on the California Achievement Test (CAT) by 72 points between the pre-test at third grade and the post-test at...