Accelerated Reader facts for kids

Accelerated Reader (AR) is an educational tool that is used to monitor and manage a student's independent reading practice and reading comprehension in the English and Spanish languages respectively. This program works by assessing the student's performance and awarding points towards educational and individual reading goals.

Components

ATOS

ATOS is a readability formula designed by Renaissance Learning.

Books with quizzes in Accelerated Reader are assigned an ATOS readability level. This ATOS score is used by AR, in combination with a book length, to assign a point value to each book. It can also be used by students to help choose books of appropriate reading levels.

Quiz

Accelerated (going up to 7th grade) Reader (AR) quizzes are available on fiction and non-fiction books, textbooks, supplemental materials, and magazines. Most are in the form of reading practice quizzes, although some are curriculum-based with multiple subjects.

Many of the company's quizzes are available in an optional recorded voice format for primary-level books, in which the quiz questions and answers are read to the student taking the quiz. These quizzes are designed to help emerging English and Spanish readers take the quizzes without additional assistance.

The Renaissance Place version of Accelerated Reader also includes quizzes designed to practice vocabulary. The quizzes use words from books, and are taken after the book has been read. Bookmarks can be printed out that display the vocabulary words so that, as students read, they can refer to the bookmark for help. The quizzes keep track of the words learned.

Reports

• Reports are generated on demand to help students, teachers, and parents monitor student progress. Reports are available regarding student reading, comprehension, amount of reading, diagnostic information, and other variables. Customizable reports available in the Renaissance Place edition can also report district-level information.

The TOPS Report (The Opportunity to Praise Students) reports quiz results after each quiz is taken. Diagnostic Reports identify students in need of intervention based on various factors. The Student Record Report is a complete record of the books the student has read.

Evaluation research

A number of studies have been conducted regarding the effectiveness of using Accelerated Reader in the classroom. The following two studies were reviewed by the What Works Clearinghouse and were found to meet their research standards.

In a study, 1,665 students and 76 teachers were surveyed (grades K-8) from 12 schools in Memphis, Tennessee. Some teachers were randomly selected to use Accelerated Reader and others continued the regular curriculum without using the software. Students in classrooms with Accelerated Reader demonstrated gains. Many of the teachers who used the software responded positively to it and indicated that they would continue to use the software.

In another study, Nunnery, Ross, and McDonald assessed the reading achievement of students in grades 3–8. They assessed the effects of individual, classroom, and school factors that impact reading achievement. Those in Accelerated Reader classrooms still outperformed students in control classrooms. Students with learning disabilities in very high implementation classrooms did not suffer from their disabilities as much as similar students in low or no implementation classrooms.

Other evaluations

In a controlled evaluation, Holmes and Brown found that two schools using the School Renaissance program achieved statistically significantly higher standardized test scores compared with two comparison schools that only used the Renaissance program in a limited way. Because so many schools in the United States are using Accelerated Reader, it was difficult for the authors of this study to find two schools in Georgia that were not already using Accelerated Reader. The authors noted:

In all nine comparisons involving standardized test scores in reading, language arts, and mathematics, the Renaissance schools' children outperformed the contrast school's children. It can only be concluded that the Renaissance program was highly effective in raising the performance of these elementary students.

In 2003, Samuels and Wu found that, after six months, third and fifth grade students who used Accelerated Reader demonstrated twice the gain in reading comprehension as those that did not use Accelerated Reader. The comparison students completed book reports suggesting that delayed feedback through book reports is not as useful as the immediate feedback provided by Accelerated Reader. In another study, Samuels and Wu found students in Accelerated Reader classrooms in a Minnesota elementary school, after controlling for the amount of time spent reading each day, outperformed students in control classrooms.

Researcher Keith Topping completed many studies on Accelerated Reader that found the software to be an effective assessment for deciding curriculum.