What is Accelerated Reader?

Accelerated Reader is a reading practice program designed to encourage students to read books at their tested reading level and provide measurable feedback on the student's progress.

Accelerated Reader (AR) will choose a book, evaluate it, assign points and a reading level to it (depending on the level of difficulty of the sentences and vocabulary and the length of the book), and write a quiz for it. The quizzes may be added to the school's collection by purchasing them from Renaissance or from other vendors authorized to sell AR quizzes, like publishers and book sellers who will typically bundle a book and the associated AR quiz for sale. Schools may have several hundred to over 10,000 Accelerated Reader quizzes. Librarians will typically want to buy quizzes for as many of the books in the school library as possible.

Students are typically given a goal of a number of points to accumulate. Each AR book is worth a certain number of points based on the complexity of the writing, and the length of the book. A student will select an AR book that meets their criteria of points and reading level (and hopefully interest) from the school's collection of quizzes. He/she will read the book at his/her own pace, then take a computerized quiz of 5, 10, or 20 questions (depending on the number of points and reading level) to evaluate the student's understanding of what they read. Points are awarded to the student based on the book's possible points and the quiz score. Many schools have a reward system set up to encourage the accumulation of points, which is a side-effect of the reading -- points are not the goal, they are a necessary evil as the only objective way to measure progress.

There are approximately 100,000 quizzes written to date (2006) and Renaissance adds around 10,000 each year. Over half the schools in the US are using Accelerated Reader, or about 68,000 schools (2006). The program is so popular that it is becoming a driving force in the children's book publishing industry. It is almost a rule of thumb now that if there is no quiz written for a book, most school libraries will not purchase it. This creates a lot of pressure to get a book "sanctioned" by Renaissance before it goes to print. This makes many librarians and other teaching professionals uncomfortable since Renaissance is having a large effect on the books available to children. And many librarians simply object to the use of points to motivate children to read. Children should read simply because they want to read, many feel. See this page for more on the debate. Feelings run deep on the subject. It seems AR is either loved or hated. Having talked to hundreds of librarians about AR, the argument seems to come down to one of two sentiments: "Since we started Accelerated Reader, the number of books checked out of the library has increased several fold, which means kids are reading more, and that is a good thing no matter how you slice it!" And, "The kids will come into the library and ask for the AR quiz list. They don't come in looking for a good book to read, they just need X number of points and they won't even touch a book these days if we don't have the AR quiz for it."

Renaissance claims the process is simple:
1. Student reads a book
2. Student takes a quiz on the computer
3. Student and teacher get information

However one vital step is missing in the above list:
0. Find an interesting book that the school has an AR quiz for

Renaissance has been surprisingly short sighted on this front. They provide the school with two tools: Labels on books on the library shelves that indicate the book has a quiz at a certain level, and a list of all the quizzes the school has with Author, Title, Points, and Level. So the student has the option to search the library for a book with a certain color dot on it, or he can scan a list of many thousands of book titles, either in printed form or online on a web page.

The list, or "AR List" as it is commonly called, is good for one thing: if the student has a book in mind, she can search the AR List to see if that book has a quiz, and find out how many points it's worth and what the reading level is. But this is an extremely inefficient way to find a book to read.

Since the goal of AR is to promote a lifetime love of reading it would seem obvious that the biggest issue involved with the entire AR program is selecting books the students will enjoy reading. No amount of points collection and rewards is going to promote the love of reading. But as many Harry Potter fans know, one great book can turn any child into a voracious reader. So why isn't more attention paid to the selection process? It has always been the program's Achilles heel and there have been many valiant attempts by librarians to make the selection process easier at least. They may spend hours dividing the AR List into separate lists sorted in different ways and shorter. For example, "By Author: A-C", or "By Book Level".

What the process is sorely lacking is a way for students to search the AR List. And by "search" I don't mean running a finger down a list of 5,000 titles. This is where QuizList Interactive comes in. QuizList takes the school's AR List, puts it into a database on their website, and attaches Library of Congress information to each title, including subjects and series and genre. Now students can use a simple search form to find books they are interested in, as well as in their reading level range. Finding a book on spiders between a 4.5 and 5.5 reading levels is impossible to do by searching the stacks for colored dots, or scanning the raw AR List.

QuizList Interactive "completes" Accelerated Reader. It's the first step toward a lifetime love of reading.

Read more about QuizList Interactive

Renaissance Learning Home Page

QuizList Interactive is not affiliated with Renaissance Software. Accelerated Reader and AR are registered trademarks of Renaissance Learning.

©2006  IntraData, Inc