Purpose of This Article
Keith Topping offers information and helpful insights about The Accelerated Reader (AR) in his well-organized and well-written “Formative Assessment of Reading Comprehension by Computer.” First, Topping explains that AR is a software program designed to help teachers monitor students' day-to-day reading by enabling “freestanding computer-assisted assessment of student comprehension of 'real' books” and is “intended specifically to have strong formative effects on subsequent learning.” Overall, Topping asks if AR is useful and good and, after pointing out some advantages and disadvantages of the program, he answers with a qualified yes: yes, the program is good if teachers follow good implementation procedures; no, the program is not quite so good or effective if teachers follow poor implementation procedures.
A caveat about the intent and spirit of this response to Topping is in order. It seems almost undemocratic and somehow mean-spirited to raise questions about any program that gets lots of books into the hands of children. Indeed, in schools where children read few or no books, any program that presents them with invitations to read seems worthwhile. Topping notes that AR tests are available for more than 25,000 books, including fiction and nonfiction in English and Spanish, and some schools are ordering more books for their classrooms and libraries so they'll have a substantial base of AR titles available for students. He mentions anecdotal reports of library circulation increasing by up to 500 percent after AR implementation in some schools, a statistic that is certainly impressive. Nonetheless, it seems to me that there are several questions worth asking about AR.
I agreed to write this response primarily because, after reading Topping's commentary, I agreed with his observation: “Like any other educational tool, how it [AR] is used might be more important than if it is used.” It is interesting to note that much of the research Topping cites as evidence of the effectiveness of the AR program is based more on studies that look at if it is used rather than how. It is clear that statistical analyses of large-scale standardized-test scores from schools where AR is used provide interesting data; however, such studies do not shed light on the myriad, uncontrolled-for variables within the cultural context of a classroom or school.
In schools across the United States, educators are involved in multiple initiatives intended to do everything from integrate computers into the curriculum to decrease the potential for school violence. The Accelerated Reader may be perceived by some as an easy way simultaneously to meet goals related to computer use, to support students' development of reading comprehension, and to improve scores on standardized reading tests. The purpose of this article is to raise some questions worth asking about the AR program and to highlight the importance of studying how it is used.
Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted November 1999
© 1999-2000 International Reading Association, Inc. ISSN 1096-1232