Accelerated Reader - is it really effective for middle school students?

After reading the Nov. 3 article on reading management programs by Hansen, Collins, & Warschauer, I responded to Toni’s blog on this article about the positive experience my daughter had with Accelerated Reader (AR) at her elementary school over the past three years from Grades 4 through 6.  The AR program has been successful, overall, due to high quality implementation by her teachers, the school librarian and the administration.  The rationale for investing in the A/R program at my daughter’s school was to increase reading achievement and increase test scores and it happened as evidenced by increased reading test scores on Terra Nova tests, Grades 3-8 in 2008, and 2009.  I also believe the chances of future success appear likely as long as the school keeps implementing the A/R program in an effective manner with 100% buy-in at both the classroom and school level and continued parent involvement, as well. 

Despite my daughter’s success story with A/R, I decided to revisit the Hansen, Collins & Warschauer article for this blog because I wasn’t too clear on the article’s findings for gains in reading achievement with older students in middle school, particularly Grades 7 and 8. The article said “Despite gains in reading achievement across schools, it appears that the use of reading management programs benefit children in lower grades more than in higher grade levels” (page 66).  The authors also included a research finding by Pavonetti, Brimmer, Cipielewski, 2002 that stated “Similarly, the use of Accelerated Reader does not necessarily lead to long-term increases in reading in older children despite short-term gains in book reading experienced in the lower grades”.  The finding went on to say “In particular, seventh grade students who had been exposed to Accelerated Reader in fifth grade did not have a greater breadth of knowledge of book titles (as a proxy for print exposure) than children who had not used a reading management program in fifth grade” (Hansen, Collins & Warschauer, pages 66-67).

Very interesting!   I was not surprised since I also have a son who seems to fit into this research finding.   My son is three years older than my daughter.  When he was in Grade 7, my daughter was in Grade 4, the year that A/R was implemented at their school.    Initially he seems okay with the A/R idea.  His teacher was encouraging too with instructional scaffolding and teacher/student conferences.  However, by Grade 8 he began to rebel (his English teacher left the school) and he said he did not like the fact that someone (the school librarian)  and the A/R computer program  was assessing his reading ability, and making him take tests to prove he read certain approved books and received a passing score.

Over time, he was not motivated to read the AR books assigned to his reading level. He would goof off in the library.   When he took the comprehension tests he purposely put down wrong answers.  I wondered if peer pressure had something to do with it, especially in Grade 8.    At that time, I was just hoping he would graduate from middle school and get to high school so I did not really evaluate the A/R program and his reading abilities in great detail since he was maintaining his grades between A and Bs. 

Now I wonder if maybe middle school students need something else besides A/R to keep them interested in reading and making strides in reading achievement and comprehension.  I still view A/R as  a supplement to the reading curriculum and in my son’s case, there was a teaching void in  his Grade 8 class without the same English teacher he had in Grade 7.  Has anyone had similar experiences like this with middle school students who are turned off by reading all of a sudden, or have been pushed through the system and still need to become better readers?  What is out there besides A/R for these students?

Source:
Hansen, L.E., Collins & Warschauer (2009). Reading Management Programs: A Review of the Research.  Journal of Literacy and Technology, Volume 10, Number 3, 54-76