Accelerated Reader (AR) is the practice component essential to any reading curriculum. This practice is personalized to each student’s individual level to ensure a high rate of success and immediately followed by feedback to help educators target instruction. Personalized practice includes guiding students to books at appropriate levels, closely monitoring their progress, and intervening with appropriate instruction when necessary. Accelerated Reader software and best classroom practices have been shown by scientifically based research to be effective in helping educators dramatically accelerate reading growth in K-12 classrooms. Numerous studies by independent researchers demonstrate that students’ reading abilities improve with the use of Accelerated Reader and best practices, and that the performance gap between high-achieving and low-achieving students is substantially reduced. The large evidence base supporting Accelerated Reader consists of a number of experimental and quasi-experimental research studies--generally considered by both the No Child Left Behind Act and the research community to provide the strongest evidence of effectiveness and to be consistent with the definition of scientifically based research--and includes articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals. The research evidence on Accelerated Reader has been favorably reviewed by the What Works Clearinghouse, National Center on Student Progress Monitoring, and Florida Center for Reading Research, among others. Key studies that support Accelerated Reader are summarized on these pages.

Publication Date: 05/01/2002

Updated: 07/08/2009

Literature Number: L1542