Teacher perceptions of the goals and effectiveness of accelerated reader

Abstract

Educators are faced with increased accountability and decreased funding. This means that school districts must carefully determine how they can best invest their limited resources. Informed decisions that serve the best education interests of the students should be the practice of all schools. One small, rural school district has invested considerable funds in the use of Renaissance Learning’s Star Reading assessments and Accelerated Reader. This pragmatic, qualitative study set out to support the district determination of whether these programs met the needs of the district, and more importantly the needs of the students.

The study findings indicated that the teachers did not have measurable goals for use of the program. Although the teachers viewed AR as a motivator for students, they provided tangible rewards for completing a percentage of the students’ established reading goals. The participants were shown assessment data that indicated students’ reading ability scores comparing beginning of the year to end of the year. Although the assessment data showed minimal growth for the students, most of the teachers continued to demonstrate a closed mind set and held on to their belief the AR program was beneficial to their students.Recommendations from this study include providing teacher professional development to increase the knowledge base of the program itself as well as guiding administrators and teachers through training on data-based instruction and evidence-based programming.