Estimating Reading Growth Attributable to Accelerated Reader at One American School in the Caribbean

Abstract

This article provides a statistical analysis of the reading gains observed at one American school in the Caribbean that was using Accelerated Reader. It provides an estimate of the number of hours students needed to read to advance their reading performance an additional year. The authors estimate how much Accelerated Reader contributed to the advancement and determine how many points per grade a student needs to earn to make a year of reading growth. When points are converted to hours of time, the data show that it takes about 800 hours of time each year for students in grade 3 through grade 12 to achieve a year of growth. It is the conclusion then that students who read this much would spend about 9,600 total hours reading during their first 12 years of schooling.