March 25, 2025
Accelerated Reader provides teachers with a comprehensive programme to motivate, monitor, and manage students’ reading practice.
A recent research study looked at the impact of individualised reading practice on reading achievement – comparing those students who were using AR with similar students who were not, reviewing their annual growth in reading ability.
The results showed a positive relationship between Accelerated Reader use and reading achievement – with better student performance and higher levels of annual growth seen. Notably, the better the AR programme was implemented, the better the outcomes were for students.
Increased growth in reading ability
Annual growth in reading ability was measured in the study using the Star Reading Student Growth Percentile.
The analysis also looked at how Accelerated Reader was used – with best practice of AR associated with an increase in achievement growth. Best practice students scored 85% or more on quizzes and spent at least 15 minutes of daily estimated engaged reading time (based on their volume of reading, comprehension, and the difficulty of the reading material relative to their achievement).
Across the overall study, students who were using AR grew in reading ability significantly more than students who did not use the programme.
Best practice students experienced the most growth – but even students using AR below the recommended levels showed more growth than students who did not use the programme at all.
At primary level, students completing the recommended amount of reading with AR were more likely to be Key Stage ready than students not using AR. 47% of best practice students were shown to be working above the expected level by the end of Year 6, compared to only 19% of those not using the programme.
Positive impact on struggling readers and English language learners
Trends were also looked at for groups such as struggling readers (defined as students with a pre-test Percentile Rank of 25 or less) and English language learners (ELL).
Using Accelerated Reader benefited all students but was specifically beneficial for struggling readers who gained 12 percentile points from the beginning of the year when using the programme. ELL students using AR also saw an uplift of 7 percentile points compared to non-users.
The study showed that struggling readers who used AR grew more than those who did not and that they were more likely to be prepared for end of stage and national exams. English language learners who began the year working below expected grade-level benchmarks and who used AR at or above recommended levels were also 14% more likely than non-users to be able to work at or above grade level by the end of the year.
Using individualised reading practice to boost achievement
Accelerated Reader’s research-based guidelines, goal-setting features, and tools for matching students with appropriate texts supports individualised reading practice that can boost the rate at which students gain critical reading skills.
The results of the study suggest that overall the more students practice independent reading while using Accelerated Reader, the more their reading skill achievement is likely to improve – and that this can have particular impact for struggling readers and for English language learners.
