Discussion and Conclusion

Research Question Answer

It is my belief that most teachers at this school somewhat agree that Accelerated Reader contributes to student achievement and most teachers somewhat agree that AR creates positive attitudes toward reading. 

Discussion

Sixty eight people responded to the survey.  Sixteen out of the seventeen Likert scale questions had a "Somewhat agree" as the highest percentage answer.  One out of the seventeen had a "Strongly Agree" as the highest percentage answer.  Of the open-ended questions, 39% had positive comments to make about Accelerated Reader, 11% had negative comments, 21% of the comments were neither positive nor negative, and 29% included both positive and negative comments.  For me, another way to look at the open-ended questions is since 29% had both positive and negative responses, then add that 29% to the positive comments and to the negative comments.  Therefore, 68% included positive comments and 40% included negative comments.

One possible interpretation of these findings is that teachers at this school feel that AR is a positive program and it does contribute to student achievement.  It is my opinion, that while teachers do see positive aspects of Accelerated Reader, most of the teachers do not feel very strongly about it.  They see it as one piece of the puzzle.  I believe there are a lot of mixed feelings about Accelerated Reader.

In question # 15, 58.2% somewhat agreed with the statement “Accelerated Reader improves students’ personal beliefs about their ability to read”.  The “strongly agree” and “somewhat disagree” percentages were very close to each other.  So, which way do you look at it?  Is the “somewhat agree” percentage leaning more to the “strongly agree” side, or to the “somewhat disagree” side?  Look at the comment of Participant 18n: “#15  It improves most kids' personal beliefs about their ability to read, but some are crushed by it because they don't score well on the tests.  Many have over inflated idea of their ability because they can answer a passing number of questions pretty easily since most questions are just basic fact recall.  They don't realize they miss out on inference and subtle messages the author has in the book”.  This statement has both a positive and negative comment about AR.  Almost certainly, others also have mixed feelings about AR improving students’ personal beliefs about their ability to read.

Another example is Question #7, 26.5% somewhat disagree and 54.4% somewhat agree with the statement “Accelerated Reader promotes higher level thinking skills”.  This is a high percentage in the middle.  Combine that with the comment of Participant 19g: “I use AR if the students want to. It can be limiting if the student will only read AR books. Also the questions are not higher level thinking questions. They can be very literal. It can be a part of reading instruction but only a piece.”  And with Participant 18d: “AR is one way to assess some comprehension of the book. AR mainly asks direct questions about things from the book, rather than higher order or engaging questions. It's sort of hit or miss.”  These comments, coupled with the "somewhat disagree" and "somewhat agree" percentages could possibly indicate mixed feelings in regard to whether AR promotes higher level thinking skills.

Part of the research questions ask whether AR is perceived as creating life-long readers.  When I think about being a life-long reader, I also think about attitudes and motivation toward reading.  Question numbers one, two, four and thirteen dealt with attitudes and motivation.  Several of the participants also made comments about attitudes and motivation.

Participant 19f says: “I believe that the AR program works in getting students to choose books that are in their Zone of Proximal Development. Which in turn allows them to be more successful readers which leads to life long readers. However I also strongly believe that this program is just one of the many tools that should be used in a successful reading program. It is just one piece to the overall reading puzzle.” 

Participant 19a’s comment was “I think AR is very motivating for some students.  However, I think it makes some students checkout ONLY AR books, when there are many other books they could benefit from reading.”

Participant 19b says “Accelerated Reader is the best program I have used and I have been teaching reading since 1974.  It is a wonderful tool to motivate children and monitor their reading.  It MUST, however, be used correctly and constantly monitored.  If it is only used a little, children are not encouraged and taught how to set goals, and the teacher does not constantly monitor student achievement...AR does not work and the significant growth will not happen.” 

Question 4 had the highest percentages in the somewhat agree and strongly agree column, so in my opinion, teachers do feel AR motivates students to read.  In questions 1, 2, and 13, “somewhat agree” had the highest percentage, but the “somewhat disagree” and the “strongly agree” percentages were also very close.  Which way is the “somewhat agree” leaning then- more toward the "somewhat disagree" side or the “strongly agree” side?  When you put the percentages together with the comments made, one possible interpretation of this is while most do feel AR somewhat improves attitudes and motivation, they don’t feel very strongly about this and even though most feel that AR helps students become life-long readers, they also possibly feel that it is only a piece of the puzzle. 

I felt that questions three, eleven, and nine had interesting results.  Question 3 says “Accelerated Reader is a way to differentiate instruction in reading.”  Most somewhat agreed and strongly agreed.  Question #11 says “Accelerated Reader is used in my classroom.”  Again, most somewhat agreed, and strongly agreed.  Question #9 says “Accelerated Reader is a major focus in my reading instruction.”  These percentages were more evenly distributed between “strongly disagree”, “somewhat disagree”, and “somewhat agree”.  It is possible, that while most do feel it is a way to differentiate instruction and most say AR is used in the classroom, they don’t see it as a major focus in their reading instruction. 

Questions six, ten, and twelve on the survey dealt with assessment and achievement.  All of these questions had “somewhat agree” as the highest percentage.  Based on these percentages, I assume that the teachers perceive AR contributing to student achievement.  But, if most feel like AR contributes to achievement, then wouldn’t you think that AR is more of a focus in the reading instruction?  Question 9 suggests otherwise! Participant 19f had this comment to make about AR: “I also strongly believe that this program is just one of the many tools that should be used in a successful reading program. It is just one piece to the overall reading puzzle.”  In my opinion, this further provides evidence suggesting that AR is perceived more as a piece of the reading puzzle. 

Questions 5 and 14 dealt with exposing children to high quality of literature and with strategies to finding this literature.  I thought this was interesting.  According to question 5, most people were in the middle of the road about whether AR gives students strategies for finding good literature.  But, according to question 14, teachers perceive AR as somewhat exposing children to high quality literature.  These questions/answers seem to be in conflict with one another.  I think this also suggests that teachers have positive and negative feelings about AR. 

Question 8 was about whether AR encourages students to read a book to completion.  It was the one question that had “strongly agree” as the highest percentage.  One possible interpretation of this finding is yes, AR does encourage students to read a book to completion.  Whether the students are reading books to completion exclusively for point purposes, or for real enjoyment purposes, the students are completing the books and that is very important. 

Question 16 asks whether AR increases reading practice at home.  According to this question, teachers perceive AR increasing reading practice at home.  Overwhelmingly, they either somewhat agree or strongly agree with this statement. 

Conclusions

Conclusions-

-         16 out of 17 Likert survey questions had "somewhat agree" as the highest percentage

-         1 out of 17 had "strongly agree" as the highest percentage

-         There were more positive comments than negative comments made about Accelerated Reader. 

-          "Somewhat Agree" is not a definitive answer!

-         There were many comments made that had both positive and negative comments in them.

-         Question 9 shows that AR is not a major focus in instruction, but questions 6, 10, 12, and 17 show that people somewhat agree that AR contributes to achievement.

-         Questions 1, 2, 4, and 13 show that respondents somewhat agree that AR helps students become life-long readers, it improves readers’ attitudes toward reading, it motivates students to read and to read more and better books.  When you put the percentages together with the comments made though, you see that this could show that the respondents don’t feel strongly about this and that AR is only a part of the reading puzzle.

-         Question 3 shows that AR is thought to be a way to differentiate instruction and question 11 shows that AR is used in many classrooms, but question 9 shows that it is not a major focus in instruction.

-         Question 14 showed that most respondents somewhat agreed, or strongly agreed, that AR exposes children to high quality literature, but question 5 had most respondents in the middle.  They somewhat disagreed, or somewhat agreed, that AR gives students strategies for finding a variety of good literature.

-         Question 8 showed that respondents overwhelmingly somewhat agreed or strongly agreed that AR encourages students to read a book to completion.

-         Question 16 showed that respondents somewhat agree or strongly agree that AR helps increase reading practice at home.

Recommendations and Implications for Practice 

-         I will use Accelerated Reading as a supplement to my reading instruction because it is perceived as contributing to achievement. 

-         Accelerated Reader books will not be the only reading material offered to my students.

-         I will have my students take Accelerated Reader books home to help increase reading practice at home.

-         Accelerated Reader will be offered in my classroom because it helps students read a book to completion.

 Educational Significance

Accelerated Reader is a popular program that is used in many schools.  Schools have purchased AR for reasons such as the belief that it contributes to student achievement and it creates positive attitudes toward reading. 

This study showed how the teachers perceived Accelerated Reader at one school.  It showed that teachers perceived AR as partially contributing to achievement.  It also showed that teachers somewhat agree that AR creates positive attitudes toward reading.  Teachers at this school are utilizing the AR program, but it is not a major focus in their reading instruction.  Teachers at this school have more positive perceptions than negative perceptions of Accelerated Reader which means the money spent on AR was put to good use and the investment needs to continue.   

 Reflection

I will continue using Accelerated Reader, as a supplement, to my reading instruction.  A variety of books will be offered to my students and Accelerated Reader books will go home with the students to help increase reading practice at home. 

 Conclusion

My research question was ‘According to teacher perception, does Accelerated Reader contribute to student achievement and create positive attitudes toward reading?’  I created a survey using the computer program ‘Survey Monkey’, and I sent a link to my survey to the faculty of a school in northern suburbs of Atlanta.  Sixty eight people responded! 

Teachers at this school are utilizing the AR program.  The results to the survey were mainly positive in nature.  After analyzing the results to the survey and the comments made about AR, it is my belief that most teachers at this school somewhat agree that Accelerated Reader contributes to student achievement and most teachers somewhat agree that AR creates positive attitudes toward reading.  Accelerated Reader is used in many classrooms, but it is not a major focus of the reading program.  Most teachers also feel that AR increases reading practice at home and it also helps students read a book to completion.  Last, even though teachers feel that AR contributes to achievement, they also feel it is just a piece of the reading puzzle.