Accelerated Reader in Schools - Does it Help or Hurt?

My children's elementary school has turned the Accelerated Reading Program into a GRADED class. Does anyone know if this is legal? If your child has any problems with comprehension or reading and fails these tests, even though they read the book, they can recieve an F in the class. The entire class is based soley on the children reading and taking tests, no teacher instruction.

Have you every really seen some of these tests? As someone who has been teacher, I think there is a lot about these tests that are quite harmful. Som of the questions do ask about main ideas from the books, but the rest is trivia. Did a certain detail stick with your child or not. My child is required to read and take 2 AR tests a week. Now that he is getting into chapter books that is all he can read. If he doesn't go up to the next level soon, we will be out of books to read. It is a HIGHLY miss used program. I feel it should be phased out of school. Not a fan at all!

AR has been a pain for my boy who has run out of books to read, I applaude any program that encourages children to read (fellow bookworm) but it becomes a problem when a program doesnt support the abilities of an advanced child. This may not be a fault in the program but a fault in the schools strict interpretation of the rules, my boy is becoming diselusioned at not being able to read his choise of book (level 7.8, grade 4)

Mike, it sounds like your children's school is using the program the way it's supposed to be used, in which case it isn't a bad thing at all. At my kids' old school, it made up the entire reading program. Your fist sentence kind of sums up my whole article. :)

This is actually a fantastic program that is often implemented poorly. Although in this case it seems that it is combination of implementation and poor understanding on the part of the parent. AR as it is often called is used in my children's school and we love it. At the beginning of the year they take a test to give the teacher an idea of the reading level of the student. That way a teacher has kids reading at the level they are capable of and they are able to determine it in a fraction of the time it would normally take. The idea of the short quiz after the book helps the teacher determine quickly who is doing well and who is doing poorly. She can spend more time with the kids who need it and keep the kids that are progressing challenged. AR is personalized practice directed at the level each child should be practicing at. It shouldn't be used to replace reading curriculum. For instance in my child's school, in addition to AR quizzes which by the, don't issue any sort of gr

This sounds like a misguided or perhaps just misused program. Ugh. Thanks for bringing it to light.