April 24, 2024
The UK Content Team is proud to have contributed to the over 43,500 Accelerated Reader quizzes available for our customers to take on their favourite books. To achieve Renaissance’s mission of “accelerating learning for all children and adults of all ability levels and ethnic and social backgrounds, worldwide”, we aim to develop content that does not offend or otherwise impede a student’s ability to respond to quiz questions.
To ensure that AR quizzes treat individuals and topic areas with respect, the Content Team adheres to a set of Content Appropriateness guidelines that help us create content that is fair, appropriate, and free from bias.
Along with these guidelines, a Content Appropriateness Team made up of quiz writers from both the UK and the US, works together to review issues of content appropriateness in quizzes, and to discuss any queries that quiz writers may have. Outlined below are some of the things we consider when developing our quizzes.
- Language Bias
Sometimes, books contain complex vocabulary and sentence structure. To ensure student success, a book’s Accelerated Reader quiz will be no more difficult to process than the text on which it’s based. Quiz writers will not use words in the quiz that are higher than two reading levels above the book level.
The exceptions to this rule include 3 question quizzes, which match the exact reading level of the book, high-interest/low-level quizzes, in which the text’s reading level is higher than the book’s level, and quizzes on graphic novels, which go by interest level instead of book level. To learn more about AR book levels, check out this blog.
- Books with controversial or mature content
Quiz writers treat controversial material with sensitivity and respect by avoiding the use of offensive words, stereotypes, or biases. We do our best to create content that does not elicit an emotional response from the quiz taker. We use preferred terms for groups of people and we never use terms that are considered offensive, inappropriate, or outdated.
Additionally, we try to avoid “controversial” themes, such as illicit activities, violence, and weapons, unless they are found in the book the quiz is based on and are an important part of the plot. In all instances, we try not to include controversial or mature content in the correct responses of our quizzes so that we do not have to invent distractor answers with equally heavy themes.
To ensure bias-free and appropriate quiz creation, all new Accelerated Reader quizzes are edited and reviewed at least three times by multiple writers and editors. We are constantly working to audit older quizzes to remove content appropriateness issues based on current guidelines.
It is important to note that Renaissance does not seek to censor books, and Accelerated Reader quizzes will only be removed if a publisher and/or author chooses to end the publication of a title due to inappropriate content. To read in more detail about Renaissance’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, check out this blog.
The Content Team loves hearing from our customers, so feel free to get in touch with us via Twitter. Happy quizzing!