Accelerated Reader in action

An overview of Accelerated Reader

Accelerated Reader (AR) has been motivating students and supporting schools to develop a rich culture of reading for nearly 40 years. Research-based targets structure healthy reading habits, helping readers progress in fluency, reading stamina, word recognition, and comprehension skills while empowering teachers to ignite a lifelong love of reading and learning.

Guide

Accelerated Reader guides students to books that are most likely to catch their interest. Every student has an individual reading difficulty range, helping them find a ‘just right’ balance between reading success and challenge. Upon finishing a book, readers take a quiz to monitor their comprehension. The quiz gives them instant feedback to help them progress.

Connecting learners with the right books

Engage

Students can self-select titles that suit their interests, age, and ability to help each one read for pleasure. Quizzes and targets build a regular, quality reading habit, encourage daily practice with friendly prompts, and help celebrate success at school and home.

Engage the students, free the staff

Practice

Reading for pleasure opens the door to high-quality reading practice. Reading quizzes monitor comprehension, while literacy skills and vocabulary quizzes extend student learning and build literacy skills. Accelerated Reader also supports non-fiction reading, including short articles that allow students to practise key skills easily.

Practice in action at Outwood Grange

Progress

Interactive reports reveal how much a student has been reading, at what difficulty level, and how well they have understood their books. They also promote reflection on any trending issues. Students and staff can see how many words they have read over time and track each reader’s progress in increasingly challenging texts.

Improve reading skills

How does Accelerated Reader work?

1. Choose

To help them succeed, students choose books anywhere within their individual reading range. They can choose from thousands of books on various topics and genres. Staff will see ‘On Track’ once 60% of a student’s quizzed books are within their range, encouraging curious young minds to keep exploring.

2. Read

Paper or digital, thick and thin books, fiction and nonfiction: students read books they enjoy daily, building stamina and word power as they immerse themselves in authentic texts, just as they are meant to be experienced.

3. Quiz

Finish the book and take the quiz in just a few minutes. Quiz scores reveal how well readers understood vocabulary and key details. Next, they’ll be buzzing to talk to you about their progress!

4. Celebrate

Students are motivated through feedback every time they quiz. Staff can see data in real-time to help monitor and support progress, with many successes to celebrate and new books to explore.

Research proven practice

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Primary students using AR are more likely to meet the KS2 benchmark

This study graphs Accelerated Reader data compared with reading growth scores for thousands of students in UK Years 1-13, showing the impact of reading practice.

Explore the report

Discover What Kids Are Reading

The annual independent study by Keith Topping, Professor of Educational and Social Research, explains the reading habits of school children in each year group, with implications for reading engagement and growth.

Read the report

Education Endowment Foundation

According to an independent “study by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and Durham University, Accelerated Reader produces “particularly positive effects. ”

“The internet-based programme increased pupils’ reading age. “The effect on low-income pupils, three additional months in just 22 weeks, was even greater, with their reading age improving by five additional months simultaneously.”

National Literacy Trust

Practical support for educators drawing on research by the National Literacy Trust and developmental psychologist Dr Sarah Mc. Geown

“Children and young people who use Accelerated Reader tend to enjoy reading more, do it more often and think more positively about reading than their peers”.

What can schools do to address gaps in learning?

Our research with the Educational Policy Institute indicates that improvements in overall reading scores mask a growing divide. This trend risks leaving behind a significant cohort of weak readers who may struggle to access the broader curriculum.

Study findings

Resources

Struggling to find a book?

AR Bookfinder can help students, staff, and families find reading ideas that match their ages and interests. Use the filters or advanced search to delve into topics that make reading fun. Meanwhile, our expert quiz writers compile great thematic Book Lists for readers of all ages and abilities.

Bookfinder

Levels for learning

The ATOS Analyser can tell you the difficulty level of many written items, from Essays to Fan Fiction and history sources to worksheets and exam papers. An ATOS level can also help compare reading difficulty with student ZPDs in your classes.

ATOS Analyser

Labelling books

Do you have a Library Management System? If your software appears on our Partners page, contact your supplier for help linking with Accelerated Reader books and labels (Bookseller Partners can help label books, too). Your Renaissance website can create book labels. Alternatively, you can use AR Bookguide.

Bookguide

Suggest a quiz

Anyone is welcome to fill in a ‘Suggest a Quiz’ request. There are some exceptional circumstances in which a book is ‘Non-Quizzable’ – but schools can also write their own quizzes. DIY quizzes are stored only on your school site and can engage students, even reluctant readers.

Suggest a quiz

Continue the reading journey with myON

myON is a cross-curricular tool that helps students become fluent readers and curious learners, logging reading habits and reducing teacher workload. Thousands of digital titles broaden reading horizons and offer endless learning opportunities in listening, speaking, reading, and comprehension, improving language confidence in writing and discussion.

Discover myON

Best practice

Five Accelerated Reader tips

Key takeaways from a Literacy Lead.

“I dismissed Accelerated Reader as a sticking plaster until I saw it in action at a different school”. Here are the things this Literacy Lead wishes she’d known at the start.

Read blog

From A to ZPD 

Accelerated Reader from A to ZPD

At Learning Without Limits Academy Trust, intrepid librarian Tracey moved to a new Library Management System while simultaneously launching Accelerated Reader.

Discover more

Supporting transition

Driving literacy for a smooth transition to secondary school

The Hazeley Academy has developed robust practices to seamlessly integrate their new cohort of Year 7 students into the school’s literacy programme.

Closing the gaps

How can schools close the gap for disadvantaged learners?

“The reason why our disadvantaged pupils do so well is because of AR’s positive, evidence-based approach to reading.”

Secondary literacy

A “collective responsibility” for reading

Assistant Headteacher Gemma Buchanan explores practical ways to involve every subject and teacher in the literacy journey.

School insights

AR has given the children great independence in their own reading, in their own learning and this has transferred into their writing. We’ve seen a huge uptake in children reading for fun, just simply to read. We set them targets each term and they strive towards these, hitting them and even exceeding them by huge percentages, so much so, that we’ve had to make the targets more difficult!

Mark

Coldwood School

County Galway, Ireland

When we were researching the reading programmes currently on the market; we really wanted to have something that was measurable in terms of impact, so we could identify student improvement and those students who needed some encouragement. Even in a selective school, there are plenty of ‘reluctant readers’ and the school has really valued having the data generated by the programme to share with parents in a meaningful way.

Val

Wirral Grammar School for Boys

Wirral, Merseyside

We really value Accelerated Reader; reading has been our absolute priority here, as it should be in every school. We have children that come into our school, a lot of them with quite a low-level language acquisition, and we primarily use AR to support children who graduate from our phonics scheme.

Alison

Ashleigh C of E Primary School

Devon

We are delighted with the Accelerated Reader and Star Reading programmes. Reading unlocks so many opportunities for children, and since bringing in AR, our children have developed a love of reading and are keen to take quizzes. Our teachers speak positively about it, and OFSTED highlighted how well it contributes to reading overall within the school.

ST JOSEPH'S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND

Accelerated Reader allowed Godolphin students to find their voice in their reading preferences. Before, there was a stigma around reading in schools that children hadn’t had access to books they wanted. Now students can access various texts within their ZPD and take ownership of their preferences to succeed.

THE GODOLPHIN JUNIOR ACADEMY SLOUGH

The impact of reading for pleasure is four times more powerful on progress in vocabulary, mathematics, and spelling at age 16, than that of parental education or parental socioeconomic status.

BOOKTRUST