This report investigates real book reading as measured by the Accelerated Reader software in relation to reading ability as measured by the Star computerised reading test. This year there is a slim printed summary with the majority of the report on the internet at the Renaissance UK website. In the 16 years of publication of this report, the number of students involved has increased by 43 times, the number of schools by nearly 11 times, the number of books read by almost 96 times, the average number of books read per pupil by almost twice and the number of AR quizzes now available over three times.
Accelerated Reader is now used in 6,488 schools in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (1% more than last year) by 1,273,795 pupils (almost 1% less than last year) who read 26,114,262 books (4% less than last year). Thus, while the number of schools increased a little, the number of pupils involved decreased, and the number of books decreased even more.
Primary schools used AR much more (79%) than secondary schools (21%), the former having increased substantially. Last year, the largest number of quizzes per year was taken by Year 3 pupils (Year 4 was also high). The total Words Read was 268,586,656,671 – 19% higher.
The Average Book Difficulty Level (ATOS) was 3.6 (as last year). Average Book Difficulty rose until Year 6, then plateaued until Year 9, then declined steadily thereafter, even though the older pupils should have been reading harder books. Secondary school pupils read books at almost the same difficulty level as upper primary pupils. The Average Percent Correct was 0.73 (73%) on all books read/quizzes taken (a little lower than last year). However, the APC for primary was 77%, while the APC for secondary was 69%. Secondary pupils were not reading books as carefully as primary pupils, even though the difficulty of the secondary books was largely below their chronological reading level. APC was in every year lower than that recommended by the software manufacturers (although on quizzes passed this rose to 84% – much nearer the required criterion).
Looking at the relationship between AR and Star reading scores, in all years, the lowest APC scores were associated with the lowest Star reading scores, the highest with the highest reading scores, and the middle APC scores were associated with the middle reading scores. Successful readers showed better reading comprehension. Engaged Reading Time was also a powerful predictor of Star Reading Scores. The lowest ERT scores were associated with the lowest reading scores, the highest with the highest reading scores, and the middle ERT scores associated with the middle reading scores. More engaged reading time in school leads to higher reading attainment. However, the amount of time allocated to reading in school had fallen significantly from the previous year, especially in primary.
England had the largest number of AR-using pupils (11% of the school population). However, Northern Ireland had by far the highest proportion of AR-using pupils in relation to the size of the school population (21%)—more than one in five pupils. The Republic of Ireland had also increased substantially to 8% from half this proportion.
Turning to the contribution from the National Literacy Trust (NLT), their Annual Literacy Survey began in 2005, tracking children’s reading enjoyment and attitudes. Just 2 in 5 (43.4%) of the 64,066 8 – to 18-year-olds said they enjoyed reading in their free time, the lowest reading enjoyment recorded since 2005. This is largely because of a greater drop in reading enjoyment in girls than boys. While the difference in reading enjoyment in free time between those aged 8 – 11 and those aged 14 – 16 was 15.4 percentage points, this doubled to a 32.2 percentage-point difference when looking at reading enjoyment at school. Overall, the percentage of children and young people who read daily in their free time had decreased from 38% in 2005 to 28% in 2023.
Now, considering “What Kids Are Reading”, in Year 1, Julia Donaldson was top of the list, but Roderick Hunt had 12 books. In Year 2 Donaldson was again top with many more books in the list, while Hunt had declined to two books. By Year 3, Donaldson had been joined by Roald Dahl and Francesca Simon. In Year 4 Jeff Kinney again battled with Roald Dahl. In Year 5, Kinney dominated the table, but in Year 6, Kinney was even more dominant. This was the last year in which pupils were reading at or above their natural age level. In Year 7, Kinney was again popular with boys, but girls became more interested in Alice Oseman and David Walliams. In Year 8, Alice Oseman became the top book for girls, but George Orwell was the top for boys. In Years 9-11, Steinbeck appeared in addition to Orwell, and Rowling sustained her re-emergence. Overall, most popular authors had not changed much – Kinney, Dahl and Walliams remained top, and Rowling featured in secondary while Oseman crept upwards.
New Entrants are books not in our tables before – so teachers can see what is coming up to inform their book ordering. From Year 4 right through to Years 9-11, the new books from Walliams and Kinney were in high places, even though neither of these authors feature in the Favourite Books category (see below). Dav Pilkey, Jeff Kinney and Marcus Rashford did well for both boys and girls. Overall, however, the average level of difficulty had declined. However, these easier books were not being read with any greater degree of reading comprehension (APC). There was little correlation between a book’s difficulty and the comprehension with which it was read. Hard books were often read with high levels of comprehension at all ages.
In non-fiction books, for primary pupils, difficulty increased or at least stayed the same – pupils were reading at least at their chronological age, and APC was satisfactory. However, in secondary, the difficulty of books fell further behind with each Year, while APC remained much the same. The football theme, which may have been male-oriented, was again very much to the fore. Secondary non-fiction books were not understood as well as fiction books.
Pupils had the opportunity to Vote for Favourite Books. In Primary, J.K Rowling had the top two books and one lower down. Rick Riordan has three books lower down, and Katie Kirby has two. Alice Oseman was down to one book. In Secondary, Alice Oseman was at the top and had one other book on the list. Holly Jackson had three: Katie Kirby and Rick Riordan, two each. Strikingly, Kinney and Walliams did not appear at all. In the primary years, children read very difficult books with a high degree of success. There was a marked difference in Year 7 (the year of secondary transfer) – the difficulty of favoured books was no longer above chronological age and declined sharply in the ensuing years. Thus, if the aim is to increase reading achievement, reading Favourite Books is a good strategy.
Analysis of Regional Variation in Reading Habits leads to three main conclusions. Firstly, the striking slump in difficulty at transfer to secondary school is very marked in all regions. The fact that pupils in Scotland are still in primary school does not protect them from this slump. Secondly, there are striking differences in reading teaching at primary level between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In the Republic, hard books are read in lower primary with good comprehension, while in Northern Ireland, difficulty levels are much lower, but by secondary, these differences seem to have been levelled out. Thirdly, particularly in the upper age range, students in Wales seem to be catching up.
myON is an electronic reader that can be loaded onto any device and gives access to e-books. Every student has unlimited access to a digital library of books and the opportunity to do an AR test online when the book is finished. myON can support reading at home as well as school. It is mostly used in Years 2 – 7, but there is also a relatively high number of users in preschool and nursery settings, with more use of audio support features. In every grade, the top titles differ from those in the regular book lists and the Favourite lists. Pre-school through Year 3 showed high difficulty, possibly supported by audiobooks, while for Years 1 to 4, difficulty was above the students’ chronological ages. After this, difficulty plateaued while the students grew older, widening the gap each year.
Regarding countries other than the UK and Ireland (and, of course, the USA), we looked at Australia/New Zealand and Canada). Overall, they had higher book difficulty than the UK, but reading comprehension (APC) had declined. In Years 3 onwards, Canadian pupils read harder books than UK pupils, but their comprehension showed a substantial decline. Both countries suffered the same decline in transfer to secondary as the UK.
Then, we considered countries where English was not the first language, and AR was being used by pupils learning English and practising by reading books in English. Five countries had increased the number of pupils participating, while three had reduced. Three countries showed increased ATOS, and four showed a decline, with one staying the same. However, in six countries APC had gone down, in one it had gone up and in one it had stayed the same. In some countries, the pattern of book choice was similar to the UK (although one must question the cultural appropriateness of the books), but in other countries, book choices were quite far removed from the UK.
Overall, this year saw a decline in the number of books read, although the number of schools went up slightly. This mainly happened in secondary schools. The same trend has been noted in the USA, although the school context is rather different. Why might this have been? There are a number of possible reasons. Firstly, pupils may have been reading longer books and thus tended to read fewer of them. Secondly, as the NLT data suggests, pupils’ interest in reading books may have fallen. But this may not just reflect pupil preferences – thirdly, the ERT data suggest the amount of time allocated to reading in schools has fallen. Other reasons invite more speculation. The high number of pupils persistently absent from school post-ovid might be a factor, especially in secondary as such pupils are more likely to be weaker readers on whom AR was previously targeted.
Recommendations were also made. The book by Professor Keith Topping, the principal author of this report, which focuses on Accelerated Reader and reports the evidence on its effectiveness, is available and can be ordered at https://www.routledge.com/Improving-Reading-Comprehension-of-Self-Chosen-Books-Through-Computer-Assessment/Topping/p/book/9781032076201).