Request a demo

Introduction

The full title of this report is “What and How Kids Are Reading”, as in many previous years. It 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 sees a shift from a large printed hard copy report to a slim printed summary with the majority of the evidence being available on the internet at the new Renaissance website. Readers will be able to navigate the website much easier than the big, printed book.

This is the sixteenth year this report has been published in the UK. We take a moment to compare the situation 16 years ago and the situation this year.

2008 Report 2024 Report % Gain
Total Number of Students 29,751 1,273,795 4282%
Total Number of Schools 600 6,488 1082%
Total Books Read 273,016 26,114,262 9565%
Average Books Read per Student 9.18 16.74 182%
Number of Quizzes Available 12,500 41,750 334%

 

Enormous progress has been made. The number of students involved has increased by almost 43 times. The number of schools involved has increased by nearly 11 times. So obviously schools are involving more pupils in the school in AR than they used to. The number of books read has increased by almost 96 times, so although more schools are involving more pupils, those pupils are also reading a larger number of books. Consequently, the average number of books read per pupil has also risen, by almost twice. The number of AR quizzes now available is over three times what it was in 2008.

The first part of this report is devoted to further analysis of whether pupils who implement AR better (in terms of higher Average Percent Correct on quizzes) have higher pre-post outcome scores on the norm-referenced Star Reading Test than do pupils with lower APC scores. This indicates to what extent quality of implementation of AR is the key to better reading achievement. We also include a number of other analyses which are of interest regarding implementation. As last year, this year we sustain and deepen our analysis of attitudes to reading with work carried out by the National Literacy Trust.

The second part reports the books most read by pupils in each year, in some cases divided into boys and girls so readers can see what the gender differences were. It describes popularity of authors and lists new entrant books which were not available the previous year. It investigates non-fiction reading as a matter of special interest. Then it explores “Favourite” books – those voted for after reading as the most interesting. Regional variations in book choice are then discussed.

Additionally, we sustain our analysis of books read with myON – the digital device that enables students to read a book of their choice anywhere and then, if they wish, take the quiz on it online on the same platform.

Accelerated Reader is used in about 100 countries around the world. Consequently, we also sustain and deepen our analysis of the most popular books in countries other than the UK and the USA. Are these the same or different to the UK and USA, and are they different for readers with English as a first language and English as a second or other language?

The book by Professor Keith Topping, the principal author of this report, which focuses among other software on the Accelerated Reader and reports the evidence on its effectiveness is still available. The full reference is: Topping, K. J. (2022). Improving reading comprehension of self-chosen books through computer assessment and feedback: Best practices from research. New York and London: Routledge (see Improving Reading Comprehension of Self-Chosen Books Through Computer Assessment and Feedback: Best Practices from Research: Amazon.co.uk: Topping, Keith James: 9781032076201: Books in the UK. The book also can be ordered at https://www.routledge.com/Improving-Reading-Comprehension-of-Self-Chosen-Books-Through-Computer-Assessment/Topping/p/book/9781032076201).

Overall findings

In 2024, we reported that Accelerated Reader was used in 6,488 schools in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (1% more than last year). This increase from last year is smaller than the year before. About 41,500 quizzes were available.

This report summarises the efforts of 1,273,795 pupils (almost 1% less than last year), the second time in history this number has gone down (the first was during the Covid-19 pandemic). This has declined slightly despite the increase in the number of schools, so schools must use AR with slightly fewer pupils. AR pupils read 26,114,262 books (4% less than last year), so the number of books read has declined even more than the number of pupils. Pupils took their quizzes in schools between August 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023 (see Table 1). Thus, while the number of schools increased a little, the number of pupils involved decreased, and the number of books decreased even more.

Many pupils did not enter their gender, but of those that did, 462,519 (49%) were female and 479,868 (51%) were male, the proportions being just as last year. Primary schools (20,716,386, 79%) used AR much more than secondary schools (5,397,903, 21%), the primary figure having increased substantially, and the secondary figure declined substantially from the previous year. It seems that the decline in numbers of pupils involved, and books read is almost entirely accounted for by decline in the secondary sector. This follows a situation last year where pupil numbers involved in secondary had substantially increased.

Last year, the largest number of quizzes per year was taken by Year 3 pupils (5,276,677- a 3% decrease compared to an increase last year). The number of quizzes passed in Year 3 had declined from an average of 30.7 quizzes passed to an average of 28.1 quizzes passed. Year 4 was also high on this factor (5,152,426, decreased by 2%, compared to an increase last year). It seems that the decline in the number of pupils involved and books read is almost entirely accounted for by a decline in the secondary sector. This follows a situation last year where pupil numbers involved in secondary had substantially increased

The total words read was 238,617,533,743 – an enormous number but an 11% decrease over last year. This relatively large decrease relative to the decrease in Books Read (above) suggests that pupils tended to read shorter books, although the dramatic decrease in secondary (where pupils tend to read longer books) might well have something to do with this. However, the Average Book Difficulty Level (ATOS) was 3.6 (just as last year), so if students were reading shorter books, they were not reading easier books.

The Average Percent Correct was 0.73 on all Quizzes taken (just the same as last year), so the accuracy with which quizzes were taken also increased. However, the APC for primary was 77% while the APC for secondary was 69%, suggesting that secondary pupils were not reading books as carefully as primary pupils, even though the difficulty of the secondary books was not as far above their reading level as was the case with primary books and pupils.

Table 2 indicates pupils quizzing by year and region, showing that the largest number of AR-using pupils is unsurprisingly in England (979,576, 77%, which was 11% of the total school population, a decline from 14% last year). However, Northern Ireland had by far the highest proportion of AR-using pupils in relation to the size of the school population (72,988, 21% – the same as last year). This means that more than one in five pupils were using AR in Northern Ireland. After this, Scotland stayed the same as last year at 4%-5%. Wales significantly increased the number of pupils participating the previous year, and their proportion now firmed up to 26,995, 6% (compared to 7% last year). The Republic of Ireland had increased substantially to 45,398, 8%, from half this proportion. Remember also that these figures are somewhat uncertain estimates as not all pupils indicated in which region they were.

Continue Reading

Return to home