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, we have a slim printed summary, with the majority of the evidence being on the Renaissance UK website.
This is the sixteenth year this report has been published in the UK. In that time, the number of students involved has increased by almost 43 times, the number of schools has increased by nearly 11 times, the number of books read has increased by almost 96 times, the average number of books read per pupil has risen by almost twice, and the number of AR quizzes now available is over three times what it was.
Accelerated Reader use continues to grow, and it is now used in 6,488 schools in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (1% more than last year) and 1,273,795 pupils (almost 1% less than last year). AR pupils 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.
About half the pupils involved were male and half female. Primary schools (79%) used AR much more than secondary schools (21%), and the primary figure has 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 – an enormous number and 19% higher.
The Average Book Difficulty Level (ATOS) was 3.6 (as last year). As in many previous years, average book difficulty rose as pupils became older, but not in proportion to the rate at which the pupils should have been improving in reading. 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. Throughout secondary school, pupils were still reading books at almost the same level of difficulty as upper primary pupils.
The Average Percent Correct was 0.73 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%, 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. 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 reading scores, the highest with the highest reading scores, and the middle APC scores were associated with the middle reading scores. Engaged Reading Time was also a powerful predictor of Star Reading Scores. The lowest ERT scores are associated with the lowest reading scores, the highest with the highest reading scores, and the middle ERT scores are associated with the middle reading scores. More 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.
The largest number of AR-using pupils was unsurprisingly in England (11% of the 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) – more than one in five pupils was using AR. The Republic of Ireland had also increased substantially to 45,398, 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 who took part in the NLT Annual Literacy Survey said they enjoyed reading in their free time. This is the lowest level of reading enjoyment recorded since 2005. This drop is largely because of a greater drop in reading enjoyment in girls than in boys. Similarly, while more of those aged 8 – 11 said they enjoyed reading in their free time compared with their older peers, the number of children in this age group who said they enjoyed reading had decreased by 11.3 percentage points over the past 18 years. Slightly fewer children who received free school meals (FSMs) said they enjoyed reading in their free time compared with those who didn’t receive FSMs. Those who enjoyed reading at school also enjoyed reading in their free time. 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. Listening to audio is a way to read for many children and young people, with 3 in 10 (30.6%) saying that listening to an audiobook or podcast got them interested in reading books on paper and on screen. The percentage of children reaching the level expected in national tests (Key Stage 2 SATs) reading had shown a slight decrease.
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 but had 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, just as last year. 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 (many of whose books are of very low readability) and David Walliams. In Year 8, Alice Oseman became the top book for girls, but 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 have not changed much. Kinney, Dahl and Walliams remained top, and Rowling featured in the secondary, but Oseman crept upwards.
New Entrants are books that had not been in our tables before – so that teachers can have an idea of 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. This was rather depressing, especially as these authors figured very little in the Favourite Books category (see below). One redeeming feature was that Kinney’s latest book was of higher readability. Dav Pilkey, Jeff Kinney and Marcus Rashford also did well for both boys and girls. Overall, however, the average level of difficulty declined after rising in previous years. However, these easier books were generally 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, primary 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 even 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. It seems that secondary non-fiction books were not read or understood as carefully as fiction books.
After completing a quiz, pupils have 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 were reading very difficult books with a high degree of success – it is wonderful what reading motivating books does for children. There was a marked difference in Year 7 (the year of secondary transfer). At this point, the difficulty of favoured books was no longer well above chronological age and, in the ensuing years, declined sharply. Thus, while reading new books is not necessarily a good strategy if the aim is to increase reading achievement, reading Favourite Books is.
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. In Year 6 pupils are reading at their chronological age. In Year 7 pupils are suddenly a year behind their chronological age, in Year 8 two years behind, and in Years 9-11 at least three years behind. Secondly, there are striking differences in reading teaching at primary level between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In the Republic there is much emphasis on reading hard books in lower primary, which the children seem to manage with high levels of comprehension. In Northern Ireland, levels of difficulty at this stage are much lower. However, by the time secondary education comes around, these differences seem to have been levelled out, and children are reading material at pretty much the same level of difficulty. Thirdly, there is good news for Wales in these data in comparison to the other four regions, particularly in the upper age ranges, where students in Wales seem to be catching up. These are promising signs that teachers in Wales are encouraging their pupils to be more proactive in seeking out harder books.
myON is an electronic reader that can be loaded onto any device and gives access to e-books, some with audio and other supports. 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 is available 24/7 and can support reading at home as well as school or any other place the pupil happens to be. myON is mostly used in Years 2 – 7, but there is also a relatively high number of users in preschool and nursery settings, where presumably there is more use of the audio support features. In every grade, the top titles are quite different from those in the regular book lists and the Favourite lists. In terms of difficulty, 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, so the gap became wider each year. This may be because a number of these books were graphic novels, which tended to have lower readability. On the other hand, also appearing in the top 20s were some classic books of very high readability.
In considering countries other than the UK and Ireland (and, of course, the USA), we looked first at countries where English is the first language (Australia/New Zealand and Canada). Overall, Australia/New Zealand had higher book difficulty than the UK but reading comprehension (APC) had declined to be only a little better than the UK. In K-2, Canadian pupils read easier books than UK pupils but understood them better, just as last year. In later years, Canadian pupils read books which were harder than UK pupils, but their comprehension showed a substantial decline, leaving them nearly as low as the UK. Both countries suffered the same decline in transfer to secondary as the UK.
Then we looked at countries where English was not the first language but a Second or Other Language and AR was being used by pupils learning English and practising by reading books in English. There were relatively small numbers of pupils yielding data, so all year/grade groups have been combined, and of course we cannot be sure that the pupils are in any way comparable to the UK. 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, similar to last year. 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, just as last year (although one must question the cultural appropriateness of the books). 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-covid might be a factor, especially in secondary as such pupils are more likely to be weaker readers on whom AR was previously targeted.
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 still available – 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).