Students improved three reading levels in a year. . . . Library circulation
tripled. . . . Students report reading an entire book for the first time
in their lives. . . . Attitudes toward reading improved dramatically. It's
now OK to be seen with a book in your hand. . . .
So goes the conversation on a listserv where school library media specialists
rave over the effects of computerized reading-management programs on their
students' reading habits.
Computerized reading-management programs are replacing book reports as
the high-tech way to make sure the books are really being read. As the listserv
conversation indicates, many love the programs and the way they encourage
kids to read. But others worry that the programs limit reading choices.
How the programs work
Reading-management programs got their start in 1981 when Rosalie Carter,
then a school library media specialist in Indiana, wanted to know whether
kids were really reading the books they checked out. Her husband, an instructional
designer at Purdue University, helped her design and implement The Electronic
Bookshelf (EBS), a computer program that allowed kids to select a book from
a recommended list and later take a multiple-choice test on the computer
about important facts in the book. They designed EBS to score tests, award
points (based on test performance and the difficulty of the book), and keep
complete records of results. Kids could get immediate feedback on how they
did, and teachers could check to see how students were doing at any time.
The Electronic Bookshelf was an instant hit. In the EBS catalog, Rosalie
Carter says, "My circulation increased by 400 percent as 286 students
read 3,000 books in just 15 weeks! But even more exciting was that the kids
had actually read the books. With EBS, I finally had a tool to provide accountability
and verify their comprehension, and I knew they had not cheated to pass
their quizzes because questions and quizzes were randomly accessed."
The original program had only 50 quizzes, but The Electronic Bookshelf has
expanded to include more than 10,000 quizzes.
Other companies designed similar programs. Accelerated Reader, the program
with the largest customer base, has a large technical support staff and
offers seminars on setting up the program, running it effectively, and integrating
it into a school's language arts curriculum. Another program, BookSharp,
claims low pricing as its outstanding characteristic. For a flat $595, a
school gets the management software as well as tests for 2,000 books.
That's a Fact Jack! is the most sophisticated program, with questions
presented in a lively game-show format and kids competing either as individuals
and on teams. The software has a "floating level of difficulty"
that provides more challenging questions for advanced students. "We
thoroughly researched what people wanted in developing this program,"
says creator Andy Larson of Follett Software Co. "They wanted a program
that was highly interactive, used digital audio and video, promoted higher-order
thinking skills, and used award-winning literature."
Larson says the program challenges kids to think about what they read:
"Instead of asking, 'What was the name of the pig in Charlotte's Web,'
our program asks the question, 'What will Wilbur probably do when he meets
Charlotte's great-grandchildren?' The answer would be, 'Pledge his friendship
to them.' To state the obvious, anyone should be able to tell you Wilbur's
name; the higher-order thinking is in truly understanding the feelings between
Charlotte and Wilbur and translating this insight to postulate on future
events."
Some schools combine programs. Larson and Rosalie Carter say sometimes
The Electronic Bookshelf is used to motivate readers, and That's a Fact
Jack! is used to evaluate them. All of the programs use an overall student-management
system module as well as individual titles disks arranged by grade/reading
level and subject theme. The programs can be set up to be run schoolwide
or in individual classrooms.
Most programs guard against cheating by generating random test questions,
which means students who have taken a test can't pass the answers on to
their friends. (The Electronic Bookshelf, for instance, stores 30 questions
for each book but asks only 10 in random order on the test.) The programs
include additional security precautions such as student passwords.
Can't a student just watch a video or read a summary of the book to pass
the computerized test? Probably not. Each manufacturer takes pains to incorporate
questions that cannot be answered by watching a video. (The Electronic Bookshelf
test on Gone with the Wind, for instance, asks for the name of Rhett and
Scarlett's son--a fact not revealed in the movie.) And the sheer number
of questions on a quiz makes it highly unlikely that simply reading a summary
on the jacket will be enough to earn a passing score.
The rewards of reading
Schools using computerized reading-management programs typically offer
a wide variety of rewards to students for the reading points they've earned.
The rewards can be as simple as posting the names of high achievers in prominent
places or as complicated as setting up stores where kids can spend "book
bucks" on everything from McDonald's coupons to boom boxes. The Accelerated
Reader and The Electronic Bookshelf programs offer catalogs with incentive
products that include clothing, certificates, medals, and sporting goods.
A popular ploy, which costs nothing, is to have the principal do something
outrageous once the entire school meets an accumulated point goal. Principals
have been known to shave their heads, kiss a pig, and conduct business from
the roof for a day, all in an effort to incite kids to read thousands of
books.
Appalled by such gimmicks, some critics argue that rewards of any kind
devalue reading. In an October 1996 School Library Journal article, Betty
Carter of Texas Women's University's School of Library and Information Studies,
wrote: "By granting rewards for reading more and supposedly better
books, educators unconsciously make a public statement: Reading cannot stand
alone as an enjoyable pursuit. . . . Tangible rewards lead to diminished
motivation. When they offer bonuses for reading, educators not only deliver
an unappealing message, they also lessen the possibility that children will
read voluntarily."
But others feel comfortable with the rewards. Carol Buchanan, school
library media specialist at the Bedminster Township School in New Jersey,
says: "For some children, this extrinsic motivation works. It does
not necessarily mean we are giving incentives for a less-than-desirable
task. Rather, we are giving rewards for a job well done." She notes
that the rewards offered "are rather meager," compared to the
expensive video and computer games, skateboards, and Rollerblades that many
kids own. "Oftentimes the satisfaction lies in completing a book (sometimes
for the first time), being able to answer some questions about the book,
and seeing those points accumulate." she says.
Frankly, the gimmicks and incentives can be offered without a computerized
system. But the reading-management programs make the record-keeping so much
easier. Reports can be generated for individual students, groups, and schools
on the number of quizzes passed, points accumulated, and specific titles
read.
No more book reports?
Kids seem to enjoy using the reading-management programs. Students at
Cherryville Junior-Senior High School in North Carolina, for instance, say
the Accelerated Reader program at their school has helped them read more
and better books, increase their overall vocabulary, and receive immediate
feedback. They also appreciate the system's fairness and accuracy--and the
fact that they don't have to write conventional book reports. They say they
run out of books to read by the time they reach ninth grade.
Teachers and school library media specialists admit the programs have
drawbacks. They say many students limit their reading to the books in the
test database, which means they're passing up many fine books on the shelves.
And kids often choose books based solely on the number of points they carry.
Some of the programs offer features that allow schools to overcome these
problems, but the fact remains that these programs are changing the way
many schools decide which books to buy. Schools with small budgets sometimes
buy only books in the database--even if the books they're buying don't meet
their previously established selection criteria. (Many book wholesalers
now stock books in bundles to accompany the programs' titles disks.)
What the research shows
Only a few research studies have looked at the effects of computerized
reading-management programs. Accelerated Reader has its own research institute,
but it's wise to look for independent studies. One such independent study
examined how Accelerated Reader affected fifth-graders' attitudes toward
reading and TV-viewing time. The children's attitudes toward reading improved,
the study concluded, and so did the amount of time they spent reading--but
not at the expense of the time spent in front of the tube. The kids evidently
gave up other activities.
Another independent study compared the reading comprehension scores on
the Stanford Achievement Test of sixth-grade students using Accelerated
Reader for the first time with the scores of the previous year's sixth-graders
who hadn't used the program. No differences were found.
But a different study indicated it might take time for reading-management
programs to produce results. Cherryville teacher Janie Peak and Mark Dewalt,
an assistant professor of education at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory,
N.C., found that using Accelerated Reader had a direct bearing on
California Achievement Test reading scores. They followed two groups of
students over a five-year period, from third to eighth grade. The group
that used the program started with a lower mean total reading score in third
grade, but finished with a higher mean total reading score in eighth grade.
On average, those using the program checked out five books every nine weeks
and spent five or six hours a week reading. Those not using the program,
on average, checked out four books every nine weeks and read for two or
three hours a week.
Presenting their findings to the Eastern Educational Research Association
in Clearwater, Fla., Peak and Dewalt said: "A computer itself does
not increase actual ability; however, the excitement, response rate, and
'newness' that it generates for the students, compared to conventional methods
of reading assessment," are advantages in themselves. They attributed
much of the program's success to the enthusiastic support of the school
staff, parents, and district administrators. The lesson seems obvious: The
success of a reading-management program lies not so much in the features
of the software as in the commitment of the people running it.
Nancy Everhart is an assistant professor in the Division of Library and Information
Science at St. John's University in Jamaica, N.Y. | 
