About What Kidsa are Reading 2025 Our very own Gene Kerns penned the Introduction to this year's report, which shares the reading habits of 5 million K--12 students, from 21,259 schools across all 50 states and DC, who read 173 million books during the 2023--2024 school year. This year's report explores the importance of kids spending 15 minutes on reading practice daily--a manageable amount for busy readers that our data show is the sweet spot to see real gains in terms of literacy achievement and vocabulary exposure. Two new report features highlight our findings, The Magic of 15 Purposeful Minutes spread on pp. 8--9, and the research questions and answers found in our four new Inspired to Read spreads kicking off each section of the report: What Kids are Reading is organized by grade range, with each section beginning with an Inspired to Read spread bursting with reading motivation. At the top of these pages, we've included two book lists: (1) Recognizing Resilience, featuring an array of stories whose characters display grit and tenacity, allowing readers to feel seen as well as broaden their understanding and empathy for others, and (2) Series Sets, where we've highlighted a book series for each grade level that was read by students who also favored a series from the Top Print list for that grade. Spanning the bottom of these pages, we explore The Magic of 15 Purposeful Minutes by examining the impact of kids spending just 15 minutes per day reading, using data from our Accelerated Reader database for the 2023--2024 school year. The following page begins with a Teacher Recommendation, from a reading survey conducted in January 2025 of educators spanning all grade levels, who answered a short series of questions regarding student book reading. Then, a map displaying Signature Books, that ranked higher in popularity in each state than they did nationwide, and four Fresh Finds, comprising books that kids first quizzed on during Fall 2024. Each individual grade level includes a Highest Rated book that received the most stars from kids in that grade who opted to rate books on a 4-point scale after reading and quizzing. Next up, two ranked booklists, Top Print (from Accelerated Reader) and Popular Digital (from myON), both display books by series, where appropriate, to allow as many unique authors and titles on the lists as possible. The myON books also do not repeat from grade to grade to include even more distinct titles. Finally, each grade level features a curated list of Authentic Spanish texts. The Full Report and additional information is available online: <https://www.renaissance.com/wkar>.

The purpose of this project is to statistically link the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and Star Reading and Star Math scales. The Full Report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R63439>.

The International Certification of Evidence of Impact in Education (ICEIE) has granted Renaissance's Nearpod the Silver badge (ESSA Tier 2) for Efficacy in enhancing learning outcomes.The full certification is available online: <https://eduevidence.org/products/>.

The International Certification of Evidence of Impact in Education (ICEIE) has granted Renaissance's Freckle for Math the Silver badge (ESSA Tier 2) for Efficacy in enhancing learning outcomes.The full certification is available online: <https://eduevidence.org/products/>.

This study explores the impact of Accelerated Reader on student reading achievement and growth. Accelerated Reader is designed to motivate, monitor, and manage students' independent reading practice and support their stamina and skill growth through wide reading. Research-based guidelines, goal-setting features, and tools for matching students with appropriate texts promote dynamic reading practice that is shown to optimize academic growth. For this study, we drew upon a sample of over 1.8 million students from the 2023-2024 school year. The findings indicate that students using Accelerated Reader, particularly at recommended levels, showed significantly higher growth compared to non-users. Struggling readers and English Language Learners also benefited from Accelerated Reader. The study concludes that Accelerated Reader is an effective tool for boosting reading skills and closing achievement gaps, with higher fidelity in usage leading to better outcomes.The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R58148>.

This whitepaper introduces the Renaissance Star assessment Biliteracy Trajectories Project, The full whitepaper is aavailable online: <https://renaissance.widen.net/s/vtlslkjdns/809564-biliteracytrajectories-whitepaper>.

From the Introduction: "To provide optimal power and usefulness within our Star Assessments and many of our practice products, Renaissance takes a unique approach to content creation through the development of custom learning progressions. In general, learning progressions are descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of thinking about key disciplinary concepts and practices across multiple grades, which outline intermediate steps toward expertise (Pellegrino, 2011). Learning progressions lay out in words and examples what it means to move toward more expert understanding (Wilson & Bertenthal 2005) in a subject area. While not unlike a traditional scope and sequence, learning progressions are far more thoughtfully developed and emphasize a holistic, cross-grades focus."The Full Report is available online: <https://renaissance.widen.net/s/jdm9kgx5cw/780549-lpfocusskills-whitepaper>.

To develop Pathway to Proficiency reports for Florida Star Reading and Star Math schools, we linked our scaled scores with the scaled scores from Florida's achievement test. This technical report details the statistical method behind the process of linking Florida's state test (FAST) and Star Reading and Star Math scaled scores. The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R45709>.

To develop Pathway to Proficiency reports for Massachusetts Star Reading and Star Math schools, we linked our scaled scores with the scaled scores from Massachusetts' achievement test. This technical report details the statistical method behind the process of linking Massachusetts' state test (Next-Generation MCAS) and Star Reading and Star Math scaled scores.The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R53639>.

To develop Pathway to Proficiency reports for Texas Star Reading and Star Math schools, we linked our scaled scores with the scaled scores from Texas' achievement test. This technical report details the statistical method behind the process of linking Texas' state test (STAAR) and Star Reading and Star Math scaled scores. The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R45735>.

To develop Pathway to Proficiency reports for New Hampshire Star Reading and Star Math, we linked our scaled scores with the scaled scores from the New Hampshire achievement test. This technical report details the statistical method behind the process of linking NH SAS tests and Star Reading and Star Math scaled scores. The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R58546>.

To develop Pathway to Proficiency reports for Vermont Star Reading and Star Math schools, we linked our scaled scores with the scaled scores from theVermont achievement test. This technical report details the statistical method behind the process of linking VTCAP and Star Reading and Star Math scaled scores. The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R58547>.

To develop Pathway to Proficiency reports for New York Star Reading and Star Math schools, we linked our scaled scores with the scaled scores from New York's achievement test. This technical report details the statistical method behind the process of linking New York's state test (NYS) and Star Reading and Star Math scaled scores. The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R45858>.