This study examined patterns of academic growth and performance according to the extent of individualised reading practice accomplished by students. We drew upon large databases comprised of thousands of UK students in year groups 1-13 to compare independent reading practice as tracked by Accelerated Reader (AR) with the typical performance of students who do not use the programme. The study is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R67533>.

From the abstract: "Implementation fidelity or integrity is a key variable in evidence-based interventions, but is rarely assessed by student response or over a long period. This study related implementation fidelity in independent book reading to tested reading achievement over a year. The sample of 852,295 students in 3243 primary and secondary schools was reduced by schools providing incomplete data and the discarding of mid-year data. Achievement was measured pre-post by STAR Reading, a computerised item-banked adaptive test of reading accuracy and comprehension. Implementation fidelity was measured by variables from the computerised Accelerated Reader (AR) software, which analyses comprehension of a real book the student has chosen by a quiz. Results compared key variables for the four regions of the UK, local authorities and best performing schools. Computerised methods offer an interesting alternative to teacher behaviour for investigating implementation and outcomes. This study showed stronger links between implementation and outcomes at an individual level than when all data is aggregated, and that student response is at least as good an implementation index as teacher behaviour. The implications for practice, policy and future research were outlined."Citation: Topping, K. J. (2018). Implementation fidelity and pupil achievement in book reading: Variation between regions, local authorities and schools. Research Papers in Education, 33(5), 620-641.

From the abstract: "Measuring the implementation fidelity (IF) or integrity of interventions is extremely important, since without it a positive or negative outcome cannot be interpreted. However, IF is actually measured relatively rarely. Direct and indirect methods of measurement have been used in the past, but tend to over-emphasize teacher behaviour. This paper focuses on student behaviour collated through computers - an interesting alternative. It deals with the reading of real books and reading achievement, for which variables a very large amount of computerised data was available on 852,295 students in 3243 schools. Reading achievement was measured pre-post with STAR Reading, a computerised itembanked adaptive norm-referenced test of reading comprehension. IF came from the Accelerated Reader (AR), which measures understanding of independent reading of real books the student has chosen by a quiz. Results showed higher IF was related to higher achievement. Neither IF nor reading achievement related to socio-economic status. Primary (elementary) schools had higher IF and achievement than secondary (high) schools. Females had higher IF and achievement than males. Students of higher reading ability implemented AR at a higher level, but did not gain in reading at a higher level. However, this computerised method of measuring IF with book reading showed limited reliability, no greater than methods emphasising teacher behaviour. In future, IF measures emphasising student response and those emphasising teacher behaviour need to be blended, although the latter will never generate the sample size of the former. This may be true of implementation fidelity in areas other than book reading."Citation: Topping, K. J. (2018). Implementation fidelity in computerised assessment of book reading. Computers & Education, 116, 176-190.

DETAILS: Sample: 11 primary schools, 1 secondary school. RESULTS: After implementing Accelerated Reader with best practices for 1 year, 74% of elementary students and 68% of secondary students achieved higher-than-expected gains on nferNelson Group Reading (GRT) II. REPORTING EDUCATOR: Ken McGowan, project director. The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R12659>.

DETAILS: Location: Aberdeen, Scotland; Design: Independent, quasi-experimental, peer-reviewed; Sample: 89 students in grades 5 and 6 at two schools; Measures: Edinburgh reading comprehension test, Neale reading accuracy test; Duration: 6 months. RESULTS: The student population involved in this study consisted of mixed abilities including special education and students learning English as a second language. The study looked at the effect of Accelerated Reader and partially implemented best classroom practices on students from two schools in severely economically disadvantaged areas of Scotland. The schools were divided into two separate project studies, A and B. Results indicated that despite having less reading time than comparison students, the students using Accelerated Reader best practices demonstrated greater statistically significant gains in reading achievement across a number of measures, including comprehension and reading accuracy. In addition, students in the Accelerated Reader classes demonstrated measurable gains in attitudes toward reading. PLEASE NOTE: The Summary of this peer-reviewed journal article: Vollands, S. R., Topping, K. J., & Evans, H. M. (1999). Computerized self-assessment of reading comprehension with the Accelerated Reader: Action research. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 15(3), 197-211 is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R11823>. For a copy of the Full Article, email the Renaissance Research Department: research@renaissance.com.