Date

Spring 2018

Document Type

Master's Thesis (Open Access)

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

Teacher Education

Abstract

Accelerated Reader (AR) is a widely used program designed to encourage students to read and to monitor their progress (What Works, 2016). Although studies have looked at the extent to which AR impacts student reading attitudes and have concluded that certain methods of program implementation produce negative reading attitudes in students (Thompson, Mahuri, & Taylor, 2008); there is limited research comparing different methods of program implementation. This study set out to quantify the impact of AR implementation practices using a quasi-experimental quantitative research design. In the current study, the reading attitudes of two groups of students, one which received a standard implementation of AR, and one which received a modified implementation of AR, were measured using the Survey of Adolescent Reading Attitudes (Conradi, Jang, Bryant, Craft, & McKenna, 2013). Data were analyzed using both independent and paired samples t-tests. The results of this study showed diminished attitudes to reading on two of the subscales for both the control and treatment groups, and statistically insignificant results on all other subscales; demonstrating no evidence for the effectiveness of the intervention. Future studies should be conducted over a longer period of time and with a larger sample size to attempt to produce statistically significant results.

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