The What Works Clearinghouse of the U.S. Department of Education reports it can’t judge the effectiveness of the Accelerated Reader intervention with English-language learners. The clearinghouse looked at 13 studies of Accelerated Reader’s effects on the math and reading skills of ELLs in elementary and middle schools. But none of the studies met its “evidence standards,” which seems to be a rather common occurrence. Ten of the studies were thrown out because they didn’t have a comparison group.
Accelerated Reader is a computerized reading-management system designed to supplement preK-12 literacy programs, according to the report.
The clearinghouse reached the same conclusion of no conclusion regarding Reading Recovery’s impact on ELLs’ reading skills earlier this month, which I wrote about on this blog and over at Curriculum Matters.