Those of you who don’t work in a school, don’t work in a library, or don’t have a child in school, probably haven’t heard about the Accelerated Reader program. It involves students being allowed to pick a recreational reading book from a list of pre-approved books that match their assessed reading level and then being tested on their comprehension in order to gain a certain number of points that often apply to their final grade. I can think of few ways to better make children hate reading. The vendors of this program charge for each test purchased, so schools can purchase only a limited number of tests. Meaning that there are many fewer books to choose from than is really good for a growing mind, and there is a huge disincentive for schools to buy tests for books that have a higher reading level than the grade levels they teach, so the better readers are required to read books that are far too easy for them. That pretty much sums up why I don’t think that the AR program is great. Unfortunately, it’s really popular and easy to use.

The measurement of reading level for the tests (and for most reading-level assignments by almost anyone) is done with a formula that only takes into account the difficulty of the words and sentences, not the complexity of thought or age-appropriateness of the ideas raised. The Color Purple, therefore, has a fourth grade reading level. Look up the reading level of your favorite books at AR’s sales web site.