Item: Renaissance Accelerated Reader
Rating: 9
Author: Steve Braband

Overall Satisfaction with Renaissance Accelerated Reader

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Accelerated Reader is used throughout the district as a tool to keep students engaged while independently reading. By tracking and questioning students on their independent reading books, it allows teachers to focus on individually conferencing with students. They use the data gathered by Accelerated Reader to help focus their conversations with students and keep track of the progress they make throughout the school year.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Ensure that students have read and understand the books they choose to read.
Keep track of what books students have read.
Engages students to choose books of increasing difficulty.

Cons

Simpler user Interface for teachers.
Simpler user interface for admins.
It would be nice to have a suggested reading list for students based on the titles that they have already read.

Return on Investment

Improved student engagement in pleasure reading
Improved comprehension of pleasure reading books
Improved test scores

Support Rating

Renaissance Reader has a great support team, and generally, they are quick to respond when needed. The live chat tool is a life-saver when trying to get your problems solved in real-time. They also have a lot of online support articles that ensure that you can get your questions answered without necessarily having to use the live chat during the school day.

Usability

I would say that Accelerated Reader is a pretty user-friendly tool. The platform is easily used by teachers, administrators, and students of all grade levels and technical abilities. That being said, it would be nice to see some tweaks to the user interface to make it even easier for everyone to navigate.

Key Insights

Do you think Renaissance Accelerated Reader delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Renaissance Accelerated Reader's feature set?

Yes

Did Renaissance Accelerated Reader live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Renaissance Accelerated Reader go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Renaissance Accelerated Reader again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Accelerated Reader is a program that I would highly suggest for any district. It can be infused into any reading classroom effortlessly and help teachers track data that they would otherwise have to do manually. Accelerated Reader also ensures that students are engaged in reading by incentivizing them by awarding students points for the books that they read. The more difficult the book, the more points they receive for reading and proving their understanding of that book.

Comments

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