Utterly Meaningless

The district here posts the AR list in the public library. Homeschoolers may access it.

One thing I noticed when my kids were in p.s. was that the teacher read some of the books to the students and then they took the tests. I don’t know how well that helped with reading.

Yeah- I found several reading lists via Google. I was looking for the computerized tests.

I volunteered yearly (K through part of 5th) at the school; one of my tasks was helping students who had trouble reading. They would read aloud and I’d help them with words they didn’t know, afterwards they would take the AR test. From what I could tell, the tests were on comprehension. It was quite simple and most students passed it. Some of the tests only had three questions.

Also, another thing about the tests was that the kids could watch a movie in school, based on a book and take the test. Sarah, Plain and Tall is one example that was shown. They could also watch the movie Harry Potter and take the test. My son was disappointed that I didn’t take him to see Harry Potter, as that was given a higher score. Many students saw the movie and then tested. The school gave awards to the students who had high scores.

I think I’m beginning to see why AR is not well-suited to homeschooling. Better the parents read the book, too, and ask questions about it.

When my children were in public school, it seemed that the teachers didn’t want the children reading past their AR level.

That was another one of my tasks, helping the students pick out their books. I was given a folder with all the student names and levels. I was told that they couldn’t pick a book after the highest level by their name, though they could choose books below their level. I then wrote down the titles and the levels of the books.

I’m just sharing what I was told to do.

In Todd Oppenheimer’s “Flickering Minds,” an extraordinarily thorough investigation into the use and impact of computer technology in education, he spends quite a bit of time on AR. AR doesn’t come out looking too good.