HIT: AR and Reading Counts incentive programs

["d.moll" <d.moll@CWIX.COM>]

  Thanks to all who sent information regarding these two programs.  Most of
the responses were favorable recommendations for Scholastic's Reading Counts
(formerly Electronic Bookshelf).

The one thing just about everyone mentioned as a positive feature of the
Reading Counts program was the bank of 30 questions used when preparing the
tests.  This gives the student an opportunity to retake the test with
different questions.  If also cuts down on cheating as students can pass
questions on to others but there is no guarantee that the receiver will get
those questions when they take the test.  AR uses the same 10 or 20
questions with only the answers in a different order.

You can determine the number correct answers needed for a passing score for
individual tests, the whole class or the entire student population.  This
feature targets the special needs students.

Site licensing for Reading Counts software is based on the number of
computers it is loaded on and not the number of students that will be using
the program.

Teachers can sort titles in the database using selected criteria such as
reading level, interest level, comprehension skills (phonics, inference,
cause and effect, etc.), genre, award winners, etc. and then recommend
appropriate titles for the students.

You can make up an unlimited amount of tests but each test must have 30
questions for the question bank.

The Reading Counts format is more attractive to children.  It has nice
visual graphics for passing tests as well as giving students the opportunity
to rate the selection they have read.

Reading Counts is now affiliated with Econo-Clad.  They will provide barcode
labels, MARC records, etc.

Scholastic offers technical support for the program.  (There was no mention
as to how good this service is.)

Someone recently mentioned the Lexile Framework feature that Scholastic has
included with this program.  Yes, you must use a test correlated to the
Lexile Framework to be able to use this feature but you can use the program
without using the Lexile Framework.  Scholastic of course offers the test
but it has a pretty high price tag based on the number of students you want
to test and I'm not sure how often the test can be used.  Reading Counts
does provide grade levels for each selection but they are not broken down as
much as the AR program.  RC has 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, etc. while AR gives you
selections coded 1.2, 1.5, 1.8, etc.


I hope this helps those of you trying to decide which program to use.  It
made our decision easier.


Dorrie Moll                     Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it
sounds?
Title I                               Poor spellers of the world untie! :-)
Hampton Elementary
Hampton, GA 30281
d.moll@cwix.com

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