Hello!
Thank you for all the responses! The hits are below and are very informative. After
considering both options we have decided to go with Reading Counts Enterprise. One
reason is cost. The transition to AR would be cheaper than the transition to RC
Enterprise, but subsequent years are almost half the cost of AR. ($2.00 per student
with RC as opposed to $4.00 per student with AR.) And if the time comes where we
can't afford to subscribe with RC we will still own the 45 thousand quizzes, we
just won't receive any of their new quizzes. Another compelling reason to stick
with RC is the cheating issue which a number of you brought up. Again, I really
appreciate your help!
Angelika Ross
Media Specialist
Oakland Christian School
Auburn Hills, MI
ARoss@oaklandchristian.com<mailto:ARoss@oaklandchristian.com>
Reading counts is much better
more questions for quizzes - randomly generated
AR has the same questions for each kid
my friends switched because cheating was too easy with AR
AR only has 10 questions in the bank or less for each book where as SRC
has 30 for each book so the kids may test more than once. Plus the
questions help the kids not cheat, AR doesn't switch things up and SRC
does for each kid who tests. AR is very aggressive, and will send you
what ever you need to get going, but I do not think it is as good a tool
as SRC, especially since you are already familiar with SRC.
We have reading counts at the K-8 level and AR at the 9-12 level. There are pros
and cons with both systems. One thing that I would consider is no one knows how
much longer AR will let you buy individual test. I would not be surprised if they
don't do what reading counts is doing in the near future. With that said, here are
some advantages that I see AR having over RC:
1. More test available for a larger range of books. This is especially true for
non-fiction and biography books. They also do a better job of having test
available for books high school kids are interested in - ie adult titles and
classics. RC just doesn't have that big of a range yet.
2. Ease of use. The program is very simple to set up and manage. In addition,
they have a wonderful technical support.
3. The reading level, although still not good to use as a complete guide, is
better than RC. In fact, if you do switch, you will notice that not only will
points change, but the reading level will change as well - sometimes drastically.
4. AR will only give a percentage of the points possible for a book based on how
well you passed the test. For instance, if you only get a 60%, you only will get
60% of the points possible. With RC, if you pass the test, you get the total
amount of points - no matter what you scored.
Cons with AR over RC
1. AR only has 10 or 20 questions per test and will ask the same questions with
every test. Although A, B, C, D, answer will be different, there is an increased
chance that a student can cheat.
2. You can not print off a test with AR for a student to take. This may cause a
problem with those students who struggle taking a test on the computer or those
special education students who needs help reading the questions.
3. You can only add 1500 teacher-made test to the AR system before you use up all
of the available slots. With RC, you can add as many as you want.
4. With the AR version that we have right now (we don't have the latest update),
you can not print off as many reports that you can with RC. Not a big problem with
me but for others it might be.
I haven't ever used Reading Counts (either version) but my school began using
Renaissance Place this year. The software isn't perfect by any means (I have some
pet peeves) but it is usable, and it was fairly easy to learn. Good luck with your
decision!
I just switched to Enterprise. I am in the process of going through the disks they
have sent each month since this past November and figuring out what tests we
already have and what’s new. I’m about to call them and complain because out of
comparing disks from Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, and Mar, I have only found that I have
gained 68 new tests. On each disk they send, they send levels K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and
High school. Then, they send corrections. In all, it’s a huge number of tests they
send. I don’t know yet if I load the corrections, if it takes the place of the test
already in our database or if there would now be two versions of that test in our
database. Since I’m a middle school, there are some tests on the 3-5 level I want,
all on the 6-8, and some on the hs. So, I have decided from now on, I won’t just
load the disk as it is for those levels. I have figured out how to convert the txt
file of the quizzes into excel, and then I’m hoping to be able to select only the
tests I want. We’re having to go through and deactivate a ton of tests right now.
The transition has been painful. Maybe I will like it someday. Feel free to call me
and we can talk further. I have been transitioning since the end of January. I’m
trying to decide if I’m getting my money’s worth or if I’m getting screwed.
I just switched to Enterprise after using Reading Counts for about 8 years. I still
LOVE RC. I know that it can feel like it's forced (well, I guess it really is...)
but I have found it so much better. I just calculated the amount of $$ I spent on
quizzes over the last three years, and it amounted to $900 (+/-) each year! And
that was only to match books that I was ordering each year. Now I spend $399/yr and
not only do I get every quiz ever made, they send me updates each month. I started
with around 4200 quizzes and now I have 44,000. I also use Follett Destiny and
there is an option to match your marc records to the quizzes you have. The kids are
finding it SO much easier to search for books to take quizzes.
I wish I could give you up-to-date info on AR, but it has been many years since I
compared them. At that time, the one thing that I really didn't like was that AR
only lets the student take the quiz once and that the quiz was exactly the same -
which only helped the students cheat by sharing the quiz with each other.
I know I'm rambling - I would REALLY like you to post a HIT - my district is
considering changing to AR and I REALLY don't want to...
Thanks and I hope this helped (even if it's just a little) :-)
I hope you post your results! I am very upset with the way Scholastic handled this
also. I always thought RC was the better product - I like the 30 questions for each
book - but my latest clerk is very familiar with AR and says many of the books we
have which don't have RC quizzes DO have AR quizzes. On the other hand...the idea
of relabeling all those books gives me nightmares....
I am a technician, one of 3 who provides computer support for our school district.
In that role we install and maintain software as well as hardware. Ours is a small
school district with 4 schools. The elementary and middle schools use Scholastic
and the High School uses Accelerated Reader. The elementary is in your position
with an older version that needs updating. The middle school moved to Scholastic
Enterprise version last year.
The librarian, who is quite tech savvy, manages the Scholastic database and keeps
quizzes up-to-date. She likes the program and the new management component. I'm
glad she is so qualified and technical as a database based program needs one main
person to manage the day-to-day operations. The teachers have only the access they
need to do reports for their own classes. That keeps everyone happy. The teachers
have what they want being able to get into areas they lack the expertise to manage.
The database remains stable in the hands of the librarian and I can leave it to
her with confidence and do the updates as necessary.
The product is probably the best for what it does but not without it's issues. The
Scholastic Reading Inventory component varies the tests, so no two students get the
same test. On the other hand,o Accelerated Reader allowed any one student to take
the test and then give the answers to other students as they never varied the tests.
That being said, the version of Accelerated the high school uses is a bit dated so
things may have changed.
We've found the Enterprise version of Scholastic to be a significant improvement
and rather than the $800-$900 the librarian spent each year on quizzes, she now has
to spend only $399 to get all available quizzes.
The cost to upgrade is steep but cheaper than adding new licenses. We upgraded our
60 licenses for Read 180 with all the associated components for about $1500
including the first year of technical support/maintenance at $2000. This also
included our 400 licenses for Scholastic Reading Inventory and Reading Counts. Our
own tech support is quite good so we dropped it after that and complained to the
company about the high cost for minimum use. Others must have complained because
this school year they made technical support available on a per component basis and
at a cost of $500. Or maybe the economy motivated them to make adjustments and the
high cost of technical support was a bit much.
For the most part we read the FAQs in the technical section to get information
about known issues. When updates arrive we wait to do the installation until there
is feedback on the web site about possible glitches. The installations have been
reasonably straight forward.
I personally dislike how most educational software companies do business. I get
the feeling they treat school like a captive market as a few companies are in
control of the majority of the software and when something new comes along, they
buy the company to squelch competition and get new products.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET
2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL
4) SET LM_NET DIGEST
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html
* LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home