Hmmm.
In a nutshell:
Does the end justify the means?

You say,
“Suppose it leads to long term gains for the kids.”

I remember Borges saying in an interview that Argentineans are individuals. Americans are citizens. Taking a distance from the political context Borges had in mind when he uttered it, let me ask you:

Are those long-term gains for the kids as individuals or as citizens?

On a side note (that should be post one day), I think I share your concerns regarding motivation. Motivation is changeable by nature. We cannot control it fully. Perhaps the quest for it in a classroom is overrated. Maybe. I am still exploring this in my mind and whispering out a little louder here.

In principle, Fryer agrees. “Kids should learn for the love of learning,” he says. “But they’re not. So what shall we do?”

So we try paying students.

Super.

Another patch on top of all the other patches that show that school isn’t working all that well. Why try to address the fundamental issues?

It’s stupid to say kids don’t love learning. They simply don’t love school. I can’t blame them and I certainly don’t think we can’t pay them enough to like it.

Stephen Krashen has a few articles on his site about AR. I think he decided at best it was neutral and we could be spending money on other things, like books. My admin and I have argued about it. She takes the Fryer stand that the low kids wouldn’t be reading at all. I can see her point. Most teachers at my school don’t use rewards but use it to help kids track their reading level and help them find books they’d be comfortable with.

Another point of view on this is the, yet again, inequality of the schools in the District. Why do some schools have this AR program and others do not (regardless of it’s negative attention). How do some schools afford this and others do not?
Also, since I do not know much about the program, when are students using this program? During Reading instruction or during Technology/Lab time? Both seem wrong to me, esp. in Kindergarten. Kids should be HOLDING books (although, I’m still not up to par: I just went to read about AR and apparently the kids are holding books, so I don’t understand if they are reading and then answering questions on the computer, or does the program read the book to them? younger kids?)….. and kids could be doing way more on the computers (research, podcasts, wikis) that will increase their knowledge of technology.
And what does the teacher do while students are on this program? If the whole class is on it in the Lab, there doesn’t seem to be much teacher instruction going on (plan time?), or is it just a few kids in the classroom (and even then, I only have ONE student computer in my classroom and it is NOT connected to the internet b/c I am only granted ONE drop in my room and that is for the teacher/thin client….).
What I am finding from my tiny bit of research about AR and schools using it is that they are boasting 2 things: kids love to read now b/c of this program AND it’s boosting test scores.
I can think of LOTS of OTHER ways to get kids excited about reading, and if it’s another program that schools are using/paying for to raise test scores, then more power to them and keep it out of my school, b/c I’m tired of parents judging schools based on test scores…(Bud, I am not saying that is why you chose your school…but, if it’s the school that I think it could be, I do know a lot of parents that do choose that school b/c of it’s high test scores….and I’m just not exactly sure What that says about a school anymore….as for another school whose school marquee reads RESULTS MATTER, well, that makes me want to run in the other direction!).

Bud, I was one of the ones who replied to you privately, and I still struggle with it. My daughter has learned to play the school game, and is fascinated with any kind of reward. Recently she was absolutely obsessed with participating in the magazine fund raiser so she could earn a sticky hand and light up ring.

However, she’s a reader. She was reading before she came to the school, and I don’t think the program will have any impact on her love of reading. Now, she’s more likely to read a book, and then check it out to see if it’s an AR book. She loves when she finishes a book and then remembers to look, and discovers she’s read something above her level. She takes the tests at home, and I figure it’s better than watching TV, right?

Motivation is bigger than extrinsic and intrinsic, and the effects are so individualized, you can probably disregard that research and focus on your own children. It’s been 33 years since I went through the SRA program and I still remember racing through those books. I also remember taking home phonics workbooks and completing them in an evening. I believe my love of reading and writing had nothing to do with these programs, but more to do with my personality, culture and environment.

There are reward systems everywhere. This is our world. Previous research is useful, but most of the negative attention on behaviorism stems from results when the stimulus is removed. We now live in the world of the eternal carrot. What we need to teach, is the power of free will.

Does it bother you to see students blog for comments or views? Are you bothered by clustermaps? Does it disturb you to see teachers excited about the number of hits on their student videos?

I am enjoying the conversations that I see around the web about AR. Some of the concerns are valid. I’d like to throw in my two-cents as a former AR user.

First, I haven’t used AR in 10 years. Second, I used it with middle school students, not high school where I now teach.

One of the things that I find generally troublesome about the AR conversations is that people seem to be under the impression that it is JUST reading the book and taking a multiple choice test. When I was trained in how to use the program, that was far from the expectation.

Students were tested to determine their zone of proximal development, then teachers conferenced with them to select appropriate books. EVERY child had an individualized plan. I conferenced with my students at least twice every grading period to discuss, individually, what they were reading, what they thought about their books, what reading goals they had for themselves and what was next on their reading list. I helped kids find books that would interest them (we had 9,000 to choose from).

Though students were rewarded with points they could spend in the AR store, the program was not passive in any way. I read YA lit constantly in an effort to stay in front of the kids and their interests; I needed solid recommendations for them. Sometimes conferencing would take more than a week with my struggling readers.

I also selected books to read aloud to students. When I read aloud “The Giver,” my students checked out all of the copies in the library so they could follow along. We discussed for days the meaning of the ending and talked out a sequel to the story. This was all during our silent reading period.

All of this takes a LOT of work on the part of the teacher to make this process meaningful, but I think it was worth it. Generally, my students enjoyed talking with the class about the books they were reading. Many changed their minds about reading; it could be fun after all.

Has this part of the program gone away? If it has, I don’t know that I could support it either.

By the way, some of the kids were motivated by getting the points in order to go shopping in the AR store. Most of our students came from very poor families, but they had a way (using their AR points) to purchase small birthday and holiday gifts for their friends and family. Yes, some of them bought silly toys for themselves, but others saved up for Mother’s Day gifts.

I teach in a school that used AR my first few years here and phased it out several years ago. We decided, as a staff with the guidance of a fabulous librarian, that it was not doing anything positive for our students.

You can get data from AR, of course. I would argue that the data from AR is fairly pointless. As is most data from anything so standardized. Actually reading with or to students and talking with them about books will be so much more valuable. I think schools turn to AR for help but it strikes me as a lazy answer. And one that is not cheap.

Kids love books. The most chaotic classroom in an elementary school will often immediately calm down if the teacher pulls out a book and begins to read. I’ll never buy that we need external motivation to get the majority of kids to read. We need to immerse them in books.

I have mixed feelings about AR also.

My son was slow to learn reading. We had read to him nightly since he was a toddler. He worked with a wonderful reading specialist at school. He finally hit a smoother patch in 3rd grade, in fourth grade had a teacher that really inspired him, and in fifth grade, is now an avid reader. And we still read to him for a little while each night.

His primary teachers wisely told me not to lose sleep over his progress, and to ignore AR and other tests. It worked.

It all depends upon the importance the school and the individual teachers assign to AR.