Colfax Elementary students passed 36,979 Accelerated Reader quizzes this year
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — Students at Colfax Elementary passed 36,979 Accelerated Reader quizzes this year and earned 30,598.8 points with an average comprehension score of 90.7 percent.
All together, 385 Colfax Elementary students from kindergarten through sixth grade read books and took Accelerated Reader quizzes, according to a report by Trevor Hovde, Colfax Elementary principal, submitted to the Colfax Board of Education at the June 17 meeting.
Research shows that students who can maintain a comprehension score of 90 percent or higher also can make two years of reading growth in one year, and there were 237 students who ended the year with a score of 90 percent or higher, according to the report.
In all, students read nearly 133 million words, with 29 students reading more than one million words; four students reading more than two million words; and two students reading more than three million words, the report states.
Students received a variety of prizes for their AR accomplishments, such as embroidered t-shirts and duffle bags, PowerAde, ice cream sundaes and root beer floats, pencils, erasers, book covers and Colfax Cash.
Research also shows that students who do not read over the summer suffer a “summer slide” in their reading ability.
To encourage students to read over the summer, they will be allowed to accumulate points during June, July and August and then add those points to their records in September, according to the report.
The boost in points with summer reading may help them have more options for prizes next year, the report notes.
The Colfax Public Library is assisting with Accelerated Reader over the summer by providing a place where students can go to take the quizzes.
Lisa Bragg-Hurlburt, director of the Colfax Public Library, reported to the Colfax Public Library Board in her June report that she had made several changes at the library to accommodate students coming in to take Accelerated Reader quizzes.
Families are allowed to come into the library one hour before the library officially opens every day if they believe they need “maximum quiet” to take AR quizzes, Hurlburt wrote in her report.
Hurlburt also has purchased sound-blocking headphones for students who have trouble concentrating, and she is having her laptop computer refurbished for use as a designated Accelerated Reader computer that is only used for the AR quizzes.