Students at Escambia County Middle School took part in a nationwide effort to “Read the Most Coast to Coast” on Friday, Feb. 28. Escambia County Middle School students joined Renaissance Learning’s challenge to break the record set last school year for the number of Accelerated Reader Quizzes taken in one day. The new one-day record is an amazing 4,987,949 quizzes.

Accelerated Reader, the nation’s most widely used reading management program for K-12 schools, helps educators generate excitement for reading and monitor students’ personalized practice.

Approximately 113 students from Escambia County Middle School took part in this shared effort.

“Read the Most Coast to Coast is a fun-filled event that enables our students to join with others across the nation to set a new record, all while engaging in valuable reading practice,” said ECMS media specialist Sara Chavers. “We are proud of our students. They were so excited to contribute to the national quiz count and to see the totals tracked in real time on Renaissance Learning’s website. Students were thrilled when they saw they beat last year’s one-day record.”

Last year, more than 30,000 educators participated and students shattered the previous record of 4,409,622 quizzes taken.
Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader serves as a platform for teachers to manage independent reading practice. Students read a book at the appropriate level and then take a computer-based quiz to show they understood what they’ve read. Accelerated Reader provides access to 160,000 quizzes, nearly half for nonfiction books.