A lot of schools seem to be switching to a platform called Sparx Reader, so that they can monitor reading activity of said students. If you have used Sparx Reader, you will know that it is the worst experience imaginable. This is the Sparx Reader experience (If you don't want to read this just skip to the conclusion):

How They Want You To Read

Firstly, they stop you from reading your own books unless you own a 'Gold Reader Pass'. This completely kills the entire point of reading, as you are reading some random book that most of the time you don't even like. This makes it so that children and teens just don't want to read, even if it isn't Sparx Reader, which is not good.

Gold Reader

Secondly, as mentioned earlier, they gatekeep reading your own books behind a 'Gold Reader Pass'. You get this pass by reading your book after you have already met the quota for that week's homework. As you get more Sparx Reader Points (SRP) after you already met your quota, you can obtain stars. Once you get 5 stars (Which takes a LONG time), you finally obtain your gold reader pass. This means you can finally read your own books, for 5 weeks, and then your gold reader pass gets taken away, then you have to get all 5 stars again.

Gold Reader Part 2

You see, they recently changed gold reader so it does literally nothing now, it just tells the teacher you read more. The good part about this update is that it allows you to read your own books even without Gold Reader, but here is the catch, you earn  NO SRP FROM IT. What is the point of adding it if you then get no SRP. I might as well read the book WITHOUT scanning the barcode.

Options

I have come up with some options to fix this, and there are a couple. Either, schools stop using Sparx Reader, and TRUST THEIR STUDENTS TO READ, or, they could use Accelerated Reader. If you are a student, you probably know what this is, and how it is a LOT better than Sparx Reader, but I will explain it anyway.

Accelerated Reader

Basically, this is just Sparx Reader but infinitely better. What it does is it allows you to read your OWN books, and then you can do a mini quiz at the end once you finished the book, to see how much you have learnt about the book, and how much you have taken away from the book. Although this software does not host books on their platform, they allow the student to use their own book, which is one reason why this platform is INFINITELY better than Sparx Reader.

Book Quizzes

Accelerated Reader currently has more than 210,000 book quizzes for books, and they are an actively working team adding more and more each year. Although that doesn't sound like a lot, Sparx Reader's library of books are a lot smaller than this, which also means Accelerated Reader is better in this aspect.

So Why Do Teachers Choose Sparx Reader?

The answer is the same for most other homework systems, control. They choose Sparx Reader because they can see how you are reading in real time, can see your reading accuracy, and they can see a lot more information that is just not needed. Accelerated Reader on the other hand monitors what happens AFTER the student has read, not  DURING. This is a better concept, because, they only see things about your quiz and book.

Conclusion

Schools should switch to Accelerated Reader since it allows students to enjoy their own books, rather than having to read random books that they don't like, and being forced to read them, which is way worse than reading your own book that you actually enjoy.