The purpose of this study was to compare the reading achievement growth of fifth grade students following a year of participation in the Accelerated Reader program with the reading achievement growth of fifth grade students who did not participate in the Accelerated Reader program. The Terra Nova standardized achievement test was used as the pretest and the posttest for reading achievement growth. Results revealed that the Accelerated Reader program participants scored significantly lower than those who did not participate in the Accelerated Reader program. The findings showed that the addition of the Accelerated Reader program to the existing reading program did not result in a significant increase in the reading achievement growth of participating students when compared to the reading achievement growth of students who did not participate in the Accelerated Reader program. In addition, the non-Accelerated Reader students obtained higher adjusted mean rank scores than those students who participated in the Accelerated Reader program.