What Kids Are Reading, covered in a WaPo front-pager, would be better titled "What Renaissance Learning Quizzes Kids Are Taking," but I still found it interesting that, in the breakdown of the 592 kids in the top 10% of high-schoolers (who read over 25 books each a year, more than four times the average), Elie Wiesel's Night was #2 and Chaim Potok's The Chosen was #14, suggesting something about the demographics of the top 10%.

The headline emphasis is that the Harry Potter books are not the most read, but I question that conclusion: J.K. Rowling appears in the top ten for each grade between fourth and twelfth, and is five of the top nine books for eighth graders. And the study seems to be time-bound to cut off those who read the seventh book, perhaps because a quiz wasn't readily available after the book was released in the summer of 2007. Further, the study is biased towards books assigned in class: if some teachers are using the testing software for just in-class assignments, out-of-class reading and summer reading will not be fully captured. Since few teachers dare assign J.K. Rowling in a public school lest parents complain about the wizardry theme, Rowling's performance is all the more spectacular.