Raz-Kids review

Raz-Kids is an online library of leveled ebooks for kindergarten to grade 5, made by Learning A-Z. Each book has three activities. Students listen to the book read aloud with the words highlighted, read it themselves, and take a short comprehension quiz. They can also record themselves reading so the teacher can listen later. Students earn stars for finished work and spend them building a “Raz Rocket” and avatar. Learning A-Z is part of Cambium Learning Group, which combined it with ExploreLearning under a new name, ExploreK12, in 2026. Raz-Kids is still sold under its own name.

Who it’s for

Raz-Kids suits K-3 teachers who run guided reading or leveled reading groups and want students to practice at their level during centers and at home. It also helps young English learners, who benefit from hearing a book before reading it themselves.

It is less useful for upper elementary students reading above grade level, who often find the books bland. It also suits schools that already use leveled reading. Schools that have moved to a structured literacy approach based on decodable texts may find the leveled model a poor fit for beginning readers.

What it does well

The listen, read, quiz routine is easy for young children to learn. A kindergartner can log in with a picture password, find the assigned book and work through it with little adult help. Once the routine is set in September, Raz-Kids runs a reading center on its own.

Recordings are the most useful teacher feature. A teacher can listen to a student read a book from home and get a quick sense of fluency without a one-to-one running record during class. For a teacher with 25 students and one aide, that saves time each week. Teachers can also see which books each student has read and their quiz scores.

The leveling is fine-grained. Books span 29 levels, which lets a teacher match a book closely to each child. Students move up as they complete books and quizzes at their level, or the teacher can set levels by hand.

Raz-Kids works on browsers and in the Kids A-Z app on tablets and phones, which suits schools with mixed devices and families who only have a phone at home.

Where it falls short

The library and design are showing their age. Common Sense Education’s review notes a lack of high-interest literature and an aging design. Children used to Epic or popular graphic novels may lose interest quickly once the stars stop being new.

Quizzes are easy to game. Students can retake them, and some click through answers until they get 100 percent and the stars that come with it. Teachers should check quiz attempts, not just scores, and talk to students who race through books.

The rewards can take over. Some students spend more time decorating their rocket than reading. Others listen to a book several times for stars without reading it themselves. Requiring the “read” and “record” steps before the quiz helps.

Raz-Kids has no printable books, lesson plans or running record forms. Those come with Raz-Plus, Learning A-Z’s larger literacy product. Teachers who start with Raz-Kids often find they want the extra resources.

Accessibility has gaps. A Perkins School for the Blind review of the Kids A-Z app found that the text in the “read the book” section did not work with VoiceOver or refreshable braille displays. Check the current version with any student who uses assistive technology, using our accessibility checklist.

Pricing

Learning A-Z sells Raz-Kids per classroom on its website, which lets an individual teacher buy a license, and it offers a free trial. School and district licenses are quoted. We could not load Learning A-Z’s price page when checking in November 2026, so confirm the current classroom price and student limit there before you buy.

Privacy and data

Learning A-Z said in 2018 that its products, including Raz-Kids, had earned iKeepSafe certifications for FERPA, COPPA Safe Harbor and the California Student Privacy Certification. We could not confirm from the vendor’s site that these certifications are current, so check iKeepSafe’s listings or ask Learning A-Z. Its data disclosure page says it may use aggregated, non-identifying data for research, product development and marketing, and may share that aggregated data with third parties. Learning A-Z signs state data privacy agreements through the Student Data Privacy Consortium in some states. Voice recordings of children reading are student data, so ask how long they are kept and who can hear them, and use our student data privacy checklist.

Verdict

Raz-Kids is a dependable tool for leveled reading practice in K-3, and the recording feature saves teachers time on fluency checks. It is dated, and its quiz and reward design needs supervision. Schools that want a larger, more appealing library should look at Epic, and schools that want adaptive instruction based on the science of reading should look at Lexia Core5 Reading.

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