This 2-year longitudinal study examined initial evidence of progress in reading for 1,512 children with and without identified speech-language and/or learning disabilities (LD-SLD) in the context of the explicit literacy instruction provided in Michigan's Reading First (RF)schools. The findings suggested that children with LD-SLD labels demonstrated significantly slower growth compared to children without LD-SLD labels. Children considered more at risk also demonstrated slower progress in oral reading fluency (but not reading comprehension) compared to children considered less at risk. Implications are discussed in relationship to the extent of instructional support needed by children identified as LD-SLD in the mainstream, and in terms of the specific dimension of reading skills as a criterion. (Contains 9 tables and 3 figures.)