The reading achievement test scores of 239 low-income, southern, urban black students in grades three through eight were compared with their ability to comprehend the social studies books used in their classrooms. Achievement scores were obtained from the reading subtests of the Stanford Achievement Tests. A cloze passage was developed based on the social studies textbook for each grade level. The Dale-Chall Readability Formula was used to determine the readability at the designated grade level. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, means, medians, modes, and standard deviations were computed. Pearson product-moment correlations were computed between the results of the Stanford and the cloze procedure scores. In spite of moderately high correlations such as those of other studies between the Stanford and the cloze results, only a small percentage (15 percent) of the students were actually able to demonstrate the ability to read the grade level text with success. These data dramatize researchers' concerns that recent emphasis on raising test scores is resulting in curriculum distortion in favor of low level skills and away from comprehension of content. Worthy of further study are questions as to whether the teaching of narrow reading skills is enough to develop readers who can comprehend content text. (PN)