Reading failure can be eliminated by the year 2000 if reading teachers believe it can be done, can develop the new procedures needed to make their dreams come true, and are willing to make fundamental changes in how they teach reading. Phonic utility research clearly indicates that phonics instruction is neither dependable nor useful. The current definition of reading is that pronunciation is the basic essential in reading and reading involves changing printed words to speech. Yet all would agree that reading is a part of communication, so a better definition of reading is that reading is receiving written communication. Specific requirements for teaching reading as newly defined include: (1) discontinue the use of pronunciation in instruction, evaluation, vocabulary work, and as an achievement goal; (2) teach about phonics, not phonics; (3) discontinue the use of oral reading as an assessment tool; (4) substitute story telling for oral reading; (5) develop in children a large, experience-based vocabulary which focuses on the meaning of words; (6) help children learn to identify the grammar in what they read; (7) develop ways of assessing reading which do not require oral reading; and (8) teach children how to speak the language apart from reading instruction. More money and time should be spent to develop new models, instruction to prevent failure, and to establish new goals, procedures and principles of teaching to eliminate reading failure entirely. (Twenty-four references are attached.) (RS)