Syntheses of reading research conducted by the National Research Council (1998) and more recently by the Congressionally-Commissioned National Reading Panel (2000) provide ample evidence of the skills, experience, and knowledge children need to become successful readers in an alphabetic writing system. This research makes clear that children must develop and demonstrate proficiency in the "big ideas" (Kame'enui and Simmons, 1998) of phonemic awareness, alphabetic understanding, and automaticity with the code. This monograph examines the intricacies of teaching beginning reading in schools, describes a prevention model of schoolwide reading improvement, and profiles the lessons learned from implementing the model in a suburban school district. The monograph's model can help guide schools' selection, implementation, and sustainability of practices and programs that fit their unique host environments and hold to the standard of research-based practice. The monograph contends that although the goal that all children read by Grade 3 is ambitious, for administrators and teachers in schools across the nation and for the well being of children it is non-negotiable. (Contains 15 figures and 27 references.) (NKA)