It is argued that attention to effective evidence-based early reading interventions are a co-requisite to genuinely inclusive education, with implications not only for reading acquisition, but also for a range of other social and academic domains. This paper briefly describes some of the recent developments in reading research that have the potential to promote the maximally effective reading interventions, and their consequences for inclusive practice. Potential challenges to inclusive education from some aspects of reading research are also considered. Classroom-based interventions are described and contrasted with both individual tuition and resource room pull-out models. It is concluded that an evidence-based model of effective reading intervention can be linked productively with inclusion goals. To do this in practice, attention must be directed towards more highly-structured evidence-based approaches to early literacy intervention that allow equality of opportunity, and to the effective training of teachers to this end.