We have two goals for this article: to question the efficacy of evidence-based practice as the foundation of reading education policy and to propose practice-based evidence as a viable, more socially just alternative. In order to reach these goals, we describe the limits of reading policies of the last half century and argue for the possibilities of policies aimed at more equitable distribution of academic literacies among all social groups, recognition of subaltern groups' literacies, and representation of the local in regional and global decision making.