THE USEFULNESS OF PHONIC RULES IN READING INSTRUCTION BEYOND THE FOURTH-GRADE LEVEL WAS INVESTIGATED TO ASCERTAIN IF THE CONCLUSIONS REACHED BY THEODORE CLYMER AND REPORTED IN THE JANUARY 1963 ISSUE OF "THE READING TEACHER" WERE VALID WHEN APPLIED TO A MORE REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF VOCABULARY. LISTS OF ALL POSSIBLE WORDS (FROM A SAMPLE OF 1,944 WORDS BEYOND THE PRIMARY LEVEL) WHICH COULD APPLY TO 45 FREQUENTLY TAUGHT PHONIC RULES WERE MADE AND COMPARED WITH THE APPROPRIATE GENERALIZATION IN TERMS OF SPELLING AND SYLLABIFICATION. THE NUMBER OF WORDS CONFORMING TO EACH GENERALIZATION WAS RECORDED AND THE PERCENT OF WORDS COMPLYING WITH EACH OF THE 45 GENERALIZATIONS WAS CALCULATED. THE STUDY REVEALED THAT 16 GENERALIZATIONS MET CLYMER'S CRITERIA TO A REASONABLE DEGREE (CLYMER FOUND 18 AT THE PRIMARY LEVEL). THE IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO STUDIES IS THAT SOME OF THE GENERALIZATIONS PROVED TO BE USEFUL AT ONLY ONE LEVEL. THIS RESULT VERIFIED THE THESIS FOR THE STUDY--THAT THE GRADE-LEVEL OF THE WORDS USED MAKES A DIFFERENCE AS TO THE APPLICABILITY OF PHONIC GENERALIZATIONS. FUTURE STUDIES ARE RECOMMENDED WHICH WILL DEVELOP PROCEDURES FOR TEACHING GENERALIZATIONS AND TRYING THEM OUT UNDER CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS. (AW)