The purposes of this study were to determine to what extent selected critical reading skills are presented in current basal readers; to determine commonalities in their presentation; to ascertain if critical skills are stated as specific objectives; and to determine if practice and evaluation materials are provided for each selected skill by the teacher's guide or skillbook. Several developmental activities were undertaken including refinement of a definition of critical reading, the selection of which skills to include, and the decision as to which basal readers would be used. A model for comparative purposees was developed. Eight basal readers provided student texts, teacher's manuals and workbooks. Selection of skills was done by intermediate teachers presently teaching reading. Some of the findings were that four of the eight basal series analyzed state the skills as specific objectives; explanations and plans to use in teaching the different skills are lacking in several of the series; practice material varies greatly from series to series; all of the series seem to do an adequate job of identifying elements of style; and making judgments and inferences tend to overlap with some of the series suggesting the same practice exercises for both skills. (Author/TS)