This research explores elementary students' agency (n = 437) in literacy instruction in relation to reading comprehension outcomes on state assessments across 11 Title One schools in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Regression analyses were conducted to examine these relationships. Results corroborate previous research that suggests student agency may be an important dimension of literacy instruction. Of particular importance is the finding that students' sense of agency was related to higher reading comprehension on standardized assessments. Researchers also found that student agency was a partial mediator of the negative relationship observed between school-assigned student risk and reading comprehension. Implications for future research examining the relationship between student agency and literacy instruction are discussed.