During the first year of the program, 27 individual projects enrolling approximately 20,000 first-grade pupils were involved. Fifteen of these projects participated in a second-grade followup study. Some conclusions based on an analysis of data are (1) that prereading knowledge of letter names is the best single predictor of reading achievement in the primary grades, (2) that various measures of reading readiness predict achievement in a similar fashion for many types of reading programs, (3) that girls were generally superior to boys for all three testing periods, (4) that instruction in phonics is related to achievement in word recognition and spelling, (5) that direct instruction in comprehension is essential, (6) that a writing component is an effective addition to a primary reading program, (7) that the prereader should be taught to recognize letters of the alphabet, and (8) that pupils can learn to recognize more words than are commonly introduced in reading programs. The elements of the learning situation attributable to teachers, classrooms, schools, and school systems play a large role over and above the materials and/or approaches used. (RJ)