A study conducted in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, elementary schools, the first schools to adopt the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) approach to teaching basic reading in this country, revealed that children who started with i.t.a. had significantly less reading failure than children with traditional orthography (T.O.) training. Although the i.t.a. children were generally highly mobile and less advantaged than the T.O. children, it was found that: (1) the rate of failure (as evidenced by repeating grades) was three times higher for the T.O. group, (2) twice as many T.O. pupils received remedial reading training as did i.t.a. pupils, and (3) on subtests of a standardized battery, i.t.a. pupils scored higher on capitalization, knowledge and use of references, and dictated spelling. Further, T.O. children needed help on word recognition and comprehension, while i.t.a. children needed help only on comprehension. It was suggested that i.t.a. children had developed characteristics such as ego-strength, skills development, and learning behavior to produce a higher success rate in reading. The study is one of the few which shows the long term effects of an i.t.a. program. Tables of data are included. (AL)