To determine whether increasing decoding speed affects the comprehension of poor readers, two experiments were designed to test two groups consisting of seven good readers and eleven poor readers chosen from fourth and fifth grade. In the first experiment, poor readers were trained to read a list of words as rapidly as the good readers and were then asked to read a passage comprised of the practiced words. From decoding speed measures and comprehension measures, the performance of the trained poor readers was compared to both their performance on an equivalent untrained passage and to the performance of good readers. The second experiment repeated the first, with the addition of a training condition which emphasized rapid phrase reading. The results of both experiments indicated that while decoding training significantly increased the decoding speed of single words, it did not improve comprehension performance. (Tables and figures are appended.) (Author/MAI)