The problem of a perceived decline in secondary school students' reading comprehension and the efforts of one high school English department head to address that problem are described in this paper. The first section of the paper presents an extensive documentation of the decline in reading comprehension and of reactions by state and local agencies to that decline, including the introduction of minimum competency testing. The second section begins by citing examples that point either to no decline or to an improvement in education in the past decade, continues with research findings that suggest alternative reasons for lower test scores, and concludes that inadequate teacher training is the key to the problem. Objectives for an inservice teacher workshop on reading instruction are briefly outlined in the third section, followed by a detailed proposal in the next section for implementing such a workshop. The fifth section describes the reading workshop conducted over a five-week period for seven high school English and reading teachers. An evaluation of the workshop, observations, recommendations, and the conclusion that such inservice programs may be an effective means of encouraging staff development make up the final section. Appendixes include surveys of the high school staff, pretests and posttests used in the workshop, and workshop overview and objective statements. (AEA)