A longitudinal study evaluated the Cambridge Lesley literacy Project as implemented in the Longfellow School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Five years of data on the progress of all children from kindergarten through third grade in both the Spanish bilingual program and the standard program were gathered during twice-weekly visits to the "literacy center." Three instruments were used to gather the data: "Concepts about Print,""Language Development Reading Test," and "Visual Cue Writing Sample." Two brief profiles of very different learners demonstrated that the important element in documenting students' progress that they learn to read and write and how they learn to read and write, not when and in comparison to whom. Results, reported for only one cohort over a five-year period, indicated that: (1) given a generally supportive, developmental learning environment, children become competent readers by grade five or six, reading at levels appropriate to their ages; and (2) individual students' progress toward competence is dramatically uneven. (Five tables of data are attached.) (RS)