Reading is an essential part of our society. With the growing accountability within school districts and the quality of education changing, it is important to ensure that we are ensuring our students are meeting the mandated state Common Core Standards and teachers are ensuring that they are responsive to students' needs. This is a mixed methods explanatory focusing on explanatory using qualitative data to explain a quantitative quasi-experimental study that took place in an elementary school in the West Suburbs of Chicago. This study investigated how collaborative learning affects reading student achievement and the factors that help or hinder the implementation of a collaborative environment. Achievement Series data and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment were reviewed through the course of this study and an anonymous open-ended questionnaire was conducted that measured teachers' perception regarding a collaborative environment and the effects it had on reading achievement. The analysis of the data for Scantron Achievement series, indicated a statistically significant correlation in reading achievement. The PARCC data indicated no statistical significance difference upon the measurement of student assessment. The analysis conducted based on teachers responses, indicated that they all support a collaborative environment in reading. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]