THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY WAS TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT UPON WORD RECOGNITION AND READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF FOUR READING PROGRAMS. THESE PROGRAMS VARIED IN (1) THE DEGREE OF REGULARITY OF GRAPHEME-PHONEME CORRESPONDENCES PROGRAMED INTO THE VOCABULARY PRESENTED AND (2) THE EMPHASIS ON LANGUAGE STRUCTURE AS RELATED TO MEANING. FOUR EXPLORATORY QUESTIONS WERE DEVELOPED TO STUDY THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INDEPENDENT BACKGROUND VARIABLES OF MENTAL AGE, SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, SEX, AND CHRONOLOGICAL AGE AND THE DEPENDENT VARIABLES OF WORD RECOGNITION AND READING COMPREHENSION. STUDENTS FROM 24 FIRST-GRADE CLASSROOMS WERE GIVEN 2 EXISTING READING PROGRAMS AND 2 PROGRAMS DEVELOPED TO MEET THE SPECIFIC NEEDS OF THIS STUDY. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT THE FIRST-GRADE READING PROGRAMS POSSESSING A HIGH DEGREE OF CONSISTENCY IN GRAPHEME-PHONEME CORRESPONDENCES PRODUCED SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER (1) WORD READING, (2) WORD STUDY DRILLS, AND (3) REGULAR WORD IDENTIFICATION ACHIEVEMENT THAN THOSE PROGRAMS OFFERING LITTLE PROVISION FOR CONSISTENT CORRESPONDENCES. THE NEED FOR MORE CAREFULLY DESIGNED LONGITUDINAL READING RESEARCH STUDIES WAS DISCUSSED. (GD)