THREE METHODS OF TEACHING READING, THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET (ITA), THE DIACRITICAL MARKING SYSTEM (DMS), AND THE TRADITIONAL ORTHOGRAPHY (TO) METHOD WERE COMPARED IN 21 FIRST GRADES FOR THE THIRD YEAR. A FOLLOWUP STUDY WAS MADE OF THE NEW DMS GROUP FOR A SECOND YEAR. TWO HUNDRED NINETY-NINE STUDENTS OF AN ORIGINAL SAMPLE OF 393 STUDENTS WERE COMPARED. IN DECEMBER, THE GATES-MCGINITIE READING TEST WAS ADMINISTERED, AND IN MAY THE STANFORD ACHIEVEMENT TEST WAS GIVEN. A SUBSAMPLE OF STUDENTS TOOK THE GILMORE ORAL READING TEST. MEAN SCORES, STANDARD DEVIATIONS, ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE, AND CORRELATION WERE USED TO ANALYZE THE DATA. THERE WERE NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES AMONG THE GROUPS ON ANY TEST SCORE EXCEPT THE VOCABULARY SUBTEST OF THE GATES-MCGINITIE TEST. ON THIS SUBTEST, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ITA AND DMS WAS SIGNIFICANT AT THE .05 LEVEL. BRIGHT STUDENTS DID SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER REGARDLESS OF METHOD. GIRLS DID SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER THAN BOYS REGARDLESS OF METHOD. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT SPECIAL ALPHABETS LIKE THE ITA AND DMS DID NOT GIVE SUPERIOR READING ACHIEVEMENT TO BEGINNING READERS WHEN COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL BASAL READERS. TABLES AND REFERENCES ARE INCLUDED. (BK)