This document discusses basic knowledge about the reading process, in order to help school psychologists make effective recommendations for educational programming. The paper begins by identifying and describing three models of the reading process, a traditional "bottom-up" model, a more emergent "top-down" view, and an interactive model which combines the two approaches. Next, features of classroom reading instruction are reviewed. The basal program of reading is described, and an eight-step approach for using this type of program is outlined. The discussion then takes up evaluation techniques that link reading to instruction. Informal diagnostic procedures are considered in detail including teacher conferences, classroom observation, informal reading inventories, cloze (selective or random deletions of words in a passage), word lists, phonics inventories, checklists, and student interview data. Finally, the role of the school psychologist in helping to assess children with reading difficulties is discussed. (LLL)