Two studies evaluated the use of the Student Team Reading (STR) and Student Team Writing (STW) program in urban middle schools. The first study investigated the use of STR in 20 experimental sixth-grade classes in three schools matched with 39 classes in three control schools. The second study investigated the use of STR and STW in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in two urban middle schools in Maryland matched with three control schools. In the first study, experimental students achieved significantly higher on a standardized measure of reading comprehension. The reading comprehension achievement of academically handicapped students, analyzed separately, was highly significant in favor of the experimental group. In the second study, the STR and STW students had significantly higher achievement on measures of reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, and language expression. (Two tables of data are included in the first study, and one table of data is included in the second study; 25 references are attached to the first study, and 22 references are attached to the second study.) (Author/RS)