The important role of reading fluency in the comprehension and motivation of readers is well documented. Two reading rate intervention programs were compared in a cluster-randomized clinical trial of students who were considered at-risk for reading failure. One program focused instruction at the word level; the second program focused instruction at the level of continuous text. Results of this study suggest focused instruction on reading rate at the word level shows similar transfer to text-level reading fluency as text-level reading rate practice. An expected effect of word-level training on word reading efficiency was not found in this study; however, the word-level training did result in stronger absolute gains in word reading accuracy when reading connected text. The observed results also replicate a common finding in the reading intervention literature response to treatment was stronger in the younger students. Results are discussed in context of implications for practice. (Contains 3 tables.)