With the increased emphasis on informational text with Common Core State Standards and the difficulty many students have with this type of text, this study examined the effects of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) on informational text comprehension and metacognitive awareness of fifth grade students. Participating students included a heterogeneous mix of regular education students, gifted education students, students with disabilities, and English learners (ELs). A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design was used to study the effects of CSR on informational text comprehension using the Qualitative Reading Inventory-5 (QRI-5) and Georgia's Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). Metacognitive awareness was measured using the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI). Data was analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The MANCOVA analysis found a statistically significant difference in informational text comprehension on the QRI-5 between the experimental and control groups with the experimental group outperforming the control group, while controlling for student reading level and student subgroup; however, there was no statistically significant difference on the CRCT or on CRCT reading domains. The MANOVA analysis found no significant difference between the experimental and control groups on the MARSI and MARSI subscales.