This study investigated the efficacy of compressed speech with ninth and tenth grade students having reading problems. Thirty-eight ninth and tenth grade students who were reading at least one year below grade level, had an IQ between 85 and 115, and had no known gross auditory or visual defect were chosen as subjects. Three one-hour sessions were conducted to familiarize the sugjects with compressed speech. Passages II, III, and IV from the Nelson-Denny Reading Test-Revised Form B were randomly selected to be typewritten, tape-recorded at 156 words per minute, or tape-recorded at 156 words per minute and compressed to 275 words per minute by the sampling method. The results indicated that students with a reading problem had a significantly higher level of comprehension from listening to tape-recorded speech at normal speed than from reading equivalent material for an equal amount of time. It was also found that students who had difficulty in reading did not have a significantly higher level of comprehension from listening to compressed speech than from reading the equivalent material for an equal period of time. Students who have difficulty in reading did not have a significantly higher level of comprehension when speech at normal speed and compressed speed were compared. (WR)