Through an integration of teacher effectiveness and reading research, this paper proposes ways for improving classroom reading instruction. The first part of the paper reviews teacher effectiveness research, noting the shifts that have occurred in that area from the early efforts, which focused on identifying and describing teacher characteristics associated with high or low student outcomes, to more recent efforts that have looked at teachers' goals, judgments, and decision making processes. The second section discusses the idea of "bounded rationality," which posits that because they work in a complex environment and must make decisions immediately, teachers have to construct a simplified model of a real situation and behave according to that model. The third section looks at research relative to teacher thought, judgment, and decision making, concentrating on the cognitive model proposed by R. Shavelson and P. Stern. The fourth section considers research covering decision making during reading instruction, specifically in the areas of teacher planning, classroom practice, and teacher concepts of reading. The final section describes the Concerns-Based Adoption Model--developed at the University of Texas and built on assumptions about school characteristics, adults as learners, and the change process--and discusses the implications of this model for classroom instruction. (FL)