The reading scores of urban disadvantaged students have risen over the past 15 years, which may be attributable to special programs which have focused on strengthening the rudimentary skills. Whether reading achievement is dependent on students' mastery of standard English is an unresolved issue, but a number of instructional methods have been developed to alleviate the problems that dialect speakers may experience without necessarily stigmatizing students or coming into destructive conflict with the students' social and cultural difference. One method is to create stories from the children's oral language so that the reading material reflects their syntax, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Research indicates that what is most important to effective reading programs for all students is: quality of teachers and their belief in the students' ability to read; their creation of a literate, stimulating environment, and their commitment of a significant amount of "engaged" time to active reading instruction. Reading develops out of students' skills in speaking and listening, and is helped by practice in writing. Because students' background knowledge determines how easily they will grasp the meaning of what they read, they should be deliberately prepared for the reading assignment. Discussion before and after reading exercises can be crucial. Ability grouping may not be advantageous for the instruction of low ability students. (KH)