This position paper discusses the magnitude of literacy problems in the United States, reviews the need for changes in teacher preparation, and provides recommendations for action. The first section of the paper addresses sources of difficulty for children who struggle with learning to read, including phoneme awareness, single word decoding, and related problems with verbal memory and language use. The paper also explores how intelligence and attention deficit disorders relate to reading disability, the characteristics of good readers, and why some children are better at acquiring reading skills than others. The next section provides a framework for the training requirements proposed in the final section. Recommendations include: (1) providing teachers with a solid understanding of the theoretical and scientific underpinnings of literacy development; (2) instructing teachers in the content of teaching, including the linguistic units of both speech and print; and (3) focusing more attention on helping prospective teachers acquire the complex skills of teaching, including experience with diverse learners. Training requirements are also proposed for other professions, including nursery school and kindergarten teachers, reading specialists and resource room/special education personnel, speech-language specialists, and school psychologists/diagnosticians. (Contains 78 references.) (CR)