Reading nonfiction texts with understanding is important to school success, yet many students struggle to do so. This randomized controlled trial extends previous research by contrasting an earlier iteration of a comprehension tutoring program (Comp) against a variant with strategies for transferring learning (Comp+Transfer). Participants were 189 fourth and fifth graders with weak reading comprehension. To evaluate their efficacy, we used commercially developed far-transfer measures and experimenter-made near- and mid-transfer measures of reading comprehension. In contrast to controls, students in both programs significantly improved their understanding of near-transfer passages. Additionally, students in Comp+Transfer improved performance on mid-transfer passages. These findings suggest the value of teaching for transfer and the importance of measuring program efficacy with researcher-made tests alongside commercial tests.