In this volume prominent scholars, experts in their respective fields and highly skilled in the research they conduct, address educational and reading research from varied perspectives and address what it will take to close the achievement gap--with specific attention to reading. The achievement gap is redefined as a level at which all groups can compete economically in our society and have the literacy tools and habits needed for a good life. Bringing valuable theoretical frameworks and in-depth analytical approaches to interpretation of data, the contributors examine factors that contribute to student achievement inside the school but which are also heavily influenced by out-of-school factors--such as poverty and economics, ethnicity and culture, family and community stratifications, and approaches to measurement of achievement. These out-of-school factors present possibilities for new policies and practice. The overarching theme is that achievement gaps in reading are complex and that multiple perspectives are necessary to address the problem. The breadth and depth of perspectives and content in this volume and its conceptualization of the achievement gap are a significant contribution to the field. Following a Preface and Acknowledgments, the following contents are included: (1) The Achievement Gap in Reading: Unique Historical and Future Perspectives (Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels). Part I. Cases of Specific Demographics and Economics: (2) Poverty's Powerful Effects on Reading Achievement and the Achievement Gap (David Berliner); (3) Creating Responsive Teachers of Hispanic and Bilingual Students Learning English (Robert Jiménez, Sam David, Mark Pacheco, Victoria J. Risko, Lisa Pray, Keenan Fagan, and Mark Gonzales); (4) Motivating and Instructing African American Students in Classrooms (John T. Guthrie and Angela McRae); and (5) Closing the Reading Achievement Gap for Indigenous Children (Jay S. Blanchard and Kim Atwill). Part II. Conceptualizing and Measuring the Achievement Gaps in Reading: (6) Why the Achievement Gap? (Edmund W. Gordon and Paola C. Heincke); (7) Including Differences in Variability in Assessing the Achievement Gap in Reading (Michael Harwell); and (8) International Brain Wars: Adolescent Reading Proficiency, Performance, and Achievement from a Competitive Global Perspective (Rosalind Horowitz). Part III. Explaining and Reducing the Achievement Gaps in Reading: (9) The Talk Gap (Terrance D. Paul and Jill Gilkerson); and (10) Summer Reading Loss is the Basis of Almost all the Rich-Poor Reading Gap (Richard L. Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen). Part IV. Contradictory Efforts and Commonalities in Attempts to Close the Gaps in Reading Achievement: (11) The Federal Effort: How Five Different and Sometimes Contradictory Efforts have been made to Close the Achievement Gap (Richard Long and Alan Farstrup); and (12) Synthesis, Discussion, and Recommendations: What We Can Do to Advance Reading Achievement (Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels). Included are List of Contributors, Author Index, and Subject Index.