The main purpose of schools is to improve the academic performance of all students and more recently with special regard to those that have historically struggled to meet state achievement goals. In an effort to attain these goals, educators have utilized many approaches including enhancing student self-esteem as a precursor to improving the academic performance of students. Recent research on this topic has showed that there is little, if no, conclusive evidence that the way to raise student achievement is to increase a student's level of self-esteem. This study shows that when compared to similar achieving students, elementary students who experience academic success (Vitale and Kaniuka, 2009) possess more positive attitudes toward reading and higher levels of reading related self-esteem. Two groups of students were asked to complete a reading attitude inventory (Vitale, 1975) and the results were analyzed using 2 x 2 factorial design ANOVA. It was found that students receiving the researched based remedial reading program had significantly higher levels of reading self-esteem and had enhanced attitudes toward reading as compared to similar students who did not participate in the program. (Contains 2 tables.)