Over a 12-week period, the researchers implemented explicit and systematic reading instruction using grade-level fiction to evaluate the effects on the oral reading fluency and comprehension of seventh and eighth grade urban students at risk of academic failure. Ten students in the experimental group were provided systematic instruction consisting of structural analysis, vocabulary instruction, reading connected text, comprehension and writing activities in a small group setting. Ten students in the control group received the reading intervention typically provided by the school. At the end of the study, comparisons show that the experimental group made significantly greater gains in both comprehension and oral reading fluency than the control group did during intervention.