Numbers of At-risk students are rising in the public classrooms of our day. Standardized testing is a reality that is clearly defining the great chasm that stands between the performance of these children and what is expected of their age mates. Public junior and senior high schools face the quandary: How are At-risk students to be aided in their effort to meet academic standards now required for graduation? Theory is substantial that offers strategies that work for some At-risk students. Within that body of literature is the inherent foundational strategy that is critical to the success of this strategy implementation. Understanding of relationship, as well as the affective and academic results determined by its role, is the X factor in the redefinition of the child currently labeled "At-risk reader." (Contains 5 tables.)