In Fall 1999, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) asked RAND to examine how OERI might improve the quality and relevance of the education research it funds. The RAND Reading Study Group (RRSG) was charged with developing a research framework to address the most pressing issues in literacy. The RRSG focused on the highest priorities for research in reading comprehension: How can we best promote the development of proficient reading and prevent reading comprehension difficulties? How can we prepare teachers to deliver effective comprehension instruction? How can we develop an assessment system for reading comprehension that includes the design of valid and reliable measures of self regulated strategic reading that are sensitive to instructional interventions? This book sets out the RRSG's framework and presents the group's conclusions about improving the research infrastructure for teaching reading comprehension.