A study was conducted in three city school districts in eastern North Carolina to examine the relationship between the organizational climate of elementary schools and the reading achievement of third grade students. The Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire was given to the staff of ten elementary schools to determine whether the school was "open" or "closed." Reading achievement measures for the students were obtained from the California Achievement Test, and academic ability measures were obtained from the California Short Form Test of Academic Ability. A comparative analysis of the data indicated a significant difference in reading achievement between "open" and "closed" school environments, and revealed that students enrolled in the school with an "open" organizational climate performed significantly better on two of the reading indices than those students who were enrolled in the "closed" organizational climate school. (HTH)