Even within the common goal of teaching youth to read, teachers in inner-city secondary schools should be concerned with variation and differentiation in program emphasis for a specific school. An all-school reading survey might be used to determine student ability, achievement, and interests and to give direction in establishing a program suited to needs within the school. Instructional strategies based on survey results should contain the elements of (1) task analysis, determining subskills to be taught to a class and the performance to be expected; (2) observation of reading performance, developing sensitivity to cues indicating change in student performance; and (3) response analysis, using data and information collected through sources such as surveys and observations to evaluate, suggest changes, and make improvements in programs. Inner-city secondary students should profit from this kind of program, since it is a deliberate skills approach implemented by diagnostic teaching. References are included. (MD)