In order to determine if there is a relationship between reading achievement and the ability to conserve as measured by replications of Piagetian conservation tasks, 160 beginning second-grade students were identified as achievers or low achievers according to reading and intelligence test scores, and their performance on the Piagetian tasks was correlated with their achievement scores, years of formal school, sex, chronological age, and socioeconomic status. A significant relationship between the ability to conserve and reading achievement was found for the achiever group (N = 121) and the combined sample (N = 160). A significant relationship was found between the ability to conserve and socioeconomic status and between the ability to conserve and sex for both the achiever group and combined sample. The ability to conserve was found to be significantly related to socioeconomic status for the low-achiever group. The following were among the conclusions drawn: a conservation task seems to be an appropriate measure to use in diagnosing a student's readiness to read if used in conjunction with other data, and it would appear that the formal teaching of reading should not precede the child's ability to conserve. (Author/MKM)