The paper describes the theoretical background, implementation and preliminary results of the Chicago Mastery Learning/Learning Strategies reading program for upper elementary school students. Reading research and learning strategies research are pulled together to support the argument that the teaching of diverse learning strategies can improve reading comprehension and that the strategies should be embedded within the mastery learning framework. Since the purpose of this study was to develop and field test the materials, a controlled experiment was not conducted. Field test results (involving six classrooms matched on four variables related to achievement) strongly suggested that teaching learning strategies improves reading comprehension. (Author)