A reading ability test is described in terms of its purpose, its outline, its reliability, and judgments about the relevance of its content. Copies of the two forms of the test and the answer key are appended. A review of some of the literature on literacy indicates the difficulty of reaching consensus in its definition or in the setting of standards. The development of the instrument is described. The specifications outline consists of the following seven subtest areas: (1) comprehends the main idea in news articles; (2) comprehends safety warnings; (3) comprehends graphic illustrations; (4) comprehends technical documents; (5) comprehends information and instructions presented on forms and applications; (6) comprehends consumer appeals in advertisements; and (7) uses reference tools. Test and subtest reliabilities are computed by alternate-form, test-retest, and another procedure which is called a decision-consistency approach. Tables are presented showing means, standard deviations, and various reliability coefficients for subtests and the total score. Other tables show the results of judgments about test content and reading competencies. (Author/CTM)