The Pennsylvania Comprehensive Reading/Communication Arts Plan (PCRP) is a language arts curriculum providing four critical experiences that all students need in order to become competent in reading, writing, listening, and speaking: responding to literature, sustained silent reading, oral and written composing, and investigating and mastering language patterns. An implementation model was developed to allow maximum impact of the program, in which the school principal models sustained silent reading and sustained writing in the classrooms and designs schedules to allow frequent teacher team meetings and inservice sessions. In providing the four critical experiences for students, teachers focus on facilitating student learning, with the belief that teachers can positively affect the learning of their students. Assessment of the reading and writing achievement in pilot PCRP classes at the elementary school level indicates significant gains in both areas, and subsequent research will be conducted with PCRP students at the secondary school level. Current results indicate positive effects for implementation of PCRP, but the most convincing evidence that the program has made a difference for students is the teachers' growth in reading, writing, speaking, and listening when working with their students in this approach. (HTH)