Investigating the effects of a 1984 West Virginia State Board of Education (WVBE) policy which specified the use of instructional time, a study examined the effects of this policy on reading instruction in the primary grades by surveying a random representative sample of primary teachers and principals in West Virginia. In September 1986, 410 teachers and 298 principals completed a questionnaire which asked for comparisons between how primary students were currently spending their instructional time, how they spent instructional time in the past, and how they would spend instructional time in an ideal instructional day. Other questions concerned the opportunity to learn to read, satisfaction with students' achievement, and ability to meet individual needs. Results indicated no statistically significant differences among teachers' and principals' reports of past, current, and ideal use of instructional time for reading. However, both teachers and principals expressed higher satisfaction under past and ideal use of instructional time than under current use. (Fifty-five tables and six figures are included, and a copy of the Principal and Teacher Version of West Virginia Association of School Administrators Survey on Reading and Instructional Time is appended.) (MM)