The Reading Skills Committee of the New Jersey Department of Education determined that the Eleventh-Grade High School Proficiency Test (HSPT) reading test should be based on contemporary theories defining reading as a process and that requisite reading skills could best be identified in terms of text and tasks. The purpose of the test is to assess students' capacities to comprehend printed material across curricular areas. The committee identified narrative text, informative text, persuasive/argumentative text, and workplace/real life text as representative of school experiences common to eligible eleventh graders. For each of the text types, questions requiring literal and inferential processing skills will be posed. Test items will also include questions concerning students' knowledge of reading strategies and their attitudes and self-perceptions as readers. During the 1989-90 school year, reading, mathematics, and writing committees will develop sample test items and specifications. Three years of "due notice" testing will begin in 1990-91, and the first test required for graduation will be administered in December 1993. (Thirty-four references and appendixes containing lists of the members of the writing skills committee and of reviewers of the proposed writing skills are attached.) (RS)