"We cannot allow the quality of special services to preclude conquering reading disabilities (Horne, 1978, p. 582)." This study was conducted to explore how teachers' spelling abilities relate to student outcomes. The results indicated that the students enrolled in classrooms where the teachers had the lowest knowledge of phoneme-grapheme relationships made the least growth in spelling development. These findings suggest that both teacher knowledge of phoneme-grapheme relationships, as well as their own abilities to apply this knowledge, may influence teaching effectiveness.