The purpose of the study was to determine if instruction and practice in using the cloze procedure significantly affected the reading comprehension of a group of sixth grade students.The population consisted of 157 students in eight intact classes in two middle schools in east-central Indiana. The experimental group, four classes at one school, received cloze instruction, while the control group, four classes at the second school, worked with basal reading materials.Findings1. There were no significant differences in reading comprehension achievement between students who had cloze instruction and students who did not have cloze instruction, without regard to sex or reading ability levels.2. Students in the above average reading ability subgroup, whether or not they received cloze instruction, gained significantly more in reading comprehension on one criterion measure than did students in the average and below average reading ability subgroups.3. There were no significant differences in reading comprehension achievement between males or females in the group that had cloze instruction and males or females in the group that did not have cloze instruction.Conclusions1. Instruction and practice in using the cloze procedure did not significantly affect the reading comprehension achievement of the study population.2. Whether or not they had cloze instruction, students in the above average reading ability range gained more in reading comprehension achievement than did students classified as average or below average readers.3. Reading comprehension achievement was not significantly different for males or females, regardless of whether or not they received cloze instruction