The Accelerated Schools Project is an approach to school change, designed to improve schooling for all children, in particular, for "at-risk" students. In 1997, four accelerated elementary schools associated with Florida A&M University identified reading achievement across all grade levels as their major challenge. Using the Accelerated Schools inquiry process, the school cadre at each respective school conducted an investigation to study the problem in depth. Several best practices reading programs were identified for adoption. The program that was selected for implementation with the first grade students was the "Read, Write & Type!" (RWT) computer software program, found to be an effective program to assist primary children in at-risk situations in acquiring beginning reading, writing, and spelling skills. Its emphasis is on activities that build phonological awareness, letter sound knowledge, and phonetic decoding in reading and spelling. It makes use of storylines and interesting and challenging activities that are appealing to children, and provides opportunity for extra practice on specific skills for children who may learn more slowly than others. First grade teachers and computer laboratory aides in the four experimental schools were trained in the implementation of the RWT project in the summer of 1998. The students went to the computing lab to work on the RWT program at least three times a week for 30 minutes each day. Results from pre- and posttests showed that the students in the RWT group and the control group made statistically significant gains in all three measures: Reading Words, Reading Nonwords, and Invented Spelling. Students in the experimental group, whose pretest scores indicated they were further behind in all three measures at the beginning, demonstrated significantly better gains. The RWT group outperformed the control group in the inventive spelling posttest. Findings suggest RWT can significantly improve the phonological awareness of students in at-risk situations. Fourteen tables and figures are included. (AEF)