Reading comprehension, that is, functional literacy, was tested among a sample of 3,269 grade 6 students in Jamaican primary and all-age schools. The percentages of functional literacy varied greatly, as did the statistically significant differences in mean scores across school types, geographical locations, and sexes. In addition, performance in paragraph comprehension was more adversely affected by the levels of thinking the questions required than by the difficulty level of the paragraphs. The findings carry important implications for reading instruction.