Data are presented on the development of tests of reading skill for primary school pupils inrural Tanzania. Instruction in these schools is in Kiswahili, a regularly spelled language. Using atranslation of a standard reading test, children can read aloud all words once they have learned thesound– letter correspondences, regardless of comprehension. In addition, children can passtraditional comprehension tasks by decoding only some of the words. Three graded tests weredeveloped to test children who had only some letter knowledge, could read single words, or wereproficient readers. The tests required children both to decode and to understand the readingmaterial in order to achieve high scores. The tests correlated well with scores on othereducational achievement tests and showed age and school grade differences. It is suggested thatthese tests are useful measures of reading development in a regularly spelled language. Theiradaptation to English and validation against standardized instruments are planned.