The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a global effort to assess reading literacy. The authors of this article focus on the variable of engagement—the student characteristic on PISA that had the largest correlation with achievement in reading. Next, salient findings related to engagement from three English‐speaking PISA countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland) are presented. The authors conclude with a discussion of lessons about reading engagement derived from findings common to the authors' three nations with implications for policy and practice.

Within the past few years literacy scholars have begun voicing serious doubts on theoretical and practical grounds about the efficacy of the longstanding notion that every teacher is a teacher of reading. In this commentary, we add our voices to the conversation around content area literacy as well as offer our perspectives on the recent calls for alternative practices grounded in disciplinary literacy. We conclude by advocating compromise based on honest, intelligent dialogue between literacy specialists and content area teachers.

Findings from an international reading assessment reconfirm that girls are more engaged and better readers than boys. The authors offer several guidelines for addressing the reading gender achievement gap.

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This conversation re‐creates a lively e‐mail debate between the authors, who bring different theoretical perspectives to consideration of literacy among boys.