This study explored the characteristics of Taiwanese students' reading performance on PISA 2006 by comparing them with those counterparts of students from other countries. The main purpose of this study was to determine Taiwanese students' performance on a large-scale international assessment and provided implications on the research of curriculum and instruction. The research samples in this study included participants from four different countries who took PISA reading literacy assessment in 2006 (OECD was defined as a country in this study). The data included are Taiwan, Hong Kong, Finland, and OECD. The authors compared scores of students at different percentile ranks based on each national norm. In addition, the test items where Taiwanese students performed relatively poor were further investigated. The authors also discussed the characteristics of at-risk students on three different reading aspects of the PISA 2006 reading literacy assessment: retrieving information, interpreting text, and reflecting and evaluating. Based on the OECD scale, the results showed that Taiwanese students at the percentile ranks 5, 10, 25, 75, and 95 were below. 28 and. 53 standard deviations when comparing with students from Hong Kong and Finland respectively. Among these percentile ranks, the ones at 5 and 10 had the largest gaps. Those who were below the percentile rank 10 had lower scoring rate at retrieving information and interpreting what was read. They also perform poorly on identifying the main points of texts. In short, PISA defined reading literacy as a foundational skill. That is, reading literacy skills are required for individual growth and economic participation in the future. Therefore, a need to provide remedial classes for these at-risk students is proposed as students need to learn various kinds of texts under guidance.