This research is included in the investigation about efficaciousness schools. It uses longitudinal survey data from the GERES Project: School Generation Research 2005. The part of the sub-sample studied corresponds to 3454 students from the first year of the primary education (or its equivalent) and its respective teachers of 176 classes, from 68 private, municipal or federal schools in Rio de Janeiro. Moving through quantitative and qualitative approaches, the added value in reading by the teachers to the classes is measured, described and interpreted, specially related to the use of Portuguese textbooks. Through in depth study of this theme, the conceptions about Brazil alphabetization that have appeared in previous decades and have considered the characteristics of the Textbooks National Program (PNLD) and the appropriation of these politics by the teachers are articulated. The literacy referred to the scholar efficaciousness and the research into this specific theme are the basis for the data analysis and its conclusions. In the qualitative approach a proficiency scale was built and, when it is interpreted, results in a description of seven learning levels, proving its inherent significance of the scale to teaching. The reading results reached by the students are presented, considering the administrative dependences that they are linked to. The students mobility is presented within the learning levels according to whether they used or didn´t use textbooks. In the quantitative approach, a linear regression model was implanted, which investigated the effect of the use of textbooks, how much experience the teacher had with that book and what PNLD says about the same book. The study verified that there was a significant increase in the learning average of the students that participated in the research. This contradicted a recurrent hipothesis in the educational area that suggested that the failure in the beginning levels of the primary education has origin in the alphabetization process. Among the results, stands out that there was more added value by the students that used the textbook and much more benefits to the students whose teachers had more than two years experience with the same book. In terms of public politics, this dissertation suggests that the textbook evaluation - and, in a more general form, the educational programs - considers the effect on the learning too.