The aims of this research are: (1) to investigate whether there is any difference in critical reading skill between students taught by using Numbered Heads Together and those taught by using Student Teams Achievement Divisions; and (2) whether NHT is more effective to teach critical reading than STAD. The research method used in this study is a quasi-experimental research. The research was conducted at SMA N 6 Surakarta in the academic year of 2016/2017. The population of the research was the eleventh grade students of SMA N 6 Surakarta. The samples were class XI-MIPA 3 as the experimental class which consists of 31 students and XI-MIPA 1 as the control class which consists of 31 students. The research instrument used to collect the data in this study is test. The mean score of the group taught using NHT is 81.93 while those are taught using STAD is 71.48. The data were analysed by using t-test formula. The computation of the data shows that the t-observation ?(t?_o) is 2.01 which is higher than t-table (60, 0.05) = 1.960. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is any differences in the critical reading skill between the students taught by using NHT and those taught by using STAD. Therefore, it can be concluded that NHT is more effective to teach critical reading than STAD.

Key words: Numbered Heads Together, Student Teams Achievement Divisions, Critical Reading