A questionnaire was administered to 50 first-grade teachers who reported strategies used in teaching reading to 1,145 Mexican-American, Black, and Anglo children in three school districts in Texas. Seven null hypotheses were tested. It was concluded that (1) reading instruction is delayed with Mexican-American children; (2) on the average, 68% of the Mexican-American children were delayed in beginning formal reading instruction, compared to 39% of the Anglo children; (3) instruction for children in bilingual programs was not different in terms of length of delay in reading instruction; (4) only 28% of the Mexican-American children learned to read in Spanish; and (5) Mexican-American children who learned to read first in Spanish experienced greater delay than did Mexican-American children who learned to read first in English. (Author/JM)