A study was conducted to explore the relationship of race and socioeconomic status to the learning of reading skills among ninth-grade black and white students in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, city and county schools. Each student was given diagnostic reading tests by timed, untimed, and auditory administration. Socioeconomic status was measured by students'"free lunch" status. The data show that untimed and auditory test administration improved test scores, especially among black students. Rather large, positive correlation coefficients for race indicate that higher test scores were associated with being white. The lower, negative correlation coefficients for socioeconomic status indicate that lower test scores were associated, though less strongly, with being in the free lunch program. Thus, the data show that disadvantaged students possessed lower reading readiness, and that these effects persisted through the ninth grade. The failure of later programs to remediate poor academic performance among the disadvantaged suggests the need for preschool health, nutritional, and educational interventions. (Author/GC)