The knowledge and training of 80 bilingual elementary school teachers in the areas of Spanish language, reading skills, and reading methodology were studied. The teachers met the following criteria: they were bilingual (English and Spanish), they were licensed and currently teaching in New York City, and they had been exposed to the teaching of reading for at least 2 years in public elementary schools. It was found that the teachers had a reasonable understanding of the Spanish language in terms of philosophy, history, phonology, lexicon, morphology, and syntax, and they showed slightly less knowledge in Spanish reading skills. They appeared to have minimum competencies in Spanish language knowledge and Spanish reading skills and were not well prepared in Spanish reading methodology. Self-report information generally indicated that training in Spanish reading had been inadequate. Teachers were able to partially identify skills such as word recognition, comprehension, evaluation and analysis, and the use of skills by grades and levels. Recommendations include the following: a teacher competency assessment program with a training component should be conducted, and a list of competencies for bilingual Spanish reading teachers should be developed and field tested. (SW)