1.   G. Reid Lyon, chief reading researcher at the National Institutes of Health, has directed important studies that show the benefits of phonics instruction.

2.   H.D. Hoover, the University of Iowa psychometrician who develops the test, wondered if the decline might stem partly from less phonics instruction.

3.   Newman rejected the criticism, saying that studying isolated results from phonics instruction, such as word recognition, constituted a valid approach to research.

4.   The state went on to mandate systematic phonics instruction.

5.   Whole-language advocates say that much phonics instruction is dry and causes children to lose interest in reading.