Good for Bush and for Philadelphia. I have 4 grandkids in that school system....one went off to Penn State Friday. In reading A MATTER OF CHARACTER, I was interested to see President Bush, then Govenor Bush, initiate an in-depth study of the success of phonetics over whole language teaching outcomes. There had been NO STUDIES on the outcomes of the 2 systems until he initiated it. As an English teacher myself, I had several run-ins w/teachers using the whole language method. I got those students in the 12th grade and it was not pretty.
One reason why the educrats are complaining that they aren't getting enough money into the system is that No Child Left Behind is filled with REQUIREMENTS for specific protocols for teaching the children and if you don't meet those requirements you don't get the money.