The following is a report by Doug Carnine on a December 8th meeting of the California State Board of Education to adopt textbook criteria.

All of the major opponents to phonics and direct instruction in California have defected. Yesterday, in our State Department Of Education Board Room, our State Superintendent, Delaine Eastin, the California Reading Association, the California Teacher's Association, and the California Literacy Project (formerly an ardent proponent of whole language), all spoke in favor of the criteria for our 2002 text book adoption. The text of this document is specific...follow our standards and frameworks...75% of the words in decodable text must be decodable, the sight words in the books must have been previously introduced, preferably one per day, not more than three.

Five people stood up to testify in opposition...which turned out to simply be people who wanted to make sure that reading comprehension and writing were included. (These people had obviously not read the standards or frameworks documents.) A couple of people spoke out against defining the % of decodable words in decodable text....but we had plenty of people on our side to counter that suggestion.

The major publishers were present, all of them smiling, many already having worked for the last year preparing for California's next adoption. With two of the four major states having voted for systematic, explicit, research based instructional programs, I feel confident in declaring that whole language has suffered a lethal blow. The battle is not over, but without a doubt, the tide has significantly turned.

NRRF note: There could not be a better Christmas present for the children of America than the prospect that soon they all will be able to receive the kind of research based reading instruction that ensures them an equal opportunity to achieve their maximum potential, because they are equipped with the ability to read with accuracy and comprehension whatever they choose, for pleasure or for information.

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