At the same time, we wonder how many of Dr. Taylor's criticisms of our design, methods, analysis, and sample would have been levied by her if the outcomes of the study had shown a superiority for the implicit instruction group of comparable magnitude to the one actually found for the explicit instruction group. The contention that phonemic awareness must be taught directly and that children need explicit systematic instruction of phonics is less of a scientific fact than an exercise in political persuasion. What constitutes a scientific fact is not at issue. The issue at hand is the body of research, not a single study. We welcome citations of research that refute the conclusions that we and others have made on the basis of these studies.
Political persuasion occurs at all levels, and by all sides.