No other book has systematically and comprehensively analyzed the studies of leading researchers who have testified in various hearings and promoted policy and legislation on behalf of skills-emphasis learning. Coles not only identifies each claim, he analyses the research that backs it up. Chief among the assertions are: phonemic awareness is the chief causal influence in learning to read skills-training programs facilitate learning to read and remediate reading problems the effectiveness of a widely acclaimed skills emphasis reading program has been demonstrated in published research.