IT'S CALLED A MARKET TEST. "The pattern of traditional teaching methods faring better in rigorous comparisons than more open-ended ones, and then of the open-ended ones flourishing nevertheless, has repeated itself many times over. The best-known instance of the phenomenon is probably the endless battle between the proponents of phonics and of whole language instruction. Virtually every impartial effort to analyze the hundreds of studies on the subject, most recently by the Reading Panel of the National Institutes of Health, has found that the step-by-step approach of phonics is more effective, especially with poor children." That's from James Traub's investigation of educational methods chosen for their aesthetic appeal (at least to mushy-headed people) rather than for their effectiveness.

Joanne Jacobs, who comments on Traub's article, also discovers something that looks encouraging. "Also in the Times, a reporter visits Ernie Davis Middle School, her alma mater, which is now on the "failing" schools list. She finds the principal and teachers are working hard to raise test scores. In every classroom, students are reminded that an essay needs a topic sentence, supporting sentences with facts and examples, and a conclusion. Students are urged to speak in complete sentences." That's progress. Pick two or three Big Ideas, and use them, and use them, and use them, until using them correctly is as automatic as breathing.