Jeanne Chall spent several years visiting classrooms, interviewing teachers and textbook publishers, analyzing research, and examining textbooks in an effort to examine how children learn to read. Chall found that reading is a developmental process and students are able to learn through the use of phonics and the whole word approach. Chall becomes a proponent for using a combination of the two methods to enhance student achievement. Chall’s book Learning to Read: The Great Debate was her most important contribution and publishers responded by focusing on more phonics earlier in book series.