Trace was best known as the author of What Ivan Knows that Johnny Doesn't (1961), published by Random House during the Sputnik era, at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
[6] Yet, as a result of the revelations outlined in Flesch's and Trace's books, despite the controversy they sparked, some Americans (as evidenced in the numerous reviews in newspapers and magazines of What Ivan Knows that Johnny Doesn't) became fearful of the inadequacies of the public schools and their curriculum.
Concern grew that educational outcomes could be seriously compromised, possibly jeopardizing the cultural status of the United States and even its national security during the Cold War era.
Like Flesch, Trace believed that the phonics approach allowed students to discover for themselves any new words they encountered and thus to build their arsenal of vocabulary and spelling skills easily and rapidly.
Trace felt, therefore, that the then-famous and heavily used Dick and Jane series of readers—usually taught through the look-say method—seemed to foster what he deemed to be a mystifyingly illogical and deliberate holding back of learning possibilities.
Although these basal readers were adopted by numerous schools (mostly private) around the country and found some success, they ultimately failed to thrive amid criticism among educators that they were too difficult for students.