A TV program on new educational advancements advocated the phonics approach over the whole-language approach as the most effective technique for teaching children to read. Does the research on reading instruction support this conclusion?

Yes, the research on reading instructions support the conclusion.

Explanation:

Phonics is considered a "bottom up" approach where students "decode" the meaning of a text, and one of its advantages is that student who come to schools with large vocabularies, is that once students get the basics down, they can go to the library and read a wide variety of children's literature. In this method, student learn the shapes of the letters and the sounds they make to decode words that appear in text. While the whole language approach (WLA) focuses on children making sense of skills used in reading and writing, as opposed to just memorizing letter sounds and symbols.

your question is incomplete

explanation:

they encountered severe weather for which they were poorly prepared.