the doctype MUST be the first tag on the page, if IE sees any html code before the doctype, it will go to quirks mode:
<!-- InstanceBegin template="/Templates/subPage.dwt.php" codeOutsideHTMLIsLocked="false" --><!DOCTYPE HTML>
needs to be rearranged to:
<!DOCTYPE HTML><!-- InstanceBegin template="/Templates/subPage.dwt.php" codeOutsideHTMLIsLocked="false" -->