[css] Why is vertical-align:text-top; not working in CSS

The vertical-align attribute is for inline elements only. It will have no effect on block level elements, like a div. Also text-top only moves the text to the top of the current font size. If you would like to vertically align an inline element to the top just use this.

vertical-align: top;

The paragraph tag is not outdated. Also, the vertical-align attribute applied to a span element may not display as intended in some mozilla browsers.