Emily Hanford Resources

Millions of kids can’t read well. Scientists have known for decades how children learn to read but many schools are ignoring the research. They buy teacher training and books that are rooted in a disproven idea. Emily Hanford investigates four authors and a publishing company that have made millions selling this idea. Listen to the…

Sonya Thomas knew something wasn’t right with her son C.J. He was in first grade and he was struggling with reading. “Something was going on with him, but I could not figure it out,” she said. Teachers and school officials told her that C.J. was behind but would catch up. They told Sonya to read…

Most Americans have likely never heard of Lucy Calkins, but their children’s teachers probably have. Calkins, a professor of education at Columbia University, has created one of the nation’s most widely used reading instruction programs, and, according to a groundbreaking new report, the program is deeply flawed. Calkins’ Units of Study series, which thousands of…

For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don’t know there’s anything wrong with it. Molly Woodworth was a kid who seemed to do well at everything: good grades, in the gifted and talented program. But…

APM Reports correspondent Emily Hanford started wondering about how kids learn to read a few years ago while she was reporting on the large number of college students who aren’t academically ready. She was surprised to learn that 40 percent of college students have to take remedial or developmental classes before they even get into a…

Podcast episodes by APM Reports have raised questions about materials for teaching reading that are widely used in American schools. An author of those materials, Lucy Calkins, recently fired back at “phonics-centric people.” Calkins was one of several powerful people and organizations to weigh in on the debate about how to teach reading in the…

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos addressed reporters at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. with some sobering news this week. New results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also called the Nation’s Report Card,” show that fourth and eighth graders in most states have stalled or declined in reading proficiency during the last decade.…

Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don’t know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail. It was 2015 and Jack Silva, the chief academic officer for the public schools…