Town Hall Forum: Emily Hanford: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

Emily Hanford is a senior correspondent and producer for APM Reports, the documentary and investigative reporting group at American Public Media. Her work has appeared on NPR, in The New York Times and other publications. For the past several years, she has been reporting on reading instruction. Her 2018 podcast episode “Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read?” won the inaugural public service award from EWA.
Her most recent reporting project is the podcast Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong. Hanford and the rest of the Sold a Story team won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Podcast in the Radio Network division. Earlier in 2023, the podcast won an IRE Award and was nominated for a Peabody.
MUSIC: This Forum begins with a musical performance by Dan "Daddy Squeeze" Newton.
The prolific and acclaimed musician has been dazzling audiences with his creative accordion style for over 40 years.
Affectionately known as “Daddy Squeeze,” Dan has produced more than 25 albums, and appeared on recordings by artists including The Proclaimers, Peter Ostroushko, Prudence Johnson and Pat Donohue. Dan was a frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion and spent much of his time playing accordion with his group Café Accordion Orchestra.

[@annarboriter]

"lots of teachers don't know how to teach" i.e. The faculty in schools of education think that conveying effective methods of basic skills instruction is boring and unlikely to lead to tenureship