Sold a Story

APM Reports

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

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Top 10 Sold a Story Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Sold a Story episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Sold a Story for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Sold a Story episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

1: The Problem

Sold a Story

10/20/22 • 32 min

Lee Gaul watches his daughter’s lessons during Zoom school and discovers a dismaying truth: She can't read. Little Zoe isn't the only one. Sixty-five percent of fourth graders in the United States are not proficient readers. Kids need to learn specific skills to become good readers, and in many schools, those skills are not being taught.

Read: Emily Hanford’s reading list
Read: Transcript of this episode
Watch: The story behind Sold a Story
Support: Donate to APM Reports
More: soldastory.org
En español: soldastory.es

Dive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.

15 Listeners

1 Comment

2: The Idea

Sold a Story

10/20/22 • 51 min

Sixty years ago, Marie Clay developed a way to teach reading she said would help kids who were falling behind. They’d catch up and never need help again. Today, her program remains popular, and her theory about how people read is at the root of a lot of reading instruction in schools. But Marie Clay was wrong.

Dive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.

8 Listeners

3: The Battle

Sold a Story

10/27/22 • 41 min

President George W. Bush made improving reading instruction a priority. He got Congress to provide money to schools that used reading programs supported by scientific research. But backers of Marie Clay’s ideas saw Bush’s Reading First initiative as a threat.

Read: Transcript of this episode
Watch: The story behind Sold a Story
Support: Donate to APM Reports
More: soldastory.org
En español: soldastory.es

Dive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.

6 Listeners

6: The Reckoning

Sold a Story

11/17/22 • 42 min

Lucy Calkins says she has learned from the science of reading. She's revised her materials. Fountas and Pinnell have not revised theirs. Their publisher, Heinemann, is still selling some products to teach reading that contain debunked practices. Parents, teachers and lawmakers want answers.

Map: How states approach reading instruction
Organize: Sold a Story discussion guide
Read: Transcript of this episode
Watch: The story behind Sold a Story
Support: Donate to APM Reports
More: soldastory.org
En español: soldastory.es

Dive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.

5 Listeners

4: The Superstar

Sold a Story

11/03/22 • 33 min

Teachers sing songs about Lucy Calkins. The longtime professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College is one of the most influential people in American elementary education today. Her admirers call her books bibles. Why didn't she know that scientific research contradicted reading strategies she promoted?

Read: Transcript of this episode
Watch: The story behind Sold a Story
Support: Donate to APM Reports
More: soldastory.org
En español: soldastory.es

Dive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.

5 Listeners

5: The Company

Sold a Story

11/10/22 • 47 min

Teachers call books published by Heinemann their bibles. The company's products are in schools all over the country. Some of the products used to teach reading are rooted in a debunked idea about how children learn to read. But they've made the company and some of its authors millions.

Map: Heinemann’s national reach
Read: Transcript of this episode
Watch: The story behind Sold a Story
Support: Donate to APM Reports
More: soldastory.org
En español: soldastory.es

Dive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.

4 Listeners

8: The Impact

Sold a Story

05/18/23 • 24 min

Across the country, school districts are dropping textbooks, state legislatures are going so far as to ban teaching methods, and everyone, it seems, is talking about "the science of reading." Things have been changing since Sold a Story was released. In this episode, we tell you about some of the changes and what we think about them.

Read: New reading laws sweep the nation
Watch: The story behind Sold a Story
More: soldastory.org

Donate to support Sold a Story and other journalism from APM Reports.

EXTENDED READING

Blog: Seidenberg on translating research into practice
Article: Goldenberg, Goldberg on premortem (paywall) | Excerpt

Dive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.

3 Listeners

9: The Aftermath

Sold a Story

04/04/24 • 27 min

Schools around the country are changing the way they teach reading. And that is having major consequences for people who sold the flawed idea we investigated in Sold a Story. But Lucy Calkins, Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell are fighting back — and fighting to stay relevant. And so are organizations that promoted their work: the Reading Recovery Council of North America and the publisher Heinemann.

Read: Two universities stick with a discredited idea
Read: Reading Recovery financial difficulties
Read: Science movement trouble for Heinemann

Transcript of this episode
- The story behind Sold a Story
- Donate to APM Reports
- soldastory.org

Dive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.

3 Listeners

Brains On: How Do We Learn to Read — and Why is It Hard?

Sold a Story

04/11/23 • 37 min

This week we have an episode of a show called Brains On. It’s a science podcast for kids from our colleagues at APM. In this episode, Emily joins the Brains On hosts to talk about how people learn to read. Grab the kids in your life and listen to this special episode made for kids and curious adults.

More: brainson.org

Support our show: Donate to APM Reports

Dive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.

2 Listeners

Trailer: Sold a Story

Sold a Story

10/13/22 • 2 min

Nationally acclaimed journalist Emily Hanford's work is changing the ways schools around the country teach reading. In this award-winning podcast, she investigates why so many schools use an approach that cognitive scientists debunked decades ago.

More: soldastory.org

2 Listeners

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