7: Your Words

Summary

Sold a Story: Episode 7 – Your Words Released May 11, 2023 by APM Reports

Overview In Episode 7 of Sold a Story, titled "Your Words," host Emily Hanford delves into the profound impact the podcast has had on its listeners, particularly teachers, parents, and students affected by flawed reading instruction methods. This episode amplifies personal narratives, highlighting the widespread repercussions of outdated and ineffective literacy teaching practices. Hanford also addresses critical feedback from educational experts, ensuring a balanced exploration of the topic.

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Listener Responses and Personal Stories

Emotional Reactions from Educators and Parents The episode opens with heartfelt testimonials from teachers and parents who have been deeply affected by the revelations in Sold a Story. A teacher reflects:

"From the first episode, I just felt like, oh, my goodness. I am not crazy. It's not just me." [00:00]

Parents share their frustrations and feelings of guilt over their children’s struggles with reading, stemming from ineffective teaching methods. One parent poignantly states:

"I'm saddened for the kids that I've taught and believed in this so much that I was led to believe this." [01:13]

Children’s Experiences Hanford interviews young listeners, including Jack Freeman, a 13-year-old, and his 10-year-old brother Cooper, who share their struggles with reading:

"I couldn’t read in kindergarten, first grade, second grade. I was running in darkness. I didn’t know what to do." – Jack Freeman [03:19]

Cooper adds his feelings of confusion and helplessness, emphasizing the long-term impact of inadequate reading instruction.

Adult Struggles with Literacy Adults who learned to read later in life also contribute their stories. Brooke Anderson shares her journey:

"When I finally did learn how to read, the first sort of reaction as it started to click for me was not one of happiness or pride or relief. It was just extreme anger." [04:15]

Her narrative highlights the emotional toll and survivor’s guilt felt by those who overcame reading difficulties with external help, contrasting their experiences with others who lacked access to such support.

Parental Realizations and Actions A parent from New Jersey recounts how the podcast transformed her approach to her son's reading struggles:

"I pulled out all of his schoolwork from kindergarten and first grade. And sure enough, there were the books, there were the letters." [07:20]

This discovery led her to confront school authorities and advocate for change, demonstrating the podcast’s role in empowering parents to seek better educational practices for their children.

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Educators' Reflections and Challenges

Teachers Questioning Established Methods Educators like Alex, a former Reading Recovery teacher, express disillusionment with the once-trusted literacy programs:

"As difficult as it is to hear that a belief system that I adhered to was erroneous, it made me think a lot about the frustrations I experienced as a reading recovery teacher." [09:46]

Alex discusses the insulated community within Reading Recovery and how Hanford’s reporting allowed him to confront his doubts and reassess his teaching practices.

Criticism from Established Educators Not all feedback is supportive. A coalition of 58 educators, including prominent figures like Lucy Calkins, criticized the podcast for undermining the integrity of established literacy educators:

"Attacking the integrity of a group of educators who have led pioneering research and helped advance our field." [12:12]

This backlash underscores the contentious nature of the discussions surrounding reading instruction methodologies.

New Teachers Facing Systemic Barriers Hanford highlights the struggles of new teachers attempting to implement science-based reading strategies in districts entrenched in outdated methods. A first-year kindergarten teacher shares her dilemma:

"I just feel stuck. Like I like my district... I just don't even know if I'd be able to find a district that did teach reading that was aligned with science." [15:39]

Her experience illustrates the systemic challenges educators face when advocating for evidence-based reading instruction.

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Community Response and Action

Formation of Discussion Groups Inspired by the podcast, educators like Virginia Quinn Mooney initiated Zoom happy hours to discuss Sold a Story. Virginia shares:

"We have to just be done with balanced literacy. Like, it just has to go away and we have to just start directly teaching our kids how to read." [18:46]

These gatherings have attracted nearly 400 participants from around the globe, fostering a community committed to reevaluating and improving literacy education.

Commitment to Change Teachers attending these sessions express a renewed dedication to bettering their teaching practices:

"I am so passionate about it. And I spend more time reading and taking classes and it's just... I devote all my free time to this." [19:00]

This collective commitment signifies a grassroots movement towards adopting more effective reading instruction methods.

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Expert Insights and Considerations

Balancing Foundational Skills with Comprehension In response to feedback, Hanford engages with Claude Goldenberg, a retired Stanford education professor, who emphasizes the importance of not overemphasizing foundational skills at the expense of comprehension:

"We know there's more to reading than foundational skills. We also know that that's been a glaring gap in reading education. But no one should walk away from this podcast thinking that if we just got foundational skills right, everything would be okay." [21:10]

Goldenberg warns against viewing foundational skills as a silver bullet, stressing the necessity of comprehensive literacy education that includes vocabulary development and knowledge building.

Nuanced Understanding of Literacy Hanford acknowledges the critique, recognizing that literacy encompasses more than word decoding:

"Things will not be okay if all schools get better at is teaching kids how to decode words... Making sure that kids get the knowledge and vocabulary they need to comprehend what they read may actually be the bigger challenge." [22:47]

She notes the significant role of home environment and socio-economic factors in developing comprehensive reading skills, highlighting the complexity of achieving widespread literacy improvements.

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Looking Ahead

Future Episodes and Legislative Impacts Hanford hints at upcoming discussions on legislative responses to the podcast’s revelations:

"I'm going to tell you about some of the laws being passed in response to the podcast and why I'm kind of worried about some of those laws in the next episode of Sold a Story." [23:36]

This preview sets the stage for exploring how policymakers are reacting to the ongoing debate over literacy education.

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Conclusion Episode 7 of Sold a Story serves as a pivotal reflection on the podcast's influence, showcasing a community's struggle and resilience in the face of flawed reading instruction systems. Through personal stories, educator testimonials, and expert analysis, Emily Hanford underscores the urgent need for evidence-based literacy education while acknowledging the multifaceted challenges involved in transforming long-standing educational practices.

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Notable Quotes with Attribution and Timestamps:

• Teacher or Parent: "From the first episode, I just felt like, oh, my goodness. I am not crazy. It's not just me." [00:00]

• Jack Freeman: "I couldn't read in kindergarten, first grade, second grade. I was running in darkness. I didn't know what to do." [03:19]

• Brooke Anderson: "When I finally did learn how to read, the first sort of reaction as it started to click for me was not one of happiness or pride or relief. It was just extreme anger." [04:15]

• Alex (Former Teacher): "As difficult as it is to hear that a belief system that I adhered to was erroneous, it made me think a lot about the frustrations I experienced as a reading recovery teacher." [09:46]

• Virginia Quinn Mooney: "We have to just be done with balanced literacy. Like, it just has to go away and we have to just start directly teaching our kids how to read." [18:46]

• Claude Goldenberg: "We need to have a teaching force that understands these things with as much kind of nuance and complexity as possible." [23:05]

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Final Notes For further insights, listeners are encouraged to explore additional resources available at soldastory.org, including transcripts, articles, reading lists, and discussion guides. The episode was produced by Emily Hanford alongside Eliza Billingham and Christopher Peek, with contributions from editor Chris Julin, digital editor Andy Cruz, and support from the Hollyhock Foundation, Oak Foundation, and Wendy and Stephen Gaultier.

Transcript

[Teacher or Parent]

From the first episode, I just felt like, oh, my goodness. I am not crazy. It's not just me.

[Emily Hanford]

This is Sold a story, a podcast from APM Reports. I'm Emily Hanford.

[Teacher or Parent]

I got up early this morning to.

[Emily Hanford]

Go for a walk to listen to the last episode. We've been hearing from a lot of you.

[Listener or Parent]

I just finished the podcast.

[Teacher or Parent]

I, like, literally drove an hour the wrong direction because I was so captivated.

[Emily Hanford]

We got emails and voicemails. Hi there.

[Teacher or Parent]

Hi.

[Emily Hanford]

Hello.

[Teacher or Parent]

Good afternoon.

[Emily Hanford]

Hi, Emily and team.

[Listener or Parent]

Hi. I was totally one of those people from episode six who thought, why isn't this working?

[Teacher or Parent]

You summarized my whole 29 years in public education. I am that teacher, and I'm also that parent of a student who did not learn this. I was trained as a reading or recovery teacher. I trained other people in balanced literacy using that cueing system.

[Emily Hanford]

I'm mad.

[Teacher or Parent]

I'm saddened for the kids that I've taught and believed in this so much that I was led to believe this. You did a wonderful job telling our story.

[Emily Hanford]

We've heard praise, we've heard criticism, but a lot of what we've been hearing in response to the podcast are personal stories. For the first few years as a.

[Alex]

Teacher, I was a good teacher, but.

[Teacher or Parent]

I wasn't a good literacy teacher.

[Emily Hanford]

I got an email from my younger daughter's teacher just a few years ago when my son was in first grade. The school she was in at the time in Virginia, when my daughter was in kindergarten, she would try to send out a word on a page. She would get the beginning part of the word.

[Teacher or Parent]

One of my favorite reading specialists in our school district said to me, the guilt that I feel.

[Emily Hanford]

In this episode, we're telling you about some of what we heard from listeners in response to Solda's story. I read a lot of the emails we got. I listened to a lot of the messages, but I couldn't keep up with them all. So I got some help. I'm Eliza, meet Eliza Billingham. I'm a research assistant. Eliza read or listened to every message we received. So who do we hear from? What can you tell us about who called us and emailed us in response to Solda's story? Oh, man. Who we didn't hear from might be a shorter list. We've got teachers, obviously, everyone from pre teachers to retirement parents, grandparents, school psychologists, reading specialists, librarians, social workers, professors, lawyers, publishers and school board members, administrators, and even students. We heard from a bunch of kids.

[Jack Freeman]

And when I listen to the podcast, I hear a lot of what I'VE struggled with throughout all the years in school.

[Emily Hanford]

This is Jack Freeman. He's 13. His mom wrote to us. And then I interviewed Jack and his younger brother.

[Jack Freeman]

Hi, my name is Cooper and I am 10. And I really love the podcast.

[Emily Hanford]

The boys listened with their mom in the car.

[Jack Freeman]

So my mom started putting it on a lot during the car ride back.

[Teacher or Parent]

And forth between tutoring.

[Emily Hanford]

Jack and Cooper are kids who are getting private tutoring because they weren't taught how to read in school.

[Jack Freeman]

I do remember a little bit of what you talked about in your podcast about them covering up the word and trying to use tools to guess that word. And I remember the sticky note. I remember guess a word. There was a couch, there was a carpet. There was all this stuff. And they'd be like, go find a spot to read.

[Emily Hanford]

But Cooper says he was lost.

[Jack Freeman]

I couldn't read in kindergarten, first grade, second grade. I was running in darkness. I didn't know what to do.

[Emily Hanford]

It was during the COVID school shutdown that his parents began to recognize how much he and his brother were struggling. That's when their mom started homeschooling them and taking them to tutoring.

[Jack Freeman]

And I think I finally knowing how to read, I never thought I'd be doing this well. I thought I was just, you know, I thought I took the bad path and I was only going to find a path to go to the good path and learn how to read.

[Emily Hanford]

So you mean as a little kid, you actually thought you had the thought, maybe you won't ever learn to read?

[Jack Freeman]

Yes, I. I was like, how am I gonna learn how to read?

[Brooke Anderson]

I did not learn how to read until I was 11 years old.

[Emily Hanford]

We heard from adults, too. Adults who were once struggling readers.

[Brooke Anderson]

My name is Brooke Anderson. When I finally did learn how to read, the first sort of reaction as it started to click for me was not one of happiness or pride or relief. It was just extreme anger. I was enraged that no one had thought to teach me how to sound out words before. I was just in my head thinking, what the. Like, how did no one think to teach me this way? I've gone through my entire life thinking that I'm an idiot.

[Emily Hanford]

She also felt guilty. Guilty because she was finally taught how to read.

[Brooke Anderson]

You know, I grew up white, in an upper middle class family in a wealthy New York City suburb. And I got the help that I needed. And I was very aware that, you know, other kids like me were not going to get that help.

[Emily Hanford]

Other people talked about feeling the same kind of survivor's guilt. One Parent wrote on Twitter. I cried when I realized how fortunate my son was that we could afford tutoring and how tragic it was for all the children who would never have access to the same help. We heard from a lot of parents. I stayed up late last night to listen to your entire six episode podcast, and, man, it really struck a chord. The stories are hard to listen to because they hit so close to home.

[Listener or Parent]

So much of your podcast resonated with.

[Teacher or Parent]

Me and what I've experienced with my third grader. I kept being told that everything would be fixed by third grade, everything would be fine.

[Emily Hanford]

Parents knew there was a problem, but many of them couldn't figure out what the problem was until they heard Solda's story.

[Listener or Parent]

Hi. I just had to tell you that I think your podcast has changed my life.

[Emily Hanford]

This is Jen, a mom in New Jersey.

[Listener or Parent]

I was working late one night a few weeks ago, and your podcast came on and I started screaming, honey, you have to watch. Listen to this right now. My husband was downstairs grading papers. He's a teacher and he teaches high school. And our son is 8 years old. And we have struggled so hard with our son. He. He's a delightful and very smart boy. But my husband and I are both voracious readers. We could not understand what we were doing wrong and why our son was having such a hard time reading and hating to read.

[Emily Hanford]

She says they blamed themselves, they blamed their kid, but they never thought much about how he was being taught in school until she heard the podcast.

[Listener or Parent]

And I pulled out all of his schoolwork from kindergarten and first grade. And sure enough, there were the books, there were the letters.

[Emily Hanford]

So I called the principal, and the principal said to her, yes, we teach those strategies and those programs. She sent him the podcast every episode, every week. She doesn't know if he listened, but she sent the podcast to teachers at her son's school, too. And she says some of them wrote back and said, we listened and we're talking about this now.

[Listener or Parent]

So my hope is, is that they're slowly moving away from it. And I'm so thankful for this podcast.

[Emily Hanford]

Another mom told us that it was a teacher at her son's school who told her to listen to the podcast.

[Teacher or Parent]

Last week, my school's parent teacher conferences were happening, and I scheduled a parent teacher conference with his fourth grade teacher like I always do every year with his regular teacher.

[Listener or Parent]

But this year, I also scheduled a.

[Teacher or Parent]

Conference with his reading specialist.

[Emily Hanford]

This is Liz. She says her son has been working with the same reading specialist since kindergarten. So she'd met with her before, but.

[Teacher or Parent]

This time it was a really weird and strange and different vibe to the conference with his reading specialist. She was almost getting emotional. She started out the 15 minute conference teleconference over Zoom, apologizing and saying that she hasn't helped Cole at all. She was talking really fast. It seemed really emotional. But she said, sold a story, please. You've got to listen to Sold a story.

[Emily Hanford]

So she listened.

[Teacher or Parent]

I'm so sorry.

[Emily Hanford]

Wow.

[Teacher or Parent]

This is my son, you know, this is my child. So upset. But mostly I just want to change it right away. And so does his reading specialist. And I'm so grateful to her and I'm so grateful to this podcast because I think you just changed my son's life. And I'm going to share this podcast with everyone I meet. Sorry. Gosh, I had no idea I was going to get so emotional. But yeah, wow, this is a big deal.

[Emily Hanford]

We also heard from a lot of teachers.

[Alex]

Hi, Emily. My name's Alex.

[Emily Hanford]

Alex was a Reading recovery teacher. Reading Recovery is the program that was started by Mari Clay, the woman from New Zealand you heard about in the podcast.

[Alex]

As difficult as it is to hear that a belief system that I adhered to was erroneous, it made me think a lot about the frustrations I experienced as a reading recovery teacher and also as a reading specialist using Reading Recovery and then Fountas and Pinel with the students I taught to read or believed that I taught to read.

[Emily Hanford]

Alex wanted us to know why Reading Recovery was so appealing to him.

[Alex]

I knew nothing about teaching reading, which is why I got my master's degree in literacy and then just jumped at the chance to be trained as a reading recovery teacher. And it certainly did change the way I taught in the classroom in terms of my attention and my ability to do something to help kids read, which mostly involved putting a book that they could read in front of them. Teaching is a lonely profession in many respects, and the intensity of the Reading Recovery training in particular, where you're being observed by your colleagues and observing your colleagues with regularity throughout the time that you're a Reading recovery teacher, involves a lot of risk, a lot of intimacy, and you build tremendous trust in your colleagues and you're guided by a teacher leader, and it's a wonderfully constructed model for professional education professional development. But it's also worked very well to create an insulated community. That kind of community is not going to be open to changes in perception unless they come from on high. And in that case, it was Marie Clay, who we all worshiped.

[Emily Hanford]

He says he did have some nagging questions, though, some doubts that I started.

[Alex]

To see, but I couldn't really acknowledge. And so I really appreciate your reporting because it, in a very gentle way, in a very kind way, you've let me accept what I suspected. And I think back about the children I taught to read, and many of it was just they taught themselves and I got to watch it.

[Emily Hanford]

Of course, there are current informer teachers who did not feel the way Alex did about the podcast. A group of 58 educators wrote a letter criticizing Solda's story. The group included Lucy Calkins and other people who have published with Heineman. The letter condemned the podcast for, quote, attacking the integrity of a group of educators who have led pioneering research and helped advance our field. Another woman wrote, please stop blaming teachers. Teachers are employees who must do as they are told. But many teachers wrote to say they believed what they were told.

[Listener or Parent]

I've learned a lot about the science of reading since you started writing about the topic.

[Emily Hanford]

Michelle Shard has been a teacher for 29 years.

[Listener or Parent]

I have some ideas about why we thought the way we did and want to share them. I didn't focus on decoding during my early years as a classroom teacher because I I wanted to teach kids to read deeply, to make connections and synthesize information using deep critical thinking. And we as a group wrote off phonics as a superficial skill that didn't need much attention. Most of the teachers I knew came to reading easily, seemingly automatically, so it made sense to us that our students would as well.

[Emily Hanford]

She says teaching kids how to read the words felt kind of like not believing in them, not believing in their ability to learn on their own, and that felt inequitable.

[Listener or Parent]

We believed the Marie Clay studies and the Fontas and Pinel methods and especially Lucy Calkins structures around Readers and Writers Workshop because it went with how we were all thinking. Also, we didn't know how to teach phonics. So there you have it. We were sold the story.

[Emily Hanford]

Other teachers called to say they never believed in Clay and Fountas and Pinel and Cawkins or the ideas they were promoting.

[Teacher or Parent]

Your podcast shined a light on something I've been trying to tell people for the last 11 years of my teaching career.

[Emily Hanford]

This is Laquetia Underwood.

[Teacher or Parent]

I was a striving reader as a child. I am now a reading teacher because I did not want what happened to me to happen to millions of other children. I was afraid to turn over my own children's ability to learn reading to schools because I know what they've been told, and I know that it doesn't work.

[Emily Hanford]

She says she's had to make hard decisions because she had doubts about programs she was expected to teach.

[Teacher or Parent]

As early as last year, I saw a school purchase, the LLI leveled reader program, and I cringed. So much so that I actually took a leave after trying to be forced to use the program that I know doesn't work. Anyhow, thank you so much for the work you put into this, and I'm going to keep doing what I can to help people learn to read.

[New Teacher]

Hi, I'm a first year kindergarten teacher.

[Emily Hanford]

We heard from new teachers trying to buck the system too.

[New Teacher]

I just finished listening to the podcast.

[Emily Hanford]

This teacher didn't say her name.

[New Teacher]

I teach in a district that uses Lucy across the board and does not support very much phonics instruction. And so I try to do things myself to fill in the gaps. And I don't teach the queuing system, but I have to keep it secret. And after listening to the podcast, I just feel stuck. Like I like my district. I like it for quite a few different reasons. And I just don't even know if I'd be able to find a district that did teach reading that was aligned with science. The other option I have in the district has made this quite clear, is to keep your mouth shut, keep your head down, because if you say something or if you try to take a stand, there will be trouble. And I don't know where to go from here. So I wonder if you have any other teachers who are in a similar position or teachers who have been in that position and figured out what happens next. Do you stay and try to fight or do you leave to a district that's more aligned with what you know to be true?

[Emily Hanford]

We'll be back after a break.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

Hi everybody.

[Emily Hanford]

After people heard Solda's story, they wanted to talk about it.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

Thank you so much for coming.

[Emily Hanford]

This is a Zoom happy hour to talk about Solda's story.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

If you would not mind just putting your name maybe where you're from, always feel free to tell us what you're drinking.

[Emily Hanford]

We heard about a bunch of sold a story discussion groups like this one. This series of Friday night Happy Hours was started by a teacher in Connecticut.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

My name is Virginia Quinn Mooney. I've been teaching first grade for a little over a minute.

[Emily Hanford]

She's been teaching first grade for 19 years. She says she knew something wasn't right with reading instruction.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

Like, I did teach phonics and I. And I've always known that you know, post it notes over letters is really not effective.

[Emily Hanford]

But she doubted herself because everyone around her seemed to be all in on balanced literacy. And Lucy Calkins and Fountasyn Pannell, all.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

Of education was embracing this. All of the people that were my literacy leaders were sitting me down and telling me this is the way.

[Emily Hanford]

She says after she heard Solda's story, she couldn't sleep.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

I couldn't sleep because I was like, what can I do?

[Emily Hanford]

So she started the happy hours.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

Welcome, everybody. Thank you so much for being here and moving the conversation forward.

[Emily Hanford]

She says nearly 400 people signed up for the first happy hour. People from all over the world.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

We had South Wales, we had Ghana. There were some great accents.

[Emily Hanford]

Lots of teachers came. So did principals, superintendents, school board members, college students, parents.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

So much of this for me is it's incumbent on me to pay back those families that I needed to have done better for.

[Emily Hanford]

This is Virginia at one of the happy hours.

[Virginia Quinn Mooney]

We have to just be done with balanced literacy. Like, it just has to go away and we have to just start directly teaching our kids how to read.

[Teacher or Parent]

Virginia, I feel the same way.

[Emily Hanford]

This is one of the other teachers who came to the happy hour.

[Teacher or Parent]

I feel like I have to give.

[Brooke Anderson]

Back to the community because I was.

[Teacher or Parent]

So ingrained and I was a balanced literacy teacher and supported it so much. And I've been on that same journey for about probably four years now. And I am so passionate about it. And I spend more time reading and taking classes and it's just. I devote all my free time to this.

[Emily Hanford]

This is what I think I was hoping for when I started reporting on this topic more than six years ago. I was hoping that the reporting would get people interested in the scientific research on reading, that it would be an invitation to learn more. And it has been. I think a lot of people know a lot more about how kids learn to read because of this reporting. But I have focused mostly on one aspect of what it takes to be a good reader. I focused on what it takes to. To be able to read words quickly and accurately because that's critical. You can't be a good reader without being good at reading the words. But that's not enough. There is a lot more to reading, and this has been one of the criticisms of my reporting that it's focused too much on word reading and not enough on comprehension, on what it takes to understand what. What you read. And I heard from people who expressed that criticism in response to Solda's story.

[Claude Goldenberg]

I'm Claude Goldenberg.

[Emily Hanford]

Claude Goldenberg was a professor of education at Stanford. He retired a few years ago, but.

[Claude Goldenberg]

I'm still involved in working through reading issues, reading policy, reading problems, reading research.

[Emily Hanford]

He wrote me an email after hearing the first two episodes of the podcast. One of the things that you said in that email to me in October is there's a huge danger we're digging another hole for ourselves by appearing, maybe unintentionally, to extol foundational skills as silver bullets. So can you say more about that? Like, what's the danger? What are you actually noticing out there?

[Claude Goldenberg]

Well, I get the impression, and sometimes more than just an impression, there's like this sort of dismissing, like, yeah, okay, right, we know there's more, but you got to get those foundational skills down.

[Emily Hanford]

He's concerned that schools aren't paying enough attention to the vocabulary development and knowledge building that's necessary for kids to become good readers.

[Claude Goldenberg]

I think one of the things I said in my email was, even if you were to in each episode, just make a brief aside, you know, 30 seconds. Look, ladies and gentlemen, we know there's more to reading than foundational skills. We also know that that's been a glaring gap in reading education. But no one should walk away from this podcast thinking that if we just got foundational skills right, everything would be okay.

[Emily Hanford]

He's right. Things will not be okay if all schools get better at is teaching kids how to decode words. And here's the thing. Making sure that kids get the knowledge and vocabulary they need to comprehend what they read may actually be the bigger challenge. It takes years and years of schooling, and it's where family income and educational background tend to make a big difference. Because kids don't just learn vocabulary and knowledge at school, they learn a lot at home and through the experiences they have every day. The people they meet, the places they go, the information they're exposed to.

[Claude Goldenberg]

The challenge of bringing literacy on a massive scale to entire population is a tall order.

[Emily Hanford]

Claude Goldenberg doesn't want anyone to be under the impression that just teaching kids how to decode words will lead to better reading comprehension.

[Claude Goldenberg]

We need to have a teaching force that understands these things with as much kind of nuance and complexity as possible.

[Emily Hanford]

He's concerned that people are rushing to adopt simple solutions to a complex problem. And changes are coming fast. State legislators across the country are passing laws.

[Teacher or Parent]

We need to improve reading.

[Emily Hanford]

In Wisconsin, we are all in agreement on that.

[Alex]

Exhibit one is the result of a.

[Emily Hanford]

Five year investigation by an education reporter into reading instruction. I'm calling for a renewed focus on literacy and on the way we teach reading in the state of Ohio. I'm going to tell you about some of the laws being passed in response to the podcast and why I'm kind of worried about some of those laws in the next episode of Sold a Story. The best way to keep up with our reporting is to follow the show in your podcast app and sign up for our email list. There's a link in the show Notes and also a link to our website soldastory.org where you can find transcripts, additional articles, a reading list, and a podcast discussion guide. This episode was produced by me with Eliza Billingham and Christopher Peek. Our editor was Chris Julin. He also did mixing, sound design and made some of the music. Final mastering of this episode was by Alex Simpson. The Soul to Story theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly. Our digital editor is Andy Cruz, the acting Deputy Managing Editor of APM Reports is Tom Scheck, and our Executive Editor is Jane Helmke. Support for this podcast comes from the Hollyhock foundation, the Oak foundation, and Wendy and Stephen Gaultier.