Emily Hanford

Emily Hanford is an American education reporter who hosted the APM Reports podcast Sold a Story. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called her "the most prominent figure in advocacy for big changes in reading instruction."[1]

Early life and education

Hanford grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts and graduated from Brookline High School. She attended Amherst College but became disillusioned with the experience, taking a two-year leave in 1991 before she returned to complete her B.A.[2]

Career

After graduating from Amherst, she worked as a reporter for WBEZ Chicago.[3]

Since 2008, Hanford has reported for American Public Media, where she is a senior correspondent and producer and has focused on early childhood education.[4] In 2016, she began reporting on the prevalence of remedial education for college students, leading to an interest in dyslexia supports.[1][5]

Her 2022 podcast Sold a Story investigated allegations that the popular early-intervention literacy strategies developed by Marie Clay and promoted by Lucy Calkins are incompatible with educational and cognitive research. It argues that the cueing method of teaching reading ignores the importance of phonics.[6] The podcast was widely influential in the national movement to reform reading instruction and reached more than 3.5 million downloads.[7][8]

Hanford's work was cited during the consideration of a New Hampshire bill to revise the state's reading curriculum.[9]

In April 2023, she received an award from the George W. Bush Presidential Center.[10] Hanford covered Bush's work on literacy in Sold a Story.[11]

Personal life

Hanford is married and lives in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.[1][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Borsuk, Alan J. "Reading expert Emily Hanford says simply buying new curriculum won't fix what's wrong with reading instruction". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  2. ^ Hanford, Emily. "Why I Quit College, and How I Went Back". American Public Media. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  3. ^ a b "EMILY HANFORD, DEREK GOLDMAN". Chicago Tribune. 1998-11-19. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  4. ^ Mechelke, Meg (2023-06-06). "Reporting on Reading With Emily Hanford". Iowa Reading Research Center. University of Iowa. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  5. ^ Harrison, Rick (2023-05-12). "How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong: Emily Hanford Visits ISPS to Discuss the Science and Politics of Reading Instruction". Institution for Social and Policy Studies. Yale University. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  6. ^ Hill, Kim (2023-07-01). "Emily Hanford: are we teaching reading all wrong?". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  7. ^ Davis, Angela; Maja, Beckstrom (2023-05-10). "How an APM podcast became part of a national movement to reform reading instruction". MPR News. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  8. ^ Kristof, Nicholas (2023-02-11). "Opinion | Two-Thirds of Kids Struggle to Read, and We Know How to Fix It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  9. ^ "What's behind the effort to change how kids read in New Hampshire". New Hampshire Public Radio. 2023-02-01. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  10. ^ "Forum on Leadership 2023 Speakers". George W. Bush Presidential Center. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  11. ^ Hanford, Emily (2022-10-27). "In the battle over reading instruction, a U.S. president faces off against influential authors". The Hechinger Report. Retrieved 2023-12-06.