What’s Trending in the Science of Reading?

       Episode 10 of Sold a Story revisits teachers, parents, students and researchers featured in previous episodes who recount how the podcast has impacted their lives and schools. Families who were affected talk about shifting to private schools to help their children. A reading specialist using Fountas and Pinnell discovers what she had been missing and now leads the charge in her district to change the way that reading is taught. We learn that President George W. Bush’s top down Reading First initiative was largely ignored amidst misinformation and limited access to the research. We also hear from researchers, Dr. Reid Lyon and Dr. Mark Seidenberg. They believe that there is light at the end of this tunnel, with a growing number of people taking an interest in the implementation of curriculum aligned with the Science of Reading, and abandoning or banning cueing methods. They warn however, that we must proceed with caution noting how complex it is to change a large system like public education. When policies are enacted, but all of the cogs in the system have variances in knowledge, expertise and personal agendas, sometimes the critical details are lost. Emily Hanford tells us that this is not the end of Sold a Story. Although it has sparked a lot of interest. She hopes to report on what is working, what is not working and why, as we move forward with what some are calling a movement or a war in the word of reading.

This recently released episode focuses on what happened after Sold a Story was brought to the forefront of the conversation about the Science of Reading. It depicts the turnaround implemented by school districts who opted to ban the balanced literacy approach, as well as curriculum such as, Lucy Calkins, Reading Recovery, and Fountas and Pinnell. Instead, they are choosing to adopt research based approaches grounded in the Science of Reading. Additionally, the investigative journalist and host, Emily Hanford, takes a deep dive into the reactions of those who have been building an empire creating and publishing curriculum that was not aligned with the research and was largely based on a false rationale about how reading skills are acquired. Some leaders in the balanced literacy arena are reinventing themselves and their curriculum while others are firmly holding their ground.

Hanford, Emily, Host. “The Aftermath” Sold a Story, APM Reports, 4 April 2024. https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/.