‘It was dramatic’: Sold a Story’s Emily Hanford talks pushback and fallout

Sarah Duggan

By Sarah Duggan
Published May 9, 2024

When influential US reporter Emily Hanford first started her investigation into how one ‘bad idea’ about reading instruction took hold across the country despite cognitive science having discredited it decades ago, the same few names would crop up in her discussions with teachers time and time again.

Since Sold a Story was released in 2020, pushback has flowed in, with seemingly major consequences facing those who sold the flawed theory Hanford rigorously unpacks.

“Marie Clay was coming up all the time. And then Lucy Calkins, Irene Fountas, and Gay Su Pinnell, and the ...

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