The Importance of Science in Education

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The National Reading Panel found the most effective way to teach children to read is through systematic and explicit manipulation of phonemes in words. Phone names are the smallest sound units in the English language. The idea was to take all of the research about reading and be like and so what do we know? What can we say about teaching based on all of the stuff we've learned about reading and how it works? It became very political for lots of different reasons. Lots of things about every presidency become political.

For decades, American schools have taught reading with an approach that doesn’t work very well. Emily Hanford of the podcast “Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong” explains how things are starting to change.

This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Victoria Chamberlin, engineered by Michael Raphael, and hosted by Noel King.

We're taking Monday off for Juneteenth and will be back with a new episode on Tuesday, June 20.

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