Emily Hanford is a senior education correspondent at APM Reports, part of American Public Media. She has been working in public media for more than two decades as a reporter, producer, editor, news director, and program host. She has written and produced content for many news outlets, including NPR, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Washington Monthly, and PBS NewsHour. Her work has won numerous honors, including a DuPont-Columbia Award, a Casey Medal, and awards from Education Writer’s Association and The Associated Press. In 2017, Emily won the Excellence in Media Reporting on Education Research Award from the American Educational Research Association. She is a frequent speaker and moderator and is the host of the Ways & Means podcast.                                   

In 2016 Emily reported on the high numbers of college students not academically ready for college. This led her on a quest to understand how kids learn to read in the first place; from there, her research led her to the problems of unaddressed dyslexia. That, she says, was the catalyst for digging deep on how reading is being taught in schools, and why that system is failing so many children. Her series of audio documentaries on this topic has had a profound impact nationally, elevating the conversation around reading instruction and how this is such an important issue of equity. 

In this conversation, Emily talks about her roots as a reporter, how she ended up focusing on reading, and what she sees as the main barriers to getting reading right for all children.   

Links to APM Reports

• Hard Words
• At a Loss for Words
• What the Words Say

Emily's Picks

• Fever by Mary Beth Keane 
• Working by Robert A. Caro 
• All Students Can Succeed by Jean Stockard, Timothy W. Wood, Cristy Coughlin, and Caitlin Rasplica Khoury
• Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert
• What Research Tells Us About Reading Instruction