Sold a Story

The Outlier (Part 3)

Thu, 06 Mar 2025

Steubenville became a model of reading success. Then a new law in Ohio put it all at risk. In this e...

The Outlier (Part 2)

Thu, 27 Feb 2025

There’s a name for the program at the heart of Steubenville’s remarkable reading results. It’s...

The Outlier (Part 1)

Thu, 20 Feb 2025

There’s a school district in eastern Ohio where virtually all the students become good readers by ...

The podcast that's changing education

Fri, 01 Nov 2024

Nationally acclaimed journalist Emily Hanford's work is changing the ways schools around the cou...

10: The Details

Thu, 11 Apr 2024

Some of the teachers, students, parents and researchers we met in Sold a Story talk about the impact...

9: The Aftermath

Thu, 04 Apr 2024

Schools around the country are changing the way they teach reading. And that is having major consequ...

Introducing: Sold a Story en español

Tue, 19 Mar 2024

A Spanish adaptation of Sold a Story is now available. Hosted by journalist Valeria Fernández, the...

8: The Impact

Thu, 18 May 2023

Across the country, school districts are dropping textbooks, state legislatures are going so far as ...

7: Your Words

Thu, 11 May 2023

Voicemails, emails, tweets: We got a lot of messages from people after they heard Sold a Story. In t...

Brains On: How Do We Learn to Read — and Why is It Hard?

Tue, 11 Apr 2023

This week we have an episode of a show called Brains On. It’s a science podcast for kids from our ...

What the Words Say

Thu, 06 Apr 2023

There are kids like C.J. all over the country. Schools tell their parents they are reading at grad...

At a Loss for Words: What's Wrong with How Schools Teach Reading

Thu, 30 Mar 2023

Molly Woodworth had a secret: She couldn’t read very well. She fought her way through text by look...

Hard Words: Why Aren't Our Kids Being Taught to Read?

Thu, 23 Mar 2023

Jack Silva had a problem. He was the chief academic officer of a school district in Pennsylvania, an...

Hard to Read: How American Schools Fail Kids with Dyslexia

Thu, 16 Mar 2023

The parents knew something wasn’t right. The school said everything would be fine. But their kids ...

6: The Reckoning

Thu, 17 Nov 2022

Lucy Calkins says she has learned from the science of reading. She's revised her materials. Foun...

5: The Company

Thu, 10 Nov 2022

Teachers call books published by Heinemann their bibles. The company's products are in schools a...

4: The Superstar

Thu, 03 Nov 2022

Teachers sing songs about Lucy Calkins. The longtime professor at Columbia University’s Teachers C...

3: The Battle

Thu, 27 Oct 2022

President George W. Bush made improving reading instruction a priority. He got Congress to provide m...

2: The Idea

Thu, 20 Oct 2022

Sixty years ago, Marie Clay developed a way to teach reading she said would help kids who were falli...

1: The Problem