Kathleen Megan/ CT Mirror
On the beat: Chris Peak (center) covering the Dalio education partnership.
After three years reporting on public education in New Haven for the Independent, Christopher Peak is beginning a new assignment with a nationwide focus.
Chris has begun a new job with APM Reports, American Public Media’s investigative reporting and radio documentary project. APM supplies shows and podcasts for public radio stations nationwide, from Live From Here With Chris Thile (successor to A Prairie Home Companion) to In The Dark.
Based in New York City, Chris will report on the coronavirus at first. But his long-term assignment is to work on a three-person team investigating how schools teach kids to read. The team includes Emily Hanford, whose documentaries on the topic, Hard Words and At a Loss for Words, have fundamentally changed the way schools across the country are thinking about literacy instruction.
Chris won numerous regional and national awards for investigative reporting in his three years here at the Independent, including for his deep dives into the fishy financing around the sales of English Station and New Haven government’s “scoop and toss” refinancing. (Click here and here and here to read about those awards.)
For us at the Independent, and in New Haven in general, it was his dogged day-to-day in-depth reporting that made a permanent difference in how we live and do our work. We all learned so much from Chris and benefited from his determination that we all raise our standards. We wish him the best of luck with the great reporting he will undoubtedly now do for a national audience.
Congratulations, Chris! Well done and well deserved. We will miss you at NHPS BOE meetings and around town. Best wishes in your new journalistic adventures and travels. Stay safe. We'll be sure to follow your trailblazing reporting in the days ahead!