Currently, she is the CEO and president of TextProject, Inc., an agency that is dedicated to bringing beginning and struggling readers to high levels of literacy through a variety of strategies and tools, particularly through using science and social studies texts, used for reading instruction.
Hiebert has authored or edited 11 books, including the influential report, Becoming a Nation of Readers, and published over 150 articles in archival journals or chapters in academic volumes.
The primary focus of her work has been on identifying text features that support reading development among beginning and struggling readers.
A strand of Hiebert's recent work explores students' facility in applying word recognition skills while reading texts silently.
As a result, Hiebert has suggested that "comprehension-based silent reading rate" (or CBSRR) is a critical concept requiring attention from both researchers and instructors.
Similarly, she has noted that conventional readability formulas penalize texts that have sufficient repetition for readers to develop automaticity in word recognition and pronunciation.