One of the giants of the literacy world is grappling with the recent push for the "science of reading"—and responding to critics who say her early reading program doesn't align to evidence-based practice.

A new report from Student Achievement Partners claims that the popular reading program from literacy giant Lucy Calkins doesn't align to evidence-based practice. The review is the first in a new series that will evaluate reading programs against the scientific research base.

At a roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C., leaders advocated for states to play a stronger role in championing science-backed instruction and translating research into practice, focusing on levers like teacher training, certification, and system-wide professional learning.

The Tennessee department of education is proposing unsually comprehensive legislation that will require all current and new K-3 teachers, and those who train them, to know evidence-based reading instruction.

As schools apply more scrutiny to the methods and materials they use to teach early reading, educators and parents in some states have started to form new advocacy efforts—trying to pressure states and districts to adopt new approaches to teacher training and evaluating materials.

The National Education Policy Center and Education Deans for Justice and Equity released a joint statement on Thursday, claiming that "there is no settled science of reading."

All Classroom Q&A posts on Reading Instruction (from the past nine years!) are described and linked to in this compilation post.

A recent document signals a major change in instructional theory from the Reading Workshop creator, who previously pushed back on "phonics-centric people."

Finding antivirals to reduce coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) morbidity and mortality has been challenging. Large randomized clinical trials that aimed to test four repurposed drugs, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir-ritonavir, interferon beta 1a, and remdesivir, have shown that these compounds lack an impact on the COVID-19 course. Although the phase III COVID-19 vaccine trial results are encouraging, the search for effective COVID-19 therapeutics should not stop. Recently, plitidepsin (aplidin) demonstrated highly effective preclinical activity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Its antiviral activity was 27.5-fold more potent than that of remdesivir (K. M. White, R. Rosales, S. Yildiz, T. Kehrer, et al., Science, 2021, https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/01/22/science.abf4058). Plitidepsin, a repurposed drug developed for the treatment of multiple myeloma, targets the host translation cofactor eEF1A. Plitidepsin has shown efficacy in animal models and phase I/II human trials. Although plitidepsin is administered intravenously and its toxicity profile remains to be fully characterized, this compound may be a promising alternative COVID-19 therapeutic.

Kyle Scott (UK) joined OM Europe’s Transit Challenge Team at Transform 2010 and spent the next 6 months travelling from Italy through Southern Europe to the Balkans. After returning home for Christmas, he flew to Germany for the GO conference in January 2011, from where he joined the OM team in France. We were curious to know more…

A performing arts outreach team shares Christ with crowds gathered to watch their street performances every evening during the Avignon Festival.

Six OMers spent two weeks in the south of France sharing God's love with children as part of a large music festival.

God prompts a worker to take along a Farsi Bible during his day manning the literature stand so that a Farsi-speaking man can find the Truth.

Cleaning up after class turns into a moment of sharing between an OM worker and two North African women.

Un sondage récent montre que la superstition est bien présente dans la société française, qui se veut pourtant si rationaliste.

An OM outreach participant shares the gospel with another group of hikers during a walk down a mountain in France.

Participants experience a special outreach, Retro-Extreme, in France where they rely on God alone for daily food, housing and ministry opportunities.

A young French woman learns more about herself and God as she serves aboard Logos Hope from 2009 to 2011.

An OMer encounters a French woman who converted to Islam but misunderstands both Islam and the Christian faith.

An OM France couple works among trafficked women and fights for justice before government officials.

During OM France’s last LinkUp, an interdenominational event for all teens and young adults in the Nantes region, OMers focused on the theme of sexuality.

French OMer Andre experiences that prayer can change the hearts of authorities regarding victims of human trafficking.

A French man met in the street prefered to live without God, thinking He would take away his freedom.

A team member has a change of heart during the Transform 2013 outreach to prostitutes in Lyon.

A worker shares the story of one girl who recently took the courageous step to leave her life of prostitution for the freedom Christ offers.

During her three months mission trip to Paris, Madeline realised how precious it is to be a living testimony for the homeless.

“I was not happy when the Lord told me to go to France,” recalls one American OM worker, who soon discovered Europe’s great spiritual needs.

A group of 12 came to France through the Transform conference, to partner with a church and establish connections in the local refugee camp.

OM France marks OM’s 60th anniversary, inviting International Director, Lawrence Tong, to grace this special occasion.

“It was a long, green boat, sailing gently along the river,” recalled Ana Barros (Portugal), as she described her dream to her mum. This happened before she had even seen a picture of OM's Riverboat.

OMer Martin sees Muslims coming to Christ as he ministers to Turkish speakers in France.

"At the end of the class, over tea and mini-cakes, we take time to get to know them, to help them with administrative tasks or to discuss Bible stories," shares Louise.

Transform mission conference one year, outreach team in France the following year, the sisters from Mexico are eager to share the love of Christ, realising the audience was different from what they expected.

Although Harris clashed with Biden over his record on school desegregation, some of her education proposals might dovetail well with his.

Six in 10 programs worry they will have to shut down permanently, a survey finds—and that was before so many districts announced fall remote-learning plans.

Hurricane Katrina taught the city lessons that apply to education across the nation now, writes economist Douglas N. Harris.

Second grade teacher Kitten Vaa shares how her students develop argumentation skills with the use of scientific modeling.

In Queens, N.Y., Maria Katsanos' 3rd grade class conducts scientific explanations through the "KLEWS" strategy—identifying what students already know, what they're going to learn, the evidence, their wonderings, and scientific words and concepts.

Elizabeth Iwaszewicz, a kindergarten teacher at Lafayette Elementary School in San Francisco, uses music to help students focus their attention as they line up. She uses Jeopardy!'s theme song to make the routine like a quick and timed game.

The IBM Foundation has launched a website called Teacher Advisor with Watson, which uses artificial intelligence to find high-quality elementary math resources and lessons.

Kaia Tomokiyo, a kindergarten teacher from Southern Heights Elementary in Seattle and Fallon King, a 1st and 2nd grade teacher from Cedarhurst Elementary in Burien, Wash., share how they engage younger students in scientific modeling through observation and discussion.

Thinking logs incorporate both literacy and math skills by asking students to write complete sentences explaining how they solved an equation and arrived at a solution.

Texas law requires all elementary school students to learn about their community, but when 2nd grade teacher Marilyn Phillips looked for a book to anchor her lessons on Fort Worth, there was none. So she wrote her own.

Jeanne Wright creatively introduces her 1st grade students to a variety of strategies for solving addition problems.

A 5th grade teacher uses fractions to promote both language and math skills in her dual-language classroom.

Outdoor exploration allows children to have fun while making sense of the world around them and developing their critical-thinking skills.

Teacher Antoinette Pippin engages her 5th grade students in a "Claims, Evidence, Reasoning" protocol. Using what she calls "the trifecta of argument," she helps her students make claims and support their claims with evidence and reasoning.

This elementary routine encourages students to make sense of a math problem by listing what they both notice and wonder about the given information.