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How to Protect Your Family from Tornadoes

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(Family Features) When clouds loom overhead and winds pick up in your area, it’s crucial to keep an eye on the sky and an ear toward local news broadcasts. Capable of destroying buildings, uprooting trees and sending dangerous debris flying, tornadoes are rotating columns of air that extend from the base of thunderstorms to the ground.

With the potential to reach wind speeds of up to 300 miles per hour, these violent storms can wreak havoc on communities and put families in danger. Keep your loved ones safe with these tips to prepare for and shelter from tornadoes.

Pay Attention to Weather Forecasts
Staying weather alert is always a good idea, particularly as strong thunderstorms build and approach your location. Check the forecast regularly to understand the risk for severe weather and, if possible, sign up for smartphone alerts or notifications.

Put a Plan in Place
Each member of your family should understand what to do in an emergency situation. Create a plan that includes where to shelter in the event of a tornado warning. Typically, this is a basement, storm cellar or interior room on the lowest floor of the home with no windows. If you have a safe room or storm shelter, which is a hardened structure designed to provide near-absolute protection in extreme weather events like tornadoes and hurricanes, this is the time to utilize it. Clearly define who is expected to gather emergency materials, such as flashlights, blankets, a first-aid kit and extra food and water.

Understand Watches vs. Warnings
Key phrases from sources like the National Weather Service include “tornado watch” and “tornado warning.” Make sure you understand the differences to react appropriately.

  • Tornado Watch: Tornadoes are possible in or near your location. Review emergency plans with loved ones and be ready to act quickly if a warning is issued.
  • Tornado Warning: A tornado is active according to sightings or weather radar. It’s time to take action and follow your family’s safety plan.

Build Your Home with Resistant Materials
If constructing a new home is on the horizon, consider the benefits of building with durable materials like insulated concrete forms (ICFs), which are a more resilient alternative to wood framing. For areas prone to natural disasters, ICF walls from Nudura provide superior strength to withstand extreme wind and impact damage from tornadoes and hurricanes. They also protect against wildfires due to a fire protection rating of up to four hours, compared to 45 minutes for wood framing, and provide greater comfort, durability and lower life cycle costs compared to wood structures.

Shelter Safely
When a tornado warning is in effect, acting quickly is crucial. If at home, head to the basement, safe room or interior room away from windows and, if possible, stay tuned to local news for updates. At school or the workplace, follow the guidelines in place from tornado drills and proceed calmly but quickly to the shelter location. If driving and unable to get to shelter, pull over and get down in your vehicle with your head covered or leave your car and seek shelter in a low-lying ditch or ravine.

Find more ways to protect your family from natural disasters at nudura.com/tornado-prep.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

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Mississippi’s education miracle: A model for global literacy reform

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Mississippi’s reforms have led to significant gains in reading and math, despite the state being one of the lowest spenders per pupil in the U.S. Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images

Harry Anthony Patrinos, University of Arkansas

In a surprising turnaround, Mississippi, once ranked near the bottom of U.S. education standings, has dramatically improved its student literacy rates.

As of 2023, the state ranks among the top 20 for fourth grade reading, a significant leap from its 49th-place ranking in 2013. This transformation was driven by evidence-based policy reforms focused on early literacy and teacher development.

The rest of the country might want to take note.

That’s because Mississippi’s success offers a proven solution to the reading literacy crisis facing many states – a clear road map for closing early literacy gaps and improving reading outcomes nationwide.

As an expert on the economics of education, I believe the learning crisis is not just an educational issue. It’s also economic.

When students struggle, their academic performance declines. And that leads to lower test scores. Research shows that these declining scores are closely linked to reduced economic growth, as a less educated workforce hampers productivity and innovation.

The Mississippi approach

In 2013, Mississippi implemented a multifaceted strategy for enhancing kindergarten to third grade literacy. The Literacy-Based Promotion Act focuses on early literacy and teacher development. It includes teacher training in proven reading instruction methods and teacher coaching.

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Relying on federally supported research from the Institute of Education Science, the state invested in phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension. The law provided K-3 teachers with training and support to help students master reading by the end of third grade.

It includes provisions for reading coaches, parent communication, individual reading plans and other supportive measures. It also includes targeted support for struggling readers. Students repeat the third grade if they fail to meet reading standards.

The state also aligned its test to the NAEP, or National Assessment of Educational Progress, something which not all states do. Often referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card,” the NAEP is a nationwide assessment that measures student performance in various subjects.

Mississippi’s reforms have led to significant gains in reading and math, with fourth graders improving on national assessments.

I believe this is extremely important. That’s because early reading is a foundational skill that helps develop the ability to read at grade level by the end of third grade. It also leads to general academic success, graduating from high school prepared for college, and becoming productive adults less likely to fall into poverty.

Research by Noah Spencer, an economics doctoral student at the University of Toronto, shows that the Mississippi law boosted scores.

Students exposed to it from kindergarten to the third grade gained a 0.25 standard deviation improvement in reading scores. That is roughly equivalent to one year of academic progress in reading, according to educational benchmarks. This gain reflects significant strides in students’ literacy development over the course of a school year.

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Another study has found an even greater impact attributed to grade retention in the third grade – it led to a huge increase in learning in English Language Arts by the sixth grade.

But the Mississippi law is not just about retention. Spencer found that grade retention explains only about 22% of the treatment effect. The rest is presumably due to the other components of the measure – namely, teacher training and coaching.

Other previous research supports these results across the country.

Adopting an early literacy policy improves elementary students’ reading achievement on important student assessments, with third grade retention and instructional support substantially enhancing English learners’ skills. The policy also increases test scores for students’ younger siblings, although it is not clear why.

Moreover, third grade retention programs immediately boost English Language Arts and math achievements into middle school without disciplinary incidents or negatively impacting student attendance.

These changes were achieved despite Mississippi being one of the lowest spenders per pupil in the U.S., proving that strategic investments in teacher development and early literacy can yield impressive results even with limited resources.

The global learning crisis

Mississippi’s success is timely. Millions of children globally struggle to read by age 10. It’s a crisis that has worsened after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Mississippi’s early literacy interventions show lasting impact and offer a potential solution for other regions facing similar challenges.

In 2024, only 31% of U.S. fourth grade students were proficient or above in reading, according to the NAEP, while 40% were below basic. Reading scores for fourth and eighth graders also dropped by five points compared with 2019, with averages lower than any year since 2005.

Two students sit at a desk while they read books.
In 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th in fourth grade reading scores. Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images

Mississippi’s literacy program provides a learning gain equal to a year of schooling. The program costs US$15 million annually – 0.2% of the state budget in 2023 – and $32 per student.

The learning gain associated with the Mississippi program is equal to about an extra quarter of a year. Since each year of schooling raises earnings by about 9%, then a quarter-year gain means that Mississippi students benefiting from the program will increase future earnings by 2.25% a year.

Based on typical high school graduate earnings, the average student can expect to earn an extra $1,000 per year for the rest of their life.

That is, for every dollar Mississippi spends, the state gains about $32 in additional lifetime earnings, offering substantial long-term economic benefits compared with the initial cost.

The Mississippi literacy project focuses on teaching at the right level, which focuses on assessing children’s actual learning levels and then tailoring instruction to meet them, rather than strictly following age- or grade-level curriculum.

Teaching at the right level and a scripted lessons plan are among the most effective strategies to address the global learning crisis. After the World Bank reviewed over 150 education programs in 2020, nearly half showed no learning benefit.

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I believe Mississippi’s progress, despite being the second-poorest state, can serve as a wake-up call.

Harry Anthony Patrinos, Professor of Education Policy, University of Arkansas

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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This Mother’s Day, Give the Gift of Giving Back

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17451 detail intro image (Family Features) Celebrate Mom and other special women in your life with a Mother’s Day gift that makes a lasting impact for children. 17451 detail image embed1When you shop at UNICEF Market, you’re not only choosing beautifully hand-crafted artisanal gifts, but also supporting its efforts to keep children healthy, educated and safe across 190 countries and territories. A portion of every sale could provide safe water, enhance schools, supply essential services or protect infants from preventable diseases. Each item, from jewelry and apparel to homeware, is sourced from talented artisans who receive fair prices for their creations, strengthening their communities and supporting their families. In fact, the gifts give back three times over: They support artisans and help communities thrive, assist vulnerable children and make for thoughtful, compassionate Mother’s Day gifts. Choose a meaningful gift that honors the special women in your life while empowering children with the tools for a better future. Featured Gifts
  • Aqua Handblown Recycled Glass Carafe and Cup Set, ‘Delicate Aqua Add a touch of elegance to any space with this eco-friendly carafe and glass set, handblown from recycled glass by artisans in Mexico. Perfect for your home office or bedside table, it’s a beautiful and practical way to support sustainability.
  • Handmade Artisan Jewelry Choose from a stunning collection of handmade jewelry crafted by artisans from around the world, including first-edition Beads of Hope Bracelets from Guatemala. From modern designs to timeless elegance, each piece tells a story of cultural heritage and artistry.
  • Unique Home Decor Bring a global touch to your home with handcrafted decor from Africa, Latin America and Asia. Whether it’s a rustic accent, a Peruvian rug or an African sculpture, these pieces can add character and charm to any room.
Inspired Gifts for Moms and Babies
    • For a gift that truly gives back, consider
UNICEF’s Inspired Gifts
    • . These donations support life-saving programs and can be sent via email or printed as a card. Perfect for those who have it all, these gifts honor the special women in your life while supporting children across the globe.
 
  • Mom and Baby Care Ensure the safety and well-being of both mother and baby with a package that includes essential medications for a smooth and safe delivery. This gift directly supports the health of moms and babies in need.
  • Bundle of Hope Your donation can provide children with the essential tools for learning and growing: clean water, soap, exercise books, pencils, vaccines and therapeutic food. This gift helps ensure all children have the resources they need for healthy, productive futures.
This Mother’s Day, celebrate moms and children around the world with a gift that keeps on giving by visiting market.unicefusa.org.   collect?v=1&tid=UA 482330 7&cid=1955551e 1975 5e52 0cdb 8516071094cd&sc=start&t=pageview&dl=http%3A%2F%2Ftrack.familyfeatures SOURCE: UNICEF

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  • Rod Washington

    Rod: A creative force, blending words, images, and flavors. Blogger, writer, filmmaker, and photographer. Cooking enthusiast with a sci-fi vision. Passionate about his upcoming series and dedicated to TNC Network. Partnered with Rebecca Washington for a shared journey of love and art.

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Why history instruction is critical for combating online misinformation

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Students ask questions during a social studies class on American politics. AP Photo/John Minchillo
Lightning Jay, Binghamton University, State University of New York Can you tell fact from fiction online? In a digital world, few questions are more important or more challenging. For years, some commentators have called for K-12 teachers to take on fake news, media literacy, or online misinformation by doubling down on critical thinking. This push for schools to do a better job preparing young people to differentiate between low- and high-quality information often focuses on social studies classes. As an education researcher and former high school history teacher, I know that there’s both good and bad news about combating misinformation in the classroom. History class can cultivate critical thinking – but only if teachers and schools understand what critical thinking really means.

Not just a ‘skill’

First, the bad news. When people demand that schools teach critical thinking, it’s not always clear what they mean. Some might consider critical thinking a trait or capacity that teachers can encourage, like creativity or grit. They could believe that critical thinking is a mindset: a habit of being curious, skeptical and reflective. Or they might be referring to specific skills – for instance, that students should learn a set of steps to take to assess information online. Unfortunately, cognitive science research has shown that critical thinking is not an abstract quality or practice that can be developed on its own. Cognitive scientists see critical thinking as a specific kind of reasoning that involves problem-solving and making sound judgments. It can be learned, but it relies on specific content knowledge and does not necessarily transfer between fields. Early studies on chess players and physicists in the 1970s and ’80s helped show how the kind of flexible and reflective cognition often called critical thinking is really a product of expertise. Chess masters, for instance, do not start out with innate talent. In most cases, they gain expertise by hours of thoughtfully playing the game. This deliberate practice helps them recognize patterns and think in novel ways about chess. Chess masters’ critical thinking is a product of learning, not a precursor.
Two young women sit at a table with a chess board between them, and other pairs of players at tables in the background.
Nurman Alua of Kazakhstan, left, and Lee Alice of the U.S. during the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, on Sept. 22, 2024. AP Photo/Denes Erdos
Because critical thinking develops in specific contexts, it does not necessarily transfer to other types of problem-solving. For example, chess advocates might hope the game improves players’ intelligence, and studies do suggest learning chess may help elementary students with the kind of pattern recognition they need for early math lessons. However, research has found that being a great chess player does not make people better at other kinds of complex critical thinking.

Historical thinking

Since context is key to critical thinking, learning to analyze information about current events likely requires knowledge about politics and history, as well as practice at scrutinizing sources. Fortunately, that is what social studies classes are for. Social studies researchers often describe this kind of critical thinking as “historical thinking”: a way to evaluate evidence about the past and assess its reliability. My own research has shown that high school students can make relatively quick progress on some of the surface features of historical thinking, such as learning to check a text’s date and author. But the deep questioning involved in true historical thinking is much harder to learn. Social studies classrooms can also build what researchers call “civic online reasoning.” Fact-checking is complex work. It is not enough to tell young people that they should be wary online, or to trust sites that end in “.org” instead of “.com.” Rather than learning general principles about online media, civic online reasoning teaches students specific skills for evaluating information about politics and social issues. Still, learning to think like a historian does not necessarily prepare someone to be a skeptical news consumer. Indeed, a recent study found that professional historians performed worse than professional fact-checkers at identifying online misinformation. The misinformation tasks the historians struggled with focused on issues such as bullying or the minimum wage – areas where they possessed little expertise.

Powerful knowledge

That’s where background knowledge comes in – and the good news is that social studies can build it. All literacy relies on what readers already know. For people wading through political information and news, knowledge about history and civics is like a key in the ignition for their analytical skills. Readers without much historical knowledge may miss clues that something isn’t right – signs that they need to scrutinize the source more closely. Political misinformation often weaponizes historical falsehoods, such as the debunked and recalled Christian nationalist book claiming that Thomas Jefferson did not believe in a separation of church and state, or claims that the nadir of African American life came during Reconstruction, not slavery. Those claims are extreme, but politicians and policymakers repeat them. For someone who knows basic facts about American history, those claims won’t sit right. Background knowledge will trigger their skepticism and kick critical thinking into gear.
A sunny classroom full of students at long tables, with a female teacher in a dress pacing in front as she talks.
A teacher in North Carolina conducts a lesson about the D-Day invasion of Normandy in an Advanced Placement class. AP Photo/Gerry Broome

Past, present, future

For this reason, the best approach to media literacy will come through teaching that fosters concrete skills alongside historical knowledge. In short, the new knowledge crisis points to the importance of the traditional social studies classroom. But it’s a tenuous moment for history education. The Bush- and Obama-era emphasis on math and English testing resulted in decreased instructional time in history classes, particularly in elementary and middle schools. In one 2005 study, 27% of schools reported reducing social studies time in favor of subjects on state exams. Now, history teachers are feeling heat from politically motivated culture wars over education that target teaching about racism and LGBTQ+ issues and that ban books from libraries and classrooms. Two-thirds of instructors say that they’ve limited classroom discussions about social and political topics. Attempts to limit students’ knowledge about the past imperil their chances of being able to think critically about new information. These attacks are not just assaults on the history of the country; they are attempts to control its future. Lightning Jay, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership, Binghamton University, State University of New York This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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