In this week’s Education News Roundup, USA Today takes a look at salaries and housing costs for teachers; Education Week examines how to make teacher leadership roles more effective; some women engineers you should know, and more.

Women Engineers You Should Know

There are many women engineers whose lives, careers, and achievements might go unnoticed – yet each has a compelling, dynamic, and thought-provoking story. To celebrate their contributions and lives, SWE Magazine reached out on SWE’s social media channels, asking “Who are the women engineers we should know?” Read the story featured in SWE Magazine.

Charters were supposed to save public education. Why are Americans turning against them?

The vanguard of this unrest is organized teachers, political progressives and public education activists. Yet public opinion, even if it is moving more slowly, is tilting in the same direction. According to the school-choice-favoring EdNext Poll, support for charters slipped noticeably in 2017. Though it rebounded a bit in 2018, it did so mainly among Republicans, with “only 36 percent of Democrats now supporting their formation” — a phenomenon likely due to the polarizing influence of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The most recent polling on charters in Los Angeles County found that 75 percent of residents favor “improving the existing public schools” over pursuing “additional charter school options.” Read the story featured in The Washington Post.

Science News: Increase in Education Specialists In University Science Departments

Science professors go through years of training to learn about their field, yet they often don’t receive any formal education in how to teach students about it. A new study takes a decade-long look at one way that science departments in the California State University (CSU) system are trying to amend that by bringing faculty with educational expertise into the fold. Read the story featured in Science Daily.

Can’t pay Their Bills With Love–In Many Teaching Jobs, Teachers’ Salaries Can’t Cover Rent

New teachers can’t afford the median rent almost anywhere in the U.S, the analysis shows.  But that’s not the full story.  Despite widespread demand for higher salaries, teachers in some regions are actually making ends meet, especially as they approach the middle of their careers.  In other areas, mid-career teachers are right to say they can’t afford to live on their salaries without picking up side hustles or commuting long distances. Some of those places are only affordable for the very highest-paid teachers. And then there are places that no teacher can afford, no matter how much they earn. Read the story featured in USA Today.

How Can States and Districts Make Teacher-Leadership Roles More Effective?

This form of professional learning—in which an accomplished teacher is given instructional leadership responsibilities while still remaining in the classroom—has become popular in many places, but there is a lack of explicit guidance on how to build this capacity. Read the story featured in Education Week.

Limiting Science Education: Limiting Ourselves

We’ve landed men on the moon, mapped out our genomes, and split atoms, but for the past 20 years, nobody knew why two grapes produced plasma in a microwave. Energy is conserved. Carbon’s atomic number is six. The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell … Throughout my entire high school career, I’ve heard all of these facts presented to me, but never once have I felt as intrigued as I have from this bizarre phenomenon. Welcome to the world of high school science education. This essay, by James Chan, age 17, is one of the Top 12 winners of the New York Times Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest. Read the story featured in The New York Times.

New Science Standards Approved For Utah Students after Five Hours of Debate

The Utah State School Board approved new science standards last week, the first updates in science standards in high school biology, chemistry and physics since 2002, and in Earth science since 2012. It is also the first update of science standards for kindergarten through second grade since 2010. Read the story featured on KSL TV website.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.