This week in education news, fewer foreign students are choosing to study at U.S. universities; Alaska school district grows fresh food for school lunch program and supports local employment; Missouri Governor signs STEM education and computer science bill; to become readers, kids need to learn how the words they know how to say connect to print on the page; new analysis unveils that several states don’t consider teacher effectiveness in layoffs; and school leaders must create schools that empower teachers to grow and have meaningful collaboration.

Why Foreign Students Diverting From America Is A Problem

All the media attention these days around global trade tensions is missing a potentially longer-lasting looming danger to U.S. competitiveness: Fewer of the world’s “best and brightest” are choosing to study at U.S. universities. Read the article featured in Forbes magazine.

Alaska School District Grows Fresh Food And Supports Local Employment

At a few remote Alaska schools, produce ranging from tomatoes and squash to bok choy and cilantro is grown in greenhouses heated by wood-fired boilers. This provides fresh greens and vegetables for the school lunch program in communities where some residents have to drive two hours, one way, to the nearest grocery store. Southeast Island School District’s initiative has also increased employment for the remote communities it serves on Prince of Wales Island. The district hires local citizens and high school students to stoke the boilers during the long winter months. Read the article featured in District Administration.

Parson Signs STEM Education And Computer Science Bill

On Tuesday, Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed into law House Bill 3 at Grand Center Arts Academy in St. Louis and at Poplar Bluff High School in Poplar Bluff. Passed during a special legislative session called by the Governor in September, HB 3 deals with computer science, expanding course opportunities for high school students, creating a certification process for teachers, establishing a fund for any future public and private financial support, and developing curriculum standards. Read the article featured in The Missouri Times.

Tell Washington And The Universities That Innovation Takes More Than STEM

Presidents and professors, business leaders and tech billionaires have all stressed the need for innovation. They are right. Especially in a globalized world, this country needs to innovate continually in order to compete and maintain high living standards. These advocates almost always also claim that the innovation effort depends on getting more people into STEM subjects. In this, they are only partially right. STEM is necessary for innovation but seldom sufficient. Read the article featured in Forbes magazine.

Why Are We Still Teaching Reading The Wrong Way?

Our children aren’t being taught to read in ways that line up with what scientists have discovered about how people actually learn. It’s a problem that has been hiding in plain sight for decades. Read the article featured in The New York Times.

NCTQ: Many States Don’t Consider Teacher Effectiveness In Layoffs, Dismissals

Fewer than half of states require school districts to use teacher effectiveness data in decisions to dismiss teachers or issue layoffs, according to a new analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality. Read the brief featured in Education DIVE.

Can We Design Schools Where Teachers And Students Thrive?

In order to fully support teachers as they mold students into tomorrow’s innovators, school leaders must create schools that empower teachers to grow and have meaningful collaboration, according to a new report from 100Kin10. Read the article featured in eSchool News.

In America’s Science Classroom, The Creep Of Climate Skepticism

Steve Vernon lives with his wife in a meticulously manicured country club community secured by watchmen in guard booths. He is also a leader of the Florida Citizens’ Alliance, a conservative, 20,000-member organization based in Naples that spearheaded a successful grassroots effort last year to pass the nation’s first state bill allowing residents to demand a public hearing on local school textbooks. With its passage, parents of students — as well as anyone living in a given district — can challenge the books a school is using to teach their community’s children. It was a seemingly parochial piece of civic legislation, but it was one with potentially great implications for science education in the United States. Read the article featured in Undark magazine.

New Report Says ‘Citizen Science’ Can Support Both Science Learning and Research Goals; Inequities In Education, Opportunities, And Resources Must Be Addressed To Meet Participants’ Learning Demands

Scientific research that involves nonscientists contributing to research processes – also known as ‘citizen science’ – supports participants’ learning, engages the public in science, contributes to community scientific literacy, and can serve as a valuable tool to facilitate larger scale research, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Read the press release by the National Academies.

The Importance Of Choice In PD

Despite coming to the profession with possible natural instinct and high-quality learning from their teacher programs, our most talented and dedicated teachers starve without continued education. Learning is their fuel. Read the article featured in Edutopia.

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

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