This week in education news, students chalk up three times the learning gains in classrooms with the most effective teachers; virtual reality can be a powerful tool for improving environmental learning gains and attitudes; new report finds climate change may have a more permanent, major impact on the future of learning; a key method to support skill development without taking away content time is to embed supports; new survey reveals that two in 10 teachers said their students are not taught any computer science; and for co-teaching to work, teachers need time, training, and resources to effectively integrate their distinct instructional expertise; and managers have a hard time hiring and keeping millennials.

Using Teacher-Leaders to Improve Schools

Edgecombe County Public Schools in rural North Carolina has long had trouble filling all of its open teaching positions. Historically, there just hasn’t been enough interest among qualified candidates. But that’s changing. Read the article featured in The Hechinger Report.

Virtual Reality Could Serve as Powerful Environmental Education Tool

Utter the words “ocean acidification” in mixed company, and you’ll probably get blank stares. Although climate change has grown steadily in the public consciousness, one of its most insidious impacts – a widespread die-off of marine ecosystems driven by carbon dioxide emissions – remains relatively unknown. Enter virtual reality. Read the article featured in Science Daily.

Report: Climate Change and Migration Will Impact the Future of Schools

Raging wildfires in California and devastating hurricanes along the Atlantic seaboard have sent school officials scrambling to resolve immediate problems, such as repairing infrastructure and finding new schools for displaced students. Longer term, climate change may have a more permanent, major impact on the future of learning, according to a new report. Read the article featured in EdSurge.

TIME’s 2018 Person of the Year? How About the American Teacher?

In American education, 2018 has been the year of the teacher. It was this year that long-timid American teachers stood up by the tens of thousands in a handful of states to strike for better pay and for more funding for sorely under-resourced schools. The strikes were largely in Republican-led states, and led by teachers rather than their unions. They followed years of plummeting morale among teachers because of what they saw as oppressive federal and state policies targeting them and their profession. Read the article featured in the Washington Post.

Supporting Literacy in the Science Classroom

Written and spoken language play a significant role in all classes. But if you’re trained as a science teacher, how do you support literacy development without losing content time for science? Read the article featured in edutopia.

In a New Survey, Teachers Say There’s a Disconnect in Computer Science Education

Is there a disconnect in current efforts to teach computer science? Some teachers think so. In a new survey, 88 percent of teacher respondents said they believe computer science is critical for students’ success in the workplace—but two in 10 teachers said their students aren’t taught any computer science. Read the article featured in EdSurge.

What It Takes to Make Co-Teaching Work

In Lauren Eisinger and Kara Houppert’s co-taught 5th grade classroom, every instructional choice requires a lot of planning. When Eisinger, a special education teacher at Naples Elementary School in upstate New York, and Houppert, a 5th grade teacher, wanted to start a class book club last year, they knew they would have to think creatively to accommodate reading levels spanning 2nd to 6th grades. Read the article featured in Education Week.

K-12 Students Should be Taught Climate Science, Teachers’ Association Says

Teachers across the country have no qualms explaining the facts of physics or chemistry. And, according to the National Science Teachers Association, climate change should not be any different. Read the article featured in YALE Climate Connections.

Millennial Teachers: Things to Consider in Trying to Recruit and Retain Them

Managers in many professions—including those working for school systems—share a common topic of complaint these days: challenges around hiring and keeping millennials. That generation, generally defined as those born between 1981 and 1996, has been stereotyped unflatteringly as self-absorbed, entitled, and obsessed with technology to an unhealthy extent. The group also makes up large proportion of today’s eligible workforce. Read the article featured in Education Week.

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

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