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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
National
New Trump Adviser Has Advocated for Charters, Changes to Teacher-Labor Rules
The state director of the Maryland Campaign for Achievement Now, an organization that advocates for charter schools and the use of student achievement in teacher and school accountability, has joined the Trump administration as an adviser on education issues. (Education Week)
6-Year-Old Girls Already Have Gendered Beliefs About Intelligence
“There are lots of people at the place where I work, but there is one person who is really special. This person is really, really smart,” said Lin Bian. “This person figures out how to do things quickly and comes up with answers much faster and better than anyone else. This person is really, really smart.” (The Atlantic)
The 10 Best/Worst States For Teachers 2017
Teachers are one of the most common jobs in America. Additionally, a significant number of people work as teachers in every state in the union — it’s not like they are all just concentrated in California or the South. Since teachers are such a prominent occupation, we at Zippia wanted to look at where teachers have it the best: where there are plenty of jobs to go around, and people get paid what they deserve during every phase of their career. (Zippia)
State
South Carolina
Advocates tout the benefits of school choice
Pastor and school administrator Martha Evans works with students in a struggling Greenville community. But Evans struggles herself to keep the lights on and water running at her facility, Resurrected Treasure Christian Learning Center on White Horse Road. That’s why her school is one of more than 20,000 nationwide observing National School Choice Week, Jan. 22-28. (Greenville Online)
Tennessee
Tennessee already has one state-run school district. It’s about to get another.
Last fall, the Tennessee State Board of Education overruled school leaders in Memphis to approve a new charter school there, one year after making a similar ruling in a charter school appeal in Nashville. Now it’s about to become one of only two state boards in the nation to double as a local school district. (Chalkbeat)
Rhode Island
Making an environment where teachers can create bespoke lessons
In their transition to using more personalized learning, the Bristol-Warren Regional School District in Rhode Island made professional development a priority. Located southeast of Providence, this district of 3,500 students and about 300 teachers created a plan that included cooperation with other school districts to help prepare and train teachers in how to use digital tools to create custom-fit lessons for children. They learn on the job, with the help of teacher-leaders who provide real-life examples of how personalized learning works in the classroom. (Hechinger Report)