Elevating the role of the educator
The TV series “Abbott Elementary” features dedicated teachers committed to the success of their students despite the challenges of their underfunded school. The mockumentary showcases all that is broken in public education and the alarming need for change.
Both the show and ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College’s response to this urgent need are featured in The 74, a website focused on education news in America. MLFTC launched its Next Education Workforce initiative to redesign education for both students and teachers. The initiative works with schools and other partners to 1) provide all students with deeper and personalized learning by building teams of educators with distributed expertise and 2) empower educators by developing new opportunities for role-based specialization and advancement. The initiative has been embraced by Arizona’s Mesa Public School District, the largest in the state.
MLFTC’s approach “would require support from entire communities to get off the ground but could bring many more talented people into the classroom,” writes Victoria Van Cleef, executive vice president at TNTP, a national nonprofit that helps school systems across the country end educational inequality and achieve their goals for students.