💡Missouri Policy Spotlight: Teacher Career Ladders | 📰 Science Notes in the News
August 8, 2022
In this week's Missouri Policy Spotlight, MOST Education & Workforce Development Fellow, Dr. Alan Moss, talks about teacher pay and the recent budget appropriations for Missouri's Teacher Career Ladder Program.
Come meet the MOST Policy Initiative team in St. Louis!
The Young Friends of Missouri Cures is hosting a meet-and-greet later this week at Spine Bookstore & Cafe in St. Louis, Missouri. MOST Policy Fellows will are excited to meet young community leaders and share about their experiences working in science policy.
A multi-year report analyzing maternal mortality in Missouri and published Monday found that women on Medicaid are eight times more likely to die within one year of pregnancy than their counterparts with private health insurance. It also found Black women in Missouri were three times more likely to die within a year of pregnancy than white women.
Science Note: Maternal Mortality & Health Disparities
The Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Food Insecure Urban Agriculture Matching Grant will award up to $50,000 to nine urban farms who are helping to address food insecurity in their communities. The grant is significantly higher than in previous years, signaling that lawmakers and the Department of Agriculture are making food insecurity a priority. Yet while the department aims to help urban farmers grow their businesses, some farmers say the matching funds and other requirements push the grant out of reach.
Teachers, school administrators and advocacy groups on Wednesday laid out for a state commission a long list of grueling conditions they say drive educators out of the industry. At the third meeting of the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Blue Ribbon Commission — created by the State Board of Education — testimony focused on low pay, oppressive student debt and a lack of support for struggling teachers who have weathered the pandemic.
Applications for our Executive Policy Fellowship continue to be accepted on a rolling basis. MOST Executive Policy Fellows assist state agencies with incorporating data management, analysis, visualization, and integration practices to improve program design and implementation according to agency priorities. Executive Policy Fellows also have opportunities to build policy-relevant skills by participating in professional development activities hosted by MOST and by contributing additional capacity to team projects as appropriate.
We are currently seeking candidates that have (or will have) a terminal degree (M.S./M.A. or above) in data science, computer science, systems engineering, or a related field (e.g., operations management), or have completed a terminal degree in another discipline that required extensive data analysis. Do you know someone who would be a good fit? Additional application materials can be found at https://mostpolicyinitiative.org/about/fellows/apply/.
Calling scientists and engineers interested in policy writing experience!
We are seeking members of a Community Science Note Editorial Board who can assist in writing and reviewing science notes for a variety of settings, including general information, responses to public comment opportunities, and in advance of public hearings. We request that writers and editors have scientific training such as advanced degrees and/or extensive research experience.
