TOP TASKS

Fight for immediate academic solutions that meet the size of the crisis

The latest NAEP long-term trends report has a similar tune to previous releases: America’s students are in a crisis that persists, despite the historic $190 billion of emergency funding to schools.

But don’t take our word for it. Here’s The 74 Million: “COVID-19’s cataclysmic impact on K–12 education, coming on the heels of a decade of stagnation in schools, has yielded a lost generation of growth for adolescents.”

And The Washington Post: “No signs of academic recovery since the pandemic… Hardest hit were the lowest-performing students. In math, their scores showed declines of 12 to 14 points, while their highest-performing peers fell just six points. The pattern for reading was similar, with lowest performers seeing twice the decline of the highest ones.”

Black students were particularly hard hit by these declines. Their losses in math mean that nearly four decades of growth have been erased. In reading, they are now a full year of learning behind their Hispanic peers.That means that at the same time overall achievement is dropping, the achievement gap is increasing. In 2012, the gap between white and Black students stood at 23 points in reading and 29 points in math. Now, that gap has grown to 27 points in reading and 42 points in math.

Scale tutoring to address the size of learning loss

In early 2021 50CAN released a policy memo, “Tutoring as an Emergency Response and Recovery Strategy.” Within the memo we wrote, “Tutoring is one of the few educational strategies that we know works for almost all kids in a variety of implementation approaches.”

Last month, we shared news of an exciting partnership between Louisiana Kids Matter and Accelerate to bring high-dosage tutoring to five pilot districts throughout the state. Executive Director Kelli Bottger isn’t waiting around, however: “Look, the needs of our students are so great at this point in time. Tutoring is going to be meaningful for students in five of Louisiana’s districts, but I kept asking myself: ‘What about the other 65 districts?’”

The solution was SB177, a bill that Kelli worked on with leaders in the Senate that would expand high-dosage tutoring to every school in the state. The bill requires local school districts to place students in groups of five or less for 30 minutes of tutoring, at least three days a week, encouraging districts to utilize the $2.4 billion of unspent ESSER dollars to fund the intervention, mirroring the Accelerate pilot at a considerably greater scale.

As she pushed the bill forward, Kelli quickly realized it could become a signature, bipartisan victory for the legislature. More Democrats had co-sponsored the bill than Republicans and there was agreement not only on tutoring as an effective intervention, but also on the urgency of passing legislation.

As a result, the bill passed both the Senate and House with unanimous support. In the current political climate and with the prominent role education plays in it, this is a sterling example of what can happen when we put politics aside and work together to bring solutions to the challenges our children face.

“With the latest release of NAEP long-term trend reports, we know that the challenges students are experiencing are persistent. The entire system needs to realize that students aren’t going to recover from historic learning loss without a historic response and interventions,” Kelli shared. “The unanimous passage of this bill is a sign that in Louisiana, we’re up to this challenge.”

Key Resources

Nicole Stelle Garnett and Michael McShane share four lessons on ESA implementation in The 74 Million, noting that after passage, the hard work has just begun.

EdWeek looks at advances in applying artificial intelligence to instructional coaching for both teachers and tutors, noting both the potential and the implementation challenges.

AEI makes the conservative case for cross-district, open enrollment in public schools, arguing that the abolishment of government-imposed boundary lines is the next step toward realizing Friedman’s vision.

EdSurge reports on a pilot between American University and Washington DC Public Schools that requires teacher preparation candidates to complete 40 hours of paid tutoring, an approach that could play a role to bring tutoring to the necessary scale.

Brookings finds that despite Latino students representing a quarter of the US student population, textbooks are neither broad nor deep enough in their coverage of seminal historical topics with respect to the Hispanic experience.

The US Department of Education, Carnegie Corporation and Overdeck Foundation are hosting a virtual event tomorrow at 1 pm ET on supporting early literacy and school success through family engagement.