Without decisive state expectations and action on remote learning, student learning will suffer: That’s the message from a new analysis of state reopening plans by CRPE (the Center for Reinventing Public Education) and Public Impact. Our just-released database of state reopening plans and accompanying blog post highlight the need for state action now, before it’s too late.

As CRPE’s Ashley Jochim and Public Impact’s Bryan C. Hassel and Beth Clifford detail, state recommendations focus more on the logistics of reopening than on what matters most—student learning. As the authors write, the “absence of clear expectations is certain to contribute to inequities across school and district responses.”

They call for states to address the gaps in learning caused by school closures in the spring, avert a worsening educational crisis, and help districts manage their pandemic-created challenges.

The database shows that:

• Only 15 states require districts to plan for remote learning, even though increasing numbers of districts plan to start the year online. State plans generally lack both clear expectations for implementation and schedules for monitoring progress and closing gaps.
• Less than half of states require districts to submit a plan for in-person or hybrid reopening, and only one in four states outline a clear process to review the plans.
• Despite a few promising examples, many states are failing to lead the way on closing the digital divide. Based on rapidly changing data, approximately 38 states’ written plans address device access and connectivity, but more than half of those plans leave responsibility for digital access to districts.
• Only five states require districts to assess student learning needs this fall, and only seven require them to implement strategies for accelerating learning or addressing learning loss.
• Of states requiring remote learning plans, only 11 states require specific practices to support students with disabilities and only seven do so for English language learners.

How does your state stack up? Check the database.

At a minimum, the authors say, states must establish ambitious expectations for teaching and student learning in all settings, clarify how those expectations can be met with remote learning, work rapidly to close gaps in access to devices and internet connectivity, and monitor local efforts in these areas so states can step in when districts are falling short.

States can set expectations for districts, they note, without encroaching on local control. Rhode Island, for example, requires districts to show comparable rigor for online and in-person instruction, while California’s legislature enacted remote learning requirements to address gaps during the spring at-home instruction.

“If states don’t quickly provide more direction on the core work of schools—teaching and learning—the most vulnerable students will pay the price in lost learning,” said Bryan C. Hassel, co-president of Public Impact. “But it’s not too late. Decisive action now could change the trajectory of millions of students.”

CRPE and Public Impact will release more analyses in the coming weeks, including in-depth looks at state virtual instructional platforms, how states are tapping stimulus dollars, statewide supports for teachers, and statewide instructional policies.

“Student learning is an afterthought in many state reopening plans; that’s a huge mistake”

We’ve been working with the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) to create a database of all states’ reopening plans, accompanied by a series of briefs and analyses. The database will be published soon. Meanwhile, a new blog by CRPE’s Ashley Jochim and Georgia Heyward and Public Impact’s Beth Clifford provides a peek at the early findings.

“CRPE and Public Impact are wrapping up our review of state reopening plans. If first impressions portend what’s to come, there are big reasons to be concerned,” the authors write.

What’s missing in the plans? While they provide a needed focus on protecting the health of students and staff, they let students down by failing to provide an equal focus on student learning.

“The enormity of this moment is why it is so essential that states step in now to ensure that districts offer students meaningful opportunities to learn—whether in-person, in a blended model or remotely. If states allow logistical considerations to crowd out everything else, they will place the most vulnerable students at risk of even greater learning loss in 2020–21,” the authors say.

See the full post here, and we’ll be back in your inbox soon with the full database and further analyses.

Comparing some specific state strategies

Alongside our work with CRPE, we responded to a request from Bluum, a nonprofit helping cultivate great school leaders and innovative schools in Idaho, to look at state strategies on some specific issues for reopening schools. Initially intended for policymakers and school leaders in Idaho, Bluum decided to post our working draft for wider sharing. Based on a review of national media, third-party reports, and a select number of state plans chosen based on their similarities to Idaho, the document looks at such questions as:

• whether and how states are allowing districts to measure “attendance” in new ways during remote learning,
• what flexibilities states are granting to districts on teacher evaluation, licensure, or certain state funds,
• how states are addressing technology needs,
• and more. We’ll continue to update the document as we get more information.

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The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are the tip of a mammoth iceberg of racial injustice in our nation.

Behind these three injustices are millions of others, large and small, that, when unaddressed, leave those in power unchecked and emboldened to perpetuate more. As loud as the shouting of protestors may be right now, the sound of silence at the routine, everyday wrongs is the most deafening.

When a Black man in his own yard is assumed to be an intruder. When a birdwatcher is threatened for politely asking a white woman to follow park rules. When a shopper is followed around the store because of the color of her skin. When the promotion goes elsewhere, the pay is lower, and the police baton is wielded sooner. None of these are due to the actions of the victims, but all because of their race. This isn’t just unfair: It’s systematic, psychological warfare.

All of us at Public Impact are grieving with loss and sickened by all of this.

So, what will we do? Our commitment and resolve to fight injustice are only strengthened by current events, and we stand with the many partner organizations making and bolstering these same commitments.

Internally, we will continue to: hold routine, intentional conversations that address racism head on; review and correct policies and management actions for bias, racism, and unfairness; and seek and support a diverse workforce in their professional success. We commit to making improvements every year, knowing we can always do more, and should. We commit to continuing to work toward being an anti-racist organization by ensuring that all team members understand the history of racism in American education, holding ourselves accountable to people of color, and empowering people of color.

Externally, we will continue to make Public Impact’s mission the focus of our time and energies: to improve education dramatically for all students, especially low-income students, students of color, and other students whose needs historically have not been well met. We will continue to partner with educators to achieve this mission. We will improve our work to combat racism within schools and to promote a more equitable, safe, and joyful education system and world for all students. We will share materials our team has developed to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion with other organizations in the field, and seek their wisdom, too.

But we and other education reform organizations must acknowledge that the disparities affecting Black people in our country occur regardless of education levels. Therefore, we also stand with the Black community and others demanding broader, dramatic changes for justice, accountability, equity, and the opportunity to live free from fear. We commit to continuing to do the work of reflecting on our own role in dismantling racism and speaking up more often.

We commit to working with our past, current, and future colleagues in the field for systemic change, knowing that single organizations and political leaders have not achieved the transformation needed to stop racial violence and discrimination.

With grief, anger, and hearts hungry for change,

Public Impact