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Dear John,

It is week 222 in our new reality and we have some good news and some bad news.

We will start with the bad news. According to a new analysis from the Education Recovery Scorecard ([link removed]) , four years after the school closures of 2020 most US students have still not recovered academically.

The good news? The same analysis shows that there are investments in students that are getting results.

These investments “helped students gain some academic ground and made the biggest difference for the nation’s poorest schools,” writes ([link removed]) Matt Barnum in the Wall Street Journal. At the same time, not all of the money has been well-spent. “Eric Hanushek—an education researcher at the Hoover Institution, a conservative-leaning, Stanford University-based think tank—said the results of Covid spending have been underwhelming,” Barnum writes. “Some schools might have spent the money well, but others failed to give priority to academic recovery.”

The chart below on math achievement tells the story. All schools experienced declines in learning (light gray lines), but high-poverty schools had the biggest drops. There has been a partial recovery since then (light purple lines), with a key portion of this recovery driven by investments in programs like tutoring and summer learning (dark purple lines).

Where do we go from here?

The first step is to be clear about our goal: we can’t accept anything less than full academic recovery.

That means doubling down on the programs that are working and relentlessly advocating that money be effectively targeted in support of student needs.

One reason for hope is the evidence of just how successful we can be in advocating for these programs when we bring educators, researchers, advocates and public officials together around proven initiatives that get results.

We have seen this at 50CAN first hand through our Build initiative ([link removed]) , which helps programs like Summer Boost ([link removed]) catch kids up by dramatically expanding opportunities for summer learning. We have also seen incredible success in our advocacy campaigns, which since 2020 have secured more than 100 policy wins and hundreds of millions of dollars of new investments in programs like high-dosage tutoring. All this work is not only helping the Covid Generation recover what they have lost but is putting in place a new approach to learning that will ensure a better education system for the generations to come.

There has never been a more important time to Believe in Better ([link removed]) through educational entrepreneurship and educational advocacy and there has never been more at stake in ensuring we succeed in our push for educational transformation.

Last week ([link removed]) , we looked at the important role of summer in getting kids back on track, including new data on the impact of the Summer Boost program. This week, we’ve got exciting new updates on AdvocacyLabs and work across the network to expand tutoring programs.

Best,

Marc Porter Magee, PhD
50CAN Founder and CEO

@marcportermagee ([link removed])

Learn from campaigns for tutoring and the science of advocacy

“With federal ESSER dollars set to expire, now is the moment to make the case for using ongoing state, federal and local dollars to continue and expand tutoring,” FutureEd’s Liz Cohen stated as she introduced a panel last week that featured 50CAN’s Marc Porter Magee, JerseyCAN’s Paula White, TennesseeeCAN’s Chelsea Crawford and the National Student Support Accelerator’s Prof. Suzanna Loeb discussing the advocacy needed to make that a reality.
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The webinar ([link removed]) also featured the first look at The AdvocacyLabs Guide to the Science of Advocacy, a new book by Marc Porter Magee that 50CAN and FutureEd will be releasing this summer. It brings all of the AdvocacyLabs research of the past four years together into a comprehensive set of 31 lessons.

The panel considered the lessons presented in the new book in the context of their states, with particular time spent on a core messaging lesson: begin with betrayal.

“We had to drive home the betrayal that came halfway through the process to establish a tutoring corps,” Paula White reflected. “JerseyCAN was responsible for getting the first million dollars in the state budget for tutoring and then $10 million dollars after that. The Governor said they were going to get millions out to districts for tutoring, and then they botched it. They created a cumbersome process … they were three months behind on getting tutoring dollars out the door. Are you kidding me? We have millions of dollars sitting there and we’ve been betrayed by our government because of bureaucratic nonsense that’s holding up money kids need. Time is of the essence. And that message has really resonated on the ground.”
* The task this week is to watch ([link removed]) the panel discussion and ask how the lessons presented can strengthen our collective efforts to make access to tutoring available to every student.


With more progress needed on the learning loss crisis, especially for the country’s low income students, advocates should consider changing tactics as fiscal and legislative barriers arise. Switching up tactics with innovative new approaches can make the difference in an advocacy campaign, and that’s the topic of our final AdvocacyLabs video featuring 50CAN President Derrell Bradford. In this last episode, Derrell looks at a historic fight that begins with Walt Disney and the Sierra Club and ends in the 1978 National Parks and Recreation Act.

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Derrell Bradford in "AdvocacyLabs: How to Change the World"

If you’ve missed previous episodes in this series, we invite you to watch and share the full playlist ([link removed]) .
* The task this week is to share the full series ([link removed]) of AdvocacyLabs videos on social media and throughout your organizations, both inside and outside the education sector.


DelawareCAN delivered for charter schools last week, with legislation clearing both the House and the Senate and heading to the Governor’s desk. Bill SB311 ([link removed]) protects unlicensed charter school leaders while also providing a new, alternative pathway to licensure for new leaders, after local charter opposition groups attempted to use the Attorney General’s office to fire educators based on an interpretation of a 1994 regulation.

GeorgiaCAN celebrated the end of the 2023-2024 Parent Fellow class, putting together an inspiring slideshow of the work these parent advocates took on over the last twelve months.

50CAN President Derrell Bradford appeared ([link removed]) on Ravi Gupta’s podcast, Education Revolution, to discuss education policy in the midst of a chaotic presidential election cycle.

JerseyCAN is thankful for the role their parent advocates are playing in speaking truth to elected leaders and demanding change. With four bills to improve literacy teaching and learning now being considered by lawmakers, parent Dawn De Lorenzo testified alongside Executive Director Paula White, sharing more about her experience on Facebook.

States are failing to give students the math opportunities they need, says ([link removed]) Chad Aldeman at Edu Progress, as he tracks a 10% decline over the past decade in 8th graders enrolled in algebra.

Marty West calls ([link removed]) for new approaches to civics and US History education in Education Next.

Peg Tyre, writing ([link removed]) for FutureEd, argues against shutting selective enrollment high schools and the scarcity mindset it represents.

The 74 Million features ([link removed]) Kerry McDonald sharing how Maine is currently in the midst of a microschooling renaissance that’s bringing new founders and new models to the Pine Tree State.

Brookings suggests ([link removed]) that the talent pipeline for growing tutoring programs already exists on the campuses of the country’s universities and that there’s an opportunity in new tutoring work-study programs that hold appeal to first generation college attendees.

Fordham analyzes ([link removed]) a new study that finds statistically significant progress in reading for K-2 students who engaged with virtual tutoring platforms, showing that tutoring works even for our youngest learners.

The Collaborative for Student Success, EdTrust and the National Parents Union have a new poll ([link removed]) , showing that more than 75% of families support standardized tests, with support growing further when districts and schools explain how the data is used.


Andrew, a Columbus-area parent taking part in GeorgiaCAN’s parent advocacy training, shares his ideas for the education system of the future with his cohort. Across the country, the 50CAN network’s parent advocates are having conversations on how they can Believe in Better.

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ABOUT 50CAN

50CAN: The 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now is a nonprofit organization that works at the local level to advocate for a high-quality education for all kids, regardless of their address.

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