A major win in North Carolina. Plus pods for all. Assessments are critical. 

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Dear John,
It is week 26 of our new education reality--a full six months after this crisis started--and across a new round of states, children are headed back to an uncertain school year.

Last time, in a special edition of The New Reality Roundup, we presented two new policy briefs that chart a path forward with specific recommendations for a nationwide emergency response to meet the needs of our students: Fund Everything ([link removed]) and Measure Everything ([link removed]) .

This week we take a closer look at the work underway to put these ideas into practice, the progress we have made as a country in the past two weeks--including a major win in North Carolina, documented on our blog ([link removed]) --and the tasks ahead to realize their full potential.


Best,

Marc Porter Magee, PhD
50CAN Founder and CEO

@marcportermagee ([link removed])



Keep the 2020-21 summative assessments

“U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has informed states that they should not count on getting the same waivers from federal testing mandates for this school year that they got last spring as the pandemic shut down schools,” writes Andrew Ujifusa in Education Week ([link removed]) . “In statements issued Thursday, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the chairman and ranking member of the House and Senate education committees, respectively, backed DeVos' stance.”

The statement puts to an end speculation that these testing requirements may have been on their last legs and upholds a key policy recommendation in our Measure Everything ([link removed]) brief: “Protect the 2020–21 state assessments by ensuring that they are administered on-time in the upcoming school year … While there may be differences of opinion on how to use this data to improve schooling, there is no question that this data is needed during a time of major academic disruption.”

At the same time, we can’t wait for this spring to understand how our students are doing. That’s why the Measure Everything ([link removed]) framework also calls for free diagnostic assessments for all students this fall. A number of states are now moving forward with plans to do exactly that and advocates are making a difference in raising their voices in support of this important goal. As TennesseeCAN Executive Director Victor Evans reports ([link removed]) “We recommended that the state make an early-year assessment available to families and are happy to see that, with its Start of The Year Checkpoint program, it will do just that.”
* The task this week is to insist that each state move forward with a plan to administer the 2020-21 summative assessments on-time and to also support fall diagnostic tests with results sent directly to families.

Make Pods and Microschools an Option for All

“At the end of the 2019-2020 school year, the average student likely fell months behind due to COVID-related learning disruptions,” write Rebecca Klein and Emily Peck ([link removed]) in Huffington Post. “Low-income students and students of color likely suffered from the greatest learning loss … All parents are in a tough spot. But not all parents have the resources that make private school an option.”

Klein and Peck report on how many wealthy parents are pulling their children out of the distance learning offered by their local districts and putting them into the small group, in-person learning that is most likely to ensure they stay on track. The trend “is just one more way the coronavirus is widening existing inequalities in the U.S."

Yet, this growing disparity isn’t inevitable. As we argue in Fund Everything ([link removed]) , there is no reason we can’t respond to this crisis by expanding access to in-person learning for low-income families through both direct payments and tax credits that can be used for starting pods or attending microschools.

Momentum is growing to do just that. At the federal level, Senators Scott and Alexander have introduced The School Choice Act, ([link removed]) which would provide billions of dollars in support for low-income families. At the state level, the North Carolina legislature passed HB1105, a bill the governor is poised to sign that will create more options for families than ever before in the state's history. Thanks to CarolinaCAN's advocacy efforts ([link removed]) , parents in the state will be extended a tax credit for educational needs, see caps lifted on the Opportunity Scholarship program and removing special needs and low-income students from wait lists.

Meanwhile, there's innovation happening out west. In Idaho, the state is taking the innovative approach we established in Fund Everything ([link removed]) , by providing direct aid to students, with $4,125 going to seventh grade students ([link removed]) to allow them to customize their high school education. In Arizona, Governor Doug Ducey is using GEERs dollars to fund innovation microgrants ([link removed]) , which will expand access to learning pods.
* The task this week is to push for both federal and state funding for low-income families to expand opportunities for small group, in-person learning and reduce the growing opportunity gaps.


Our state campaigns across the country are prioritizing getting information on student progress and learning loss into the hands of parents and ensuring that families have as many educational options as possible for an unprecedented school year.

As mentioned above, the CarolinaCAN team earned a major victory last week ([link removed]) when the state legislature passed a sweeping Covid-19 relief package that vastly expands school choice options for students and parents--especially special needs and low-income students--in the boldest move yet that we've seen to #FundEverything ([link removed]) .

In Colorado, the TEN team is leveraging their 180 Days of Learning web portal ([link removed]) to provide parents with information on what students for each grade level are expected to know by the end of the year, allowing them to determine the extent to which their children are receiving appropriate instruction.

Other states campaigns, including GeorgiaCAN, HawaiiKidsCAN and TennesseeCAN, are focused on ensuring that diagnostics are provided as students are welcomed back into school. In Hawaii, executive director David Miyashiro testified before the board on the importance of early assessment. The team at HawaiiKidsCAN also started a petition--one that received local press coverage ([link removed]) --for the state to provide $10 million in direct support for families with school-age children.

In Tennessee, the team achieved an important victory when the governor included diagnostics in the Schoolnet ([link removed]) school assessment system, something the team advocated for over the summer ([link removed]) . Meanwhile in Georgia, the team scored a big win when the Georgia Department of Education announced a plan to make assessments ([link removed]) available for all students this fall with immediate results to help inform instruction.

The NewMexicoKidsCAN team is pushing both for fall assessments and for a requirement that schools meet with parents. They surveyed families, created an email template ([link removed]) for families to help reach out to their schools and provided families with the top five questions ([link removed]) to ask in those meetings.

The GeorgiaCAN team worked with 450 parent advocates across the state to call on the governor to provide microgrants to students with special needs to ensure they have an appropriate learning environment. As one Cobb County mother who is part of GeorgiaCAN’s parent advocacy group wrote in the Atlanta Journal Constitution ([link removed]) : “We don’t have time to waste — kids are falling through the cracks.”

* yes. every kid. published a letter ([link removed]) with dozens of partners calling for direct educational aid to families instead of institutions. They also have started a petition at change.org so individuals can add their voice ([link removed]) .
* Civis Analytics released a nationwide survey of parents ([link removed]) . Among the findings: 39.7% of respondents say they disenrolled their children from the school they were originally supposed to attend this year.
* A series of lessons ([link removed]) from leading charter networks in the transition to remote learning were gathered and analyzed by the Fordham Institute.
* Alexander Russo explores ([link removed]) how journalists should write about Covid-19 cases in back-to-school coverage.
* Michael Horn examines ([link removed]) the rise of pods in Education Next and examines how likely they are to last.
* Jess Gartner of Allovue does the math ([link removed]) on what a robust, nationwide investment in learning would actually cost.
* The Urban Institute released a report ([link removed]) looking at the connection between housing policy and K-12 educational access and equity.
* Alex Spurrier of Bellwether examines ([link removed]) how accountability policy priorities should change in a new policy brief.
* Relay Graduate School of Education continued ([link removed]) their series of seminars for educators on effective distance learning techniques. A past version of the session is available on Vimeo ([link removed]) .
* Californians Together is out with a new brief ([link removed]) on how English Language Learners experienced Covid-19 school closures and what can be learned for the future.


In Houston, Texas, Nwamaka Unaka created her own microschool ([link removed]) for her daughter and four other preschoolers. The pod, which Unaka named “Black Girl Magic School,” is staffed by a former preschool teacher with a weekly cost of $250 per student. As Unaka’s efforts show, we can adapt quickly to expand opportunities if we commit the resources to #FundEverything ([link removed]) .

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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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