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Dear Colleagues,

Teacher shortages dominated education headlines during the summer. The billions of dollars of federal pandemic-relief money states and school districts are pouring into the teaching force—and the funding’s substantial consequences for longstanding policies and practices in the more-than-three-million-member profession—have received far less attention.

To understand state and local policymakers’ strategies for bolstering teaching resources in the wake of the pandemic, FutureEd has analyzed the Covid-relief spending plans of 5,000 school districts and charter organizations representing 74 percent of the nation’s public-school students. And we examined additional documents and conducted a range of interviews to gauge how the nation’s 100 largest school districts plan to reinforce their teaching ranks with American Rescue Plan aid.

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The result is a new FutureEd publication, Educators and ESSER: How Pandemic Spending is Reshaping the Teaching Profession ([link removed]) , a comprehensive picture of state and local strategies for spending of recovery resources on instructional priorities and the policy implications for traditional teacher labor practices and pay policies, written by Associate Director Phyllis Jordan and Policy Analyst Bella DiMarco.
Pandemic Recovery Strategies

FutureEd worked with the leadership of The New York Times Learning Section recently to develop a special section in the newspaper on pandemic recovery that ran October 9.

We also contributed several pieces to the package, including:
* An analysis I did of the teacher shortage crisis ([link removed])
* A piece on evidence-based reading strategies ([link removed]) by Bella DiMarco, and
* A survey of successful strategies for tackling the pervasive post-pandemic problem of student absenteeism ([link removed]) by Phyllis Jordan

In September, we testified before a House Education and Labor subcommittee on state and school district Covid-recovery strategies and their consequences for students and policymakers. You can view our testimony here ([link removed]) and find a summary of our Covid-funding work here ([link removed]) .

We’ve also updated our interactive graphic ([link removed]) on CDC guidance for Covid-mitigation strategies, and we spoke with a North Carolina education leader about the state’s extraordinary efforts ([link removed]) to track the impact of its Covid-recovery investments.

Today we're participating in a White House convening on indoor air quality, as school districts are investing heavily on HVAC upgrades ([link removed]) to mitigate Covid spread. Asthma, it turns out, is the leading cause of chronic student absenteeism, a long-neglected problem that the pandemic has brought into sharper focus.

Mental Health and Student Engagement

Educators are reporting record levels of student stress and other mental health challenges in the wake of the pandemic. FutureEd Research Advisor David Yeager, a University of Texas at Austin professor of developmental psychology, told us about his new research ([link removed]) into how educators can help students cope.

Gemma Lenowitz of the Overdeck Family Foundation shared a piece ([link removed]) about the potential of digital STEM programs to boost student engagement and achievement in science and math. And Alyssa Haywoode outlined a strategy for expanding child care and early education ([link removed]) in the wake of Congress abandoning major spending initiatives on both fronts.

FutureEd Senior Fellow Jeff Selingo contributed an analysis on the pandemic’s impact on higher education ([link removed]) . And we featured his latest FutureU podcasts with Michael Horn on “reinventing” higher education ([link removed]) and the challenges for the sector ([link removed]) in the year ahead.

Among the recent appointments featured in The Churn ([link removed]) , our posting of leadership shifts in the education sector: Nirvi Shah has been named education editor at USA Today; Shavar Jeffries is becoming chief executive of the KIPP Public Schools; and Kara Finnigan is the new senior vice president of the Spencer Foundation. The Horizon ([link removed]) offers a listing of upcoming in-person and virtual education policy events. Send your events and leadership news to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) , and we’ll be happy to post it.

Thanks and best wishes,

Tom

Thomas Toch
Director, FutureEd
McCourt School of Public Policy
Georgetown University
[email protected]
@thomas_toch
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[link removed] | 202.413.2247 | @futureedgu | www.future-ed.org ([link removed])

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