Learning loss can still be overcome with ESSER funds

By Shawn Joseph 

There are more than 13,000 school districts in America, and each district invented its own plan for spending federal funds funneled to schools due to the pandemic to address various impacts. That’s 13,000 different priorities, needs and circumstances with generally few mandates from districts’ respective state departments of education and precedence for how to spend $190 billion of aid.

As a former school superintendent in Delaware and Tennessee, it doesn’t surprise me that so many school districts have struggled with how to spend their American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding and what should be prioritized. This is an unprecedented amount of funding, and there are so many needs to consider. Some of the funding has been obligated, but much of it still has not.

Many districts have prioritized spending the money on salary increases, HVAC systems, new curricula or additional support staff in schools, which are all critical. However, a looming issue—and one that is specifically called out in the federal legislation and guidance from the U.S. Department of Education—needs to continue to be prioritized and further emphasized: pandemic learning loss.

Pandemic school closures shook the country’s education system, causing many students to fall behind. Recent data shows that elementary and middle school students have made significant strides since 2020 but still have a long way to go. Only one state—Alabama—has returned to pre-pandemic achievement levels in math, and only three have returned to pre-pandemic levels in reading. 

Additionally, the students most at risk are those in districts with high concentrations of children from low-income households. Their test scores fell further during the pandemic, and they are at a greater disadvantage today than five years ago. We continue to see differences in performance by race and ethnicity, with historically marginalized racial groups continuing to show a need for dramatic improvement on achievement tests in reading and mathematics.

$7.5 billion on tutoring

Intervention can drive recovery and improve achievement for all—schools just need to invest the funds in effective intervention. Unfortunately, time is quickly running out. Sept. 30, 2024 is the deadline by which districts must commit their remaining ESSER III funding. After that, districts will lose any remaining ESSER III funding that has not been spent or committed via contract.

State and district education leaders should prioritize proven solutions like high-dosage tutoring programs to continue closing learning gaps. Tutoring has proven to increase achievement by roughly three to 15 months of learning across grade levels. High-impact tutoring is one of the few school-based interventions with demonstrated large positive effects on both math and reading achievement. It is also one of the most effective ways to increase achievement for students from lower-income families and historically marginalized students.

Combined, more than 80% of schools across the country have already spent as much as $7.5 billion on tutoring. And though the mass K12 experiment with high-dosage tutoring has only been underway for a handful of years, the results speak for themselves when implemented according to best practices.

For example, Garden Grove Unified School District in Orange County, California, partnered with UC Irvine and Varsity Tutors for Schools to support fourth-grade students, tutoring them three times a week for 45 minutes over nine weeks. Students who received tutoring in math achieved 217% greater growth than students who did not.

And scaling these models is possible. Even in cities like New Orleans, where roughly half of students are enrolled in free and reduced-priced lunch, face-to-face tutoring delivered virtually has been a game changer, making it possible for the school to source the right tutors, and provide students with personalized attention.

Per the Department of Education, instead of forfeiting remaining ESSER III funds, school districts can enter into multi-year contracts for expenses like high-dosage tutoring delivered via software. This makes it possible for schools to address pandemic learning loss on a sustained basis. In fact, Ed strongly suggests obligating all remaining funding for high-dosage tutoring.

Learning loss affects kids today and for the rest of their lives. Let’s allocate funds toward proven solutions like high-dosage tutoring to equalize the playing field for millions of children who need it.

Shawn Joseph has been an English teacher, school administrator, central office administrator and superintendent in Delaware and Tennessee. He served on the faculty of Fordham University and is currently co-director of the AASA/Howard Urban Superintendent Academy and assistant professor at Howard University.

https://districtadministration.com/learning-loss-can-still-be-overcome-with-esser-funds/