The Coalition to Advance Future Student Success on May 9, 2023, hosted a virtual ESSER Impact Showcase to highlight some of the work underway across Coalition member organizations and how Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds are having an impact on schools and communities. The showcase focused on themes of academic recovery, physical and mental health and wellbeing and educator workforce.
Council of Chief State School Officers CEO Carissa Moffat Miller opened the showcase by introducing state leaders from Alabama, who discussed their aligned coordination and partnership around recovery efforts to advance education priorities. State Representative Terri Collins, who chairs the House Education Policy Committee, Superintendent of Education and, Education Policy Advisor to Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, shared the impact of ESSER funding on Alabama’s existing priorities of literacy, numeracy and mental health. In 2023, Gov. Ivey signed the Education Trust Fund budget, which included raises for teachers, as well as new funding for math coaches, reading instruction and expanded pre-K. Learn more about how these investments are having an impact and the progress students are making in reading and math in State Levers for Recovery: Alabama.
Council of the Great City Schools Executive Director Ray Hart moderated Post-Pandemic Learning Vision: Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), a conversation on Cleveland’s coordinated and strategic districtwide approach to academic recovery using ESSER investments. The session featured Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) CEO Eric Gordon, CMSD Chief of Schools Lisa Farmer Cole and Memorial School Principal . The district team shared CMSD’s Post-Pandemic Learning Vision and highlighted its successful online tutoring, Project Based Learning shift and Period 9 clubs program, which offers an expansion of art, music and physical education with math and reading reinforcement.
National Education Association Senior Program Specialist and Policy Analyst Connor Hurley uplifted teacher voice to highlight how ESSER funding is having a direct impact on educators. Through an animated video, California educator Lakeisha shared how she worked to influence impactful funding to meet local needs, including hiring additional staff supports in the classroom. French teacher and West Ottawa Education Association President stressed the importance of acknowledging disparities, provided an outline of significant investments made in her district and emphasized the essential role of investing in a skilled, dedicated workforce to ensure favorable student achievement.
Chiefs for Change, a bipartisan network of state and district K-12 leaders, hosted a discussion on Large Scale Academic Interventions. The network’s interim leader Robert Runcie spoke to District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee and Ector County Independent School District (ISD) Superintendent Scott Muri about how they allocated ESSER funds to support high-dosage tutoring in their systems, how they structured their respective programs, and the early gains they are seeing as a result of the work.
Dr. Ferebee explained that 4,500 students participated in D.C.’s high-impact tutoring (HIT) initiative during the 2021-2022 school year. Among those students, The District saw a 57 percent increase in math proficiency and a 54 percent increase in reading proficiency. D.C. continues to expand the HIT initiative, with the goal of serving at least 10,000 students. See this Chiefs for Change video to learn more about the work.
In Ector County ISD in rural west Texas, Dr. Muri could not find enough tutors to provide in-person support. He described how his team designed a virtual tutoring program that involves high-quality partners; outcomes-based contracts; and one-on-one or small-group sessions—during the regular school day and with the same virtual tutor over time—to help students catch up in English, reading, and math. Dr. Muri says the program has led to significant gains in student performance and that the district is making plans to sustain the effort going forward.
James Lane, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, reflected on how ESSER funding enabled all schools to transition from virtual to in-person learning, supported mental health and wellbeing and provided resources to address the deep interruption of student learning. Lane called on educators, parents, and policymakers to support transformational change. Ray Hart then reflected on the approaches and investments shared in the showcase and their impact on public education.
The showcase concluded with a conversation among Coalition members. Miller, Runcie, Hart, Hurley and Jen Silva of the National Association of Secondary School Principals discussed promising practices to continue in K-12 education.
The Coalition to Advance Future Student Success is grateful to all individuals who contributed to the successful virtual ESSER Impact Showcase. Here you can access resources pertaining to the sessions, and complete recordings of each session can be found here. To learn more about the Coalition’s efforts, including #ESSERImpact stories, visit advancefuturestudentsuccess.org.
