Four years after schools and communities were forced to grapple with a global pandemic, education leaders recently came together to discuss recovery at the state and local levels and share examples of the impact that emergency relief funds have had in their classrooms and communities. Congress and two Administrations approved $190 billion in COVID relief funding for K-12 schools – to help schools reopen and to ensure students get the supports they need to recover academically.
On March 20, 2024, the Coalition to Advance Future Student Success hosted an in-person and livestreamed event, “Investment to Impact: Leveraging ESSER and Keeping What Works,” on the first day of the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2024 Legislative Conference. The event highlighted the work underway across the Coalition member organizations to leverage Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) dollars to positively impact students’ communities.
Speakers throughout the event emphasized state and local strategies to sustain effective policies and programs beyond fall 2024 when ESSER funds sunset. The event focused on three themes from the Coalition’s 10-Point Framework:
Importantly, the event included voices from many levels of the education system.
In State Partnership to Sustain High-Impact Investments, North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt and North Carolina State Senator Michael Lee, discussed how they partnered around recovery efforts and their strategies to continue impactful policies and programs beyond fall 2024. Hear Truitt talk about how a return on investment (ROI) tool is being used to help districts build their budgets here. CCSSO Chief Executive Officer Carissa Moffat Miller delivered a Summit welcome and overview and moderated this panel.
Sustaining High-Impact Investments: School and Classroom Level featured Dr. Suzan Harris, the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals’ 2023 Middle School Principal of the Year and a National Association of Secondary School Principals Board member. This session highlighted Harris’s leadership in leveraging ESSER investments to support student and staff wellbeing. Harris was joined by eighth grader Carter Glover, who provided a student perspective on the measurable impacts of these investments at Henderson Middle School in Jackson, Georgia. Harris discussed the implementation of wellbeing training for staff at Henderson Middle School, including how they used lunchtime in the cafeteria to intentionally focus on school culture and build relationships.
Sustaining High-Impact Investments: District Lens on Academic Recovery featured Assistant Superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools Dr. Adam Kunz and Deputy Superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools Andrew Strope and was moderated by Senior Writer and National Correspondent at The 74 Beth Hawkins. In this session, Kunz and Strope discussed how their districts are using ESSER funding to meet the needs of schools and students, specifically focusing on how their districts created programs that have successfully boosted academic achievement and how they plan to sustain these initiatives when ESSER funding is no longer available. Kunz discusses St. Paul’s innovative Experiential Credit Recovery program in this video.
CCSSO’s 2023 National Teacher of the Year Rebecka Peterson moderated Educator Voice: Sustaining American Rescue Plan Victories for Students, Educators and Schools with Jo-Anne Smith, an educator at Brookside Primary School in Waterbury, Vermont on the ESSER investments supporting the earliest learners at her school and plans for sustainability. Smith shares how she mentors teachers in her position as an interventionist, ensuring sustainability of the use of these educator techniques in classrooms. Conor Hurley, Senior Program Specialist and Policy Analyst for the National Education Association introduced this session.
Roberto J. Rodríguez, Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, at the U.S. Department of Education, and Ray Hart, Executive Director of the Council of the Great City Schools shared an engaging discussion in Reflections from the U.S. Department of Education. This session delved into the use of ESSER funds across the country and the lasting impact of ESSER investments on our education landscape, from immediate responses to long-term sustainability plans. Rodríguez discusses his aspirations for how schools will continue to build back in an innovative way here.
Hart concluded the Summit with Summit Reflections.
The Coalition was proud to bring together these voices to elevate the impact ESSER funds are having across the country. K-12 Dive offers some highlights from the event in this article: How ESSER propelled improvements at school, district and state levels. You can also read more in this article by The 74. You can share these stories using this social media toolkit.
