NewDEAL Leaders Address Post-COVID Learning Loss
While education policy and funding have always been driven by decisions at the state and local levels, the federal role may decrease even further with the Trump Administration’s efforts to gut the U.S. Department of Education and their threats to federal funding. Students who need support the most will be relying even more on state and local leaders.
At its 2024 annual conference, the NewDEAL Leaders convened a panel of education experts and elected officials to address lingering learning loss five years after COVID caused unprecedented disruptions to our education system.
Recently-released data from NAEP, the biennial assessment of fourth and eighth graders known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” underscores the troubling gaps among certain groups of students and an overall downward trajectory. Both math and reading scores peaked in the mid-2010s, and have fallen for the past decade or more. While the COVID disruptions exacerbated the situation, the trend clearly goes back further than that. These latest scores show that the challenge is deepening as most students still perform below pre-pandemic 2019 levels in reading and math, with significant disparities between students in low- and high-poverty schools.
The good news: there is clear evidence on what works to get more students on track. With federal support looking uncertain, it is vital that state and local leaders focus their resources on the most high-value policies and programs.
The NewDEAL Forum released a report on the conversation with the following highlights:
Acknowledge the Extent of Learning Loss: It’s crucial to transparently communicate the severity of learning deficits to parents and stakeholders, enabling informed advocacy and targeted interventions.
Implement Rigorous, High-Impact Tutoring: Effective tutoring programs should offer consistent sessions (three times per week); employ well-compensated and qualified tutors; and align with school curricula to address individual student needs.
Focus Limited Resources: States and school boards can lay out incredible policies, but they will only succeed if there is a budget that both aligns with and supports the policy. Equity must remain a top priority, particularly as we see that students who needed the most help before COVID are further behind than before the pandemic.
Address Chronic Absenteeism Head-On: School districts must emphasize the importance of attendance, as well as the negative impacts of absenteeism. After-school activities, success mentors, and other data-based approaches are shown to reduce absenteeism.
These approaches aim to not only address the immediate impacts of the pandemic on education but also to build a more resilient and equitable system for the future.
NewDEAL would like to thank the panel for their time and comments:
Ethan Ashley, Former Orleans Parish, LA, School Board Member, NewDEAL Alumnus, and CEO and Co-Founder of School Board Partners;
Chad Aldeman, Read Not Guess;
Kris Amundson, KJA Strategies; and
Sarah Mehrotra, U.S. Department of Education
Read the full report (Addressing Post-COVID Learning Loss) here. Read more about NewDEAL Forum’s work on education here.
