Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
CURE sent a white paper to Congress on combatting the drastic learning loss of students due to COVID. As the white paper states:
“As the country continues to recover from the devastation of the COVID pandemic, the wounds it inflicted will take time to heal. There are few places the harm done is more evident than education.”
The white paper analyzes data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), as well as a study from Harvard economists Roland Fryer Jr. and Will Dobbie, in which the economists analyze 35 high-performing New York City charter schools, as well as a study of 20 low-performing public schools in Houston, Denver, and Chicago to determine what makes some schools outperform others.
The white paper also highlights emergency funds allocated in response to COVID-19, noting, “The Federal Government allocated $122 billion for public education in the American Rescue Plan to help combat the spread of COVID in K-12 schools. According to an analysis by The Washington Post, only 15% of these funds have been spent.”
In conclusion, the white paper makes a point to acknowledge that there is a wide arrangement of school organizational types nationwide, and that there is more than one way to bring about effective change. In this diverse system, the white paper contributes several potential solutions to addressing the serious loss of learning our nations’ students have experienced. Most of all, allowing flexibility to innovate at the local level is key to moving forward.
“We still have a lot more to learn, but we know enough to get started down the right path today. The longer we wait the more likely we are to doom an entire generation to permanent educational losses.”
