Equitable access during COVID-19 and extraordinary districts in extraordinary times

As an education equity organization, the Education Trust-Midwest recognizes that Michigan’s most vulnerable students are at particular risk when schools are closed.

Over the past several weeks, The Education Trust has monitored the tireless efforts of states across the country to support districts, schools, educators and families to ensure the well-being and safety of all students as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads. Now, states are beginning to identify the actions needed to ensure equitable student access to resources to address lost instructional time during school closures.

Meeting the needs of all students during this challenging time – including those from low-income families, students with disabilities, students of color and English learners – must remain a priority for Michigan educational and policy leaders. In order to best support school districts in allocating local, state and federal resources to ensure all students have access to high-quality learning, we believe states should take the following actions:

• Create and maintain centralized, clear, and regular communication to community stakeholders.
• Maintain and strengthen critical supports for students and families in need.
• Provide guidance and resources to districts on educational services for vulnerable populations.
• Support districts to develop plans with short- and long-term solutions to address COVID-19 challenges.
• Ensure federal stimulus funds are distributed and used equitably.

Click here to read the full guide.

In this extraordinary moment, with tens of millions of children out of school, educators across the country are looking for answers about the best way to ensure that students don’t lose months — or even years — of learning.

In a new series, EXTRAordinary Districts in Extraordinary TIMES, the Education Trust’s Karin Chenoweth, will interview educators around the country about the problems they are facing, the solutions they are fashioning, and what they hope will come out of this time. At the end of each interview, Karin and Tanji Reed Marshall, Education Trust’s director of practice, discuss what they have just heard and how it fits into what they are hearing from other educators around the country.

Each of the educators featured in ExtraOrdinary Districts in Extraordinary Times will be leaders of schools and districts that have demonstrated the power of school and district leadership. Each leader serves a school or district with children of color and children from low-income backgrounds and have been high performing or rapidly improving.

We hope principals, superintendents, school board members, and other educators and policy makers find the observations and struggles of the educators we feature both familiar and illuminating in this podcast, which is supported by The Wallace Foundation.

Click here to listen and subscribe.

• The Coronavirus’s Lost Generation of Students – The Editorial Board, The New York Times
• About 500,000 Michigan children lack the internet access and computers needed to learn at home – Lori Higgins, Chalkbeat Detroit
• DeVos, Education Department give Michigan $89M in COVID-19 relief grants – Jennifer Chambers, The Detroit News
• Analysis: Restarting K-12 Schools Is Difficult Enough – Without Good Data About Their Students, It’s Much Harder for Pre-K. State Must Do Better – Elliot Regenstein and Chris Strausz-Clark, The 74 Million