Forging a Path Forward: Supporting Texas PreK-12 Students Post-COVID-19

FORGING A PATH FORWARD Supporting Texas PreK-12 Students Post-COVID-19

The COVID-19 public health crisis dramatically disrupted education, disproportionately impacting vulnerable students. The differing impacts of the pandemic affecting Texas’ children, families and communities include but are not limited to loss of life and income, to isolation and food insecurity.

The stakes could not be higher. Prior to the pandemic, too many Texas students were not performing at grade level academically nor were they on track toward college or a career. According to the E3 Alliance, in 2019 only 44% of Texas 3rd graders met Texas’ reading standards, and only 29% of 8th graders had completed Algebra I. Fewer than 30% of Texas high school graduates were earning a post-high school credential within six years of graduation, even though 71% of jobs will require some level of higher education by 2036 (Texas 2036). In 2018, only 52% of Texas students had enrolled in college, a decline from the previous year.

The pandemic has the potential to drastically worsen those numbers. For example, Texas PreK enrollment was down 21% during the 2020-21 academic year (E3 Alliance). Research suggests that students may be as many as nine months behind in math performance, with students of color being as many as 12 months. The pandemic’s effects risk widening the already existing gaps in academic achievement and threaten the wellbeing of our Black, Latinx, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and English learner students, as well as those with disabilities.

Yet despite the significant disruptions and ongoing challenges, there are reasons for hope. Research shows that students who engage with rigorous, evidence-based learning acceleration paired with strong social and emotional supports can not only reach their grade level, but can also potentially achieve additional academic gains. Texas is equipped to meet these challenges. Equity and excellence can be achieved if the right actions are taken at the right time for students and school communities. That time is now.

We have joined together to harness expertise in identifying the most powerful, equitable, and sustainable pathway to success for all students now and in the future. We strongly recommend using Texas’ federal recovery dollars to fund, adapt, and scale evidence-based interventions to meet immediate needs and ensure the innovation necessary to meet future challenges.

Margaret Spellings

Charles R. Martinez, Jr.,

Kevin Brown

James B. Crow

CEO and President Texas 2036

Dean College of Education The University of Texas at Austin

Executive Director Texas Association of School Administrators

Executive Director Texas Association of School Boards

education.utexas.edu

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Recommendations 1. Prepare and Support Educators with resources, tools and professional development to support the academic, social and emotional well-being of their students. Institute intensified and accelerated instruction in math and reading for all students to close the gaps in academic achievement. Educators must focus on acceleration rather than remediation. » G ive teachers the instructional materials, professional development, and additional support to provide challenging instruction at grade level or higher. » I nstitute interventions that articulate critical instructional content priorities and benchmarks for grade-level success and focus instruction accordingly. » Use extended learning time and high-dosage tutoring tied to keeping all students on track to state-level proficiency.

2. Use real-time assessments to support learning and well-being of students. Regular curriculum-aligned and wellness assessments provide both students and teachers with the feedback they need to improve teaching, learning, and well-being. » I nvest in development of formative assessment tools that can identify missing academic skills or disparities in social-emotional supports to keep students at or above grade level. » P rovide teachers with support in understanding and using formative assessments of both academic content and student well-being to inform planning, instruction, and interventions.

3. Employ a Holistic, Asset-Based Approach with Integrated SEL and a Sharpened Focus on Equity.

Students are motivated to learn when curriculum and instruction are inclusive of students’ cultural backgrounds. » P rovide principals, teachers, and tutors with professional development and ongoing support for culturally responsive pedagogy, and social and emotional learning (SEL) practices throughout the school and attend to the health and well-being of the entire campus community. » P rovide system leaders with support in aligning intervention and programmatic efforts to build on local expertise and lived experience from teachers, school leaders, families, and students.

4. Establish a Texas Education Research-Practice-Policy Partnership: A model to assess needs and best-used resources, engage with partners, collect data, evaluate outcomes to provide a cycle of improvement » The pace at which research makes its way into practice is too slow for Texas to respond sufficiently to the pandemic. Similarly, no mechanism exists for local educational innovations to be evaluated and shared systematically across the state. A statewide mechanism is needed for education partners to share data, evaluate program efficacy, learn from one another, and quickly scale solutions across the state.

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Texas Education ResearchPractice-Policy Partnership Teachers and administrators across Texas employ effective practices within their individual schools and districts, yet in the current system it is rare that great learning and practices move from school to school, let alone classroom to classroom. The quality of any child’s educational experience should never be defined by their zip code or a poorly equipped teacher. Excellent teaching and leadership practices can be found across the state, and the challenge is to locate, study, elevate, and scale.

Researchers and educational organizations have produced evidence-based interventions and insights that can help PreK-12 students and teachers thrive.

Researchers and practitioners are siloed and have few chances to build relationships that can lead to improved educational outcomes for PreK-12 students. Students, families, and communities are too often left out of the research-practice process.

All stakeholders have valuable and important perspectives to offer.

In response to the pandemic, Texas 2036 CEO Margaret Spellings, Texas education leaders, and UT College of Education Dean Charles Martinez convened a half-day summit in March 2021. The summit brought together researchers and education stakeholders from across Texas to discuss resources needed to ensure Texas students recover and thrive in a post-COVID world. This group developed recommendations and urged that Texas’ federal recovery dollars be used to support those recommendations.

One of these recommendations stated the creation of a statewide research-practice-policy partnership is needed to support and sustain efforts to identify and address the gaps that exist and to research and scale best practices. A Texas Education Research-Practice-Policy Partnership (RP3) focused on statewide educational needs and innovations would meet this need.

When funded, the Texas Education RP3 will identify, adapt, and develop responsive curricula, tools, and resources. Partners will collaborate to understand educational problems within the community and generate a learning agenda including actionable items. This partnership will provide a continuous cycle of both best practices and evaluation of practices that can be scaled across schools and communities in Texas.

Existing research-practice partnerships, such as Michigan’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC), were able to quickly respond to the pandemic and investigate what was happening in classrooms.

Michigan’s districts shared information about the different types of instruction they provided (faceto-face, remote/virtual, hybrid) and how different groups of students were being served by grade or setting. This statewide analytic approach to teaching and learning during the pandemic proved to be extremely informative for Michigan schools.

Establishing the Texas Education RP3 will generate meaningful research that teachers, principals, and other education stakeholders can easily access, understand, and use in response to the pandemic and future crises. The research will inform and guide policy and equip teachers and school leaders with interventions and generate groundbreaking research to advance the field.

A successful local example is the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC). HERC research showed that full-day PreK doubles the likelihood of school readiness in kindergarten. In May 2019, the Texas Legislature approved House Bill 3, funding full-day PreK across the state.

The future economic and social well-being of our state depends on today’s students. Our students’ recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic requires strategic solutions and relentless focus. Investment in this approach amplifies best practices efficiently by connecting problems of practice in classrooms to researchers and then scaling solutions. This is an opportunity for Texas to model innovative, evidence-based solutions that meet student, family, community, and industry needs, that improve education in Texas.

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As a statewide group of education partners—including teachers, school and district administrators, leaders from professional organizations, state agencies, philanthropic

organizations,

and

university

researchers—we are committed to addressing preexisting inequities and helping PreK-12 students recover and heal from the impacts on learning and well-being caused by the coronavirus pandemic. We believe that considerable federal resources allocated to the state must be used to address this crisis and seize the opportunity for Texas students and school communities to succeed for years to come.