Dear Partners and Stakeholders:

Summer has arrived here in D.C., and as this school year ends, we shift our thoughts to what additional educational opportunities the summer can bring for our students. The last 15 months have created education challenges and lost opportunities for students. With this in mind, the theme of this month’s newsletter is summer learning. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) has been doing a great deal of work to support your summer learning and enrichment efforts, as you will see in this newsletter!

In partnership with the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Comprehensive Center, we launched the Summer Learning and Enrichment Collaborative (Collaborative) to create a professional learning community supporting practitioners and partners to provide summer programs that ignite a love for learning, exploration, and enjoyment for students, particularly those hardest hit by the pandemic. Over 1,000 participants from across the country have joined us to form teams of state, local, and community organizations to design engaging summer learning opportunities.  At the initial kick-off meetings on April 26 and 27, Secretary Cardona provided inspiring opening remarks on the opportunities we have to support students who have experienced lost instructional time during the pandemic. 

In support of the Collaborative, the National Comprehensive Center has set up a website with resources and information. Visit this site to learn more about the Collaborative, explore evidence-based resources and videos on summer learning topics and sign-up to receive updates, news, and information about upcoming sessions. The Collaborative will be meeting regularly through August to provide more information to support you in your summer learning and enrichment work.  We hope you will find these resources useful in considering how to use federal funds to support summer learning and enrichment opportunities.

We realize this is also when state, district, and school staff are preparing for the next school year. As the landscape changes around COVID-19 and guidance is updated, we will continue to provide information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), especially through our biweekly webinar series (with more events archived on the site). Also in this newsletter is information on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) resources to support healthy indoor air quality and ventilation in schools.

I hope you all take time to rest and recharge over the summer.  We look forward to continuing our partnership with you to ensure that our most vulnerable students get the support and services they need to succeed in school and beyond!

Best,

Ruth Ryder

The National Comprehensive Center (Center) works with state educational agencies (SEAs), regional educational agencies, local educational agencies (LEAs), school districts, and regional centers to enhance the quality of instruction, close achievement gaps, and improve educational outcomes for all students. The Center delivers high-quality universal and targeted capacity-building services and products, and works with key education stakeholders to leverage expertise and resources to ultimately maximize results. The Center’s recent work is monumental in partnering with the Department, the Council of Chief State School Officers, National Governors Association, and other national education partners to launch the Summer Learning & Enrichment Collaborative. The collaborative brings education leaders and stakeholders together to form state coalitions as they develop plans for this summer that include evidence-based summer learning and enrichment strategies that meet the needs of all students.  Read more about the collaborative on page 7.

In addition to the Summer Learning & Enrichment Collaborative, the Center has developed several collections of resources that have been well-received by the field. Examples include the following:

• The Succeeding During the Pandemic collection helps regional centers, state and local educational agencies, educators, and parents as they collectively navigate schooling during times of disruption.
• The Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Learning and Trauma-Informed Practice collection raises awareness and provides tools for trauma-informed practices and social-emotional learning strategies.
• The Strengthen and Diversify the Educator Workforce collection assists SEAs and the regional comprehensive centers that support them to identify and address gaps along the educator career pathway and develop a diverse and culturally competent workforce.
• The Literacy collection highlights strategies that states and districts can use to address challenges, such as lack of progress in reading achievement, and use research-based reading instruction while recognizing the changing circumstances caused by the pandemic. The collection includes advice for best practices for remote and hybrid reading instruction.

To view all of the National Comprehensive Center’s collections visit its website.

Meet Department Staff Member Esley Newton, Ed.D.

Learn more about Esley Newton, an education program specialist in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Program and Grantee Support Services. Newton serves as the lead program officer for the National Center.

How long have you been at the Department?

• It will be two years in the fall.

What do you most enjoy about working at the Department?

• The cross-collaborative nature of our work. It is challenging, but well worth the investment. I enjoy working on teams where we come together to share knowledge, expertise, and perspectives to work towards a common goal.

What is one thing you’d like to see happen for National Center in the next year?

• The National Center is composed of a talented team of professionals, and it has been an honor to serve as their program officer. I see the National Center as the backbone of the Comprehensive Center Network that connects our 19 diverse regional centers and helps us operate as a collective whole. I would like to see the National Center continue to utilize and leverage the talent of their team and the broader network to maximize the opportunities that lie ahead.

CDC Guidance for Child Care, Schools, and Youth Programs

The CDC maintains a webpage that provides information for child care, schools, and youth programs to plan, prepare, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics include operating schools during COVID-19, decision-making indicators for reopening, testing and contact tracing, and communication tips, among others.

Guidance for Operating Youth and Summer Camps During COVID-19

Youth and summer camps can play an important role in the lives of children, including supporting their social, emotional, and physical development. Camps provide opportunities for children to try new activities, develop relationships and social skills, and be physically active. In addition to allowing for free play and unstructured learning, many camps also incorporate educational content, which can help prevent summer learning loss. The CDC Guidance for Operating Youth and Summer Camps during COVID-19 is intended to help camp administrators operate camps while preventing the spread of COVID-19 and protecting campers, their families, staff, and communities.

Environmental Protection Agency Resources to Support the American Rescue Plan: Healthy Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation in Schools

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a wide range of indoor air quality (IAQ) management guidance and resources for school districts, and extensive technical assistance tools to help school districts and schools implement comprehensive indoor environmental quality management programs. Visit its website to find the following resources:

1. IAQ Technical Guidance Materials
2. Train and educate school staff members through the IAQ Tools for Schools. The EPA offers on-demand training webinars, including the Master Class webinars and Knowledge-to-Action webinars and Healthy Indoor Environments in Schools: Plans, Practices and Principles webinar series.
3. Access to Peers and Mentors through the EPA IAQ Tools for Schools Connector network, the School Health and Indoor Environments Leadership Development network, and Model Peer Mentor School Districts.
4. Funding Guidance Technical Expertise through which the EPA can recommend language for funding documents that will advise SEAs and LEAs on the most effective IAQ practices and activities to fund.

For more information, contact Tracy Enger at enger.tracy@epa.gov.

Summer Learning and Enrichment Collaborative National Convening

The Department, with the support of the Comprehensive Center Network, launched the Summer Learning and Enrichment Collaborative, a partnership between the Department of Education, the National Governors Association, and the Council of Chief State School Officers. This collaborative assists states and districts in planning how to use their relief funds, including the $1.2 billion earmarked for summer enrichment identified in the American Rescue Plan, to address lost instructional and extracurricular time through summer programming.

Please save these dates for upcoming collaborative meetings on from 3:00pm to 5:00pm ET: June 10, June 24, July 8, July 22, and August 12. Each session will have a short opening plenary as well as discussions to offer practical tools, strategies, and opportunities in the following areas: building school-community partnerships, effective use of fiscal resources, attracting/supporting staff for summer programs, evidence-based learning, enrichment strategies, addressing a full range of student needs, and tailoring supports to specific populations. To view the recordings of the first two Summer Learning and Enrichment Collaborative convenings, federal guidance, resources to support summer learning and enrichment, and resources on accelerated learning visit this website.

Safer Schools and Campuses Best Practices Clearinghouse

The Department launched the Safer Schools and Campuses Best Practices Clearinghouse (the Clearinghouse), a website that highlights the innovative work underway nationwide in continuing to reopen K–12 schools, early childhood centers, and postsecondary institutions. Through the Clearinghouse, the Department is providing examples of how schools and other education institutions can safely reopen as communities continue recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Clearinghouse includes resources that target the needs of students in, K–12, early childhood, and higher education settings in these three main topic areas:

• Safe and Healthy Environments: School and campus approaches to implement prevention and mitigation strategies and prepare and sustain in-person operations safely. 
• Supports for Students: School and campus strategies to meet students' academic, social, emotional, mental health, and other needs, including providing access to food, counselors, and financial aid for college students.
• Teacher, Faculty, and Staff Well-Being; Professional Development; and Supports: School and campus strategies to address skills, trauma, and other mental-health needs among educators, faculty, and staff, and other support strategies, such as providing access to childcare and professional development for educators. 

Designing for Diversity

Designing for Diversity, by the National Comprehensive Center, is a three-part whitepaper series that addresses the challenges of moving diversity, equity, and inclusion from abstract ideas to actions that demonstrate the transformation of traditional thinking and practices in education. “Where is Equity and Inclusion in Curriculum Design?” is the first paper, and it explains the need for equity and inclusion in standardized curriculum materials and introduces the Equity and Inclusion Framework for Curriculum Design (EI-CD) approach to involve various stakeholders at the state and local levels in the design, development, and adaptation of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (STEM+CS) curriculum materials.

"The Equity and Inclusion Framework for Curriculum Design” is the second paper.  It provides a step-by-step process for the EI-CD approach and describes how this approach can be used for designing and adapting STEM+CS curriculum materials. The third paper, "Implementation of the Equity and Inclusion Curriculum Development Approach: The Role of State and Local Education Agencies,” provides suggestions to state and local education leaders for implementing the EI-CD to ensure the integration of equity and inclusion into the design and adaptation of STEM+CS curriculum materials.

Guidance on Reopening Schools: Equity Considerations During COVID-19

This Equity by Design brief from the Region III Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP EAC) highlights equity issues that arise in the process of reopening schools during a global pandemic. The authors examine state plans and guidance for reopening schools across states in the MAP EAC region and highlight equity issues that inevitably arise where conditions of access are exacerbated by the pandemic and how one might approach and consider these issues in planning and policy making. As school and district leaders review and revise policy implementation, the guidance outlined in this paper can inform the way that policy is implemented and can help highlight equity issues that district and school personnel may not have considered in reopening plans.

Academies for Learning Advancement: Research and Practitioner Perspectives

Advancement academies (sometimes known as “vacation” academies) are a promising approach for learning recovery—a way to focus intensely on the learning needs of small groups of students. This collection of short videos and other materials from the National Comprehensive Center explains the features of successful academies, reports on research about the impact of academies on student achievement, and describes ways to adapt the academies to address interrupted learning caused by the pandemic.

Education Stories from the Field: State and Local Education Response to COVID

The National Comprehensive Center has launched Education Stories From the Field, providing inside, frontline, real-time insights and lessons on how state and local education leaders have responded to the pandemic. A building timeline illustrates how leaders in four states—Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming—are setting priorities, making decisions, working with partners, and providing support for district and school leaders during this time of educational upheaval and innovation. As the pandemic, and our recovery from it, is ongoing, so are these stories. Check back for updates as the National Center documents how the approaches these states, and the districts within them, continue to unfold.

Student and Family Reengagement Learning Series

The Student Engagement and Attendance Center (SEAC) recently launched the Student and Family Reengagement Learning Series. This series focuses on strategies for reengaging students and families during the 2021-22 school year in nine to 12 collaborative online learning events after the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants include SEA staff, who provide student attendance and engagement-related supports, as well as district representatives and key partners. This series will allow participants to (1) establish a collective understanding of emerging promising practices for reengaging with students and families; (2) elevate and promote those promising practices; and (3) create a shared framework to support the implementation of reengagement strategies.

The series kick-off was held May 4, with 25 states represented. An additional 10 collaborative learning events will be facilitated in the coming months. To learn more about the SEAC or this series please contact Jarle Crocker (jcrocker@insightpolicyresearch.com) or Jenny Scala (jscala@air.org). 

Regional Education Laboratory (REL) Tool: A Third Grade Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills

REL Southeast has developed a teacher’s guide to supplement the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide, “Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade.”  The teacher’s guide complements and extends the practice guide by providing step-by-step guidance for third grade teachers to help families learn foundational reading skills at home. It includes the following:

• Recommendation reminders that provide a snapshot of each recommendation and how-to steps from the WWC guide
• Teacher scaffolds that model the language teachers can use with families to describe a specific skill, why it is important in learning to read, and how to support that skill
• Family activities that contain evidence-based literacy activities with easy-to-follow plans and materials that teachers model and share with families
• Family literacy videos that show families engaging their children in activities related to the skills teachers modeled during family literacy nights or at parent-teacher conferences

Access the guide at this website. 

Impact Aid Application Amendments Now Through June 30

If your LEA completed the FY 22 Impact Aid Program application and needs to make a change, it may do so until June 30. It is a good idea to review applications now to ensure that all federally connected students are reported properly in the Impact Aid Grant System.

If an LEA did not use the Coronavirus Relief Act, and would like to, it may submit an amendment by June 30 if using the FY 2021 data is more advantageous. If amending for this purpose, be sure a note is included in the explanation box that the LEA is amending the application to take advantage of the Coronavirus Relief Act. 

Visit the Impact Aid portal to find our video and user guide to get started right away. For assistance, please contact your state analyst (see the list available on this site) or email Impact.Aid@ed.gov.

Impact Aid Program Training Resources

Whether you are looking for live training, videos, or system user guides, the Impact Aid Program has resources for you. 

Visit this training page to find resources on various topics. You will find links to live webinars, slides from previous trainings, videos and more. Email Impact Aid at Impact.Aid@ed.gov if you have any questions.   

Final Payments for FY 2020 Applications

The Department released final Impact Aid payments for all eligible 7003 applicant LEAs and is in the process of releasing final payments for all eligible 7002 applications. The final rate was a 1.15% ratable increase to each LEA’s lot, and $1,205 per weighted student unit (WSU) for children with disabilities.

View this user guide for detailed instructions for registered system users looking for a payment voucher. Email Impact Aid at Impact.Aid@ed.gov if you have any questions.

Message From the Office of Indian Education Director

Title VI Formula Grant EASIE Part II News

The Title VI Formula Grant Electronic Application System for Indian Education (EASIE) part II application closed on May 14. Over 1300 applications were received. OIE thanks all entities for their continued efforts to strengthen Indian education programming in their communities.

The Title VI formula grant performance period ends on June 30. Reminder emails have been sent to all grantees with any FY 19 and FY 20 remaining G5 balance greater than $10,000 for either fiscal year. At the end of the month, OIE will announce more information about the upcoming FY 19 and FY 20 annual performance report requirements.

Notifications for FY 21 grant awards will be sent out via G5 to applicant points of contact in July. Check for program updates on the OIE formula grant program homepage. All technical assistance information can be found on our EASIE community of practice website.

Project Directors' Meeting Update

OIE made history with its first virtual discretionary grants team project directors' meeting in April. The meeting was a success: More than 350 participants formed new networking circles, listened to fabulous keynote speakers, and received a plethora of high-quality sessions that ranged from best practice highlights, data collection methods, and learning about additional AI/AN funding opportunities from other agencies. It was time well spent and we thank everyone for their contributions to this event.

Communities of Practice

Beginning in June, the Office of Migrant Education (OME) will establish and support communities of practice (CoPs) for State Migrant Education Programs (MEP). These communities will enable the exchange and sharing of resources, lessons learned, and promising practices related to intrastate and interstate coordination, including student record transfer, facilitation of secondary credit accrual for graduation, and identification and recruitment, as well as other pertinent topic areas, such as summer services and parent involvement. OME will develop CoP learning opportunities that will include

• subject-matter experts and CoP moderators;
• state or other MEP leaders to share experiences as peer leaders; and
• integrated learning activities, which may include live webinars, synchronous online conversations, and asynchronous online discussion boards.

Watch the OME website for more information.

College Assistance Migrant Program National Retention Rates

Did you know that the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) exceeded the national retention rates for first-time college freshmen returning in their second year? In the most recent year for which data were reported (2017–18), 96.2% of CAMP participants who completed their first academic year of college continued their postsecondary education. During the 2017–18 school year, the national retention rate for college freshman was 81% for four-year institutions of higher education (IHEs) and 62% for two-year IHEs. For additional details, please see the 2020 report from the National Center for Education Statistics, and the Department’s High School Equivalency Program and CAMP 2020 “Report to Congress”. CAMP is authorized under the Higher Education Act and administered by OME. The program assists students who are migratory or seasonal farmworkers (or immediate family members of such workers) enrolled in their first year of undergraduate studies at an IHE, including two- and four-year institutions. Services to eligible CAMP participants include outreach, counseling, tutoring, skills workshops, stipends, health services, housing assistance to eligible students during their first year of college, and limited follow-up services that are provided to participants after their first year.

Native Hawaiian Education Program Fiscal Year 2021 Competition Application Announcement

The Native Hawaiian Education (NHE) program supports innovative education programs to assist Native Hawaiians and to supplement and expand programs and authorities in the area of education. As a result, the Department prepared a notice inviting applications,  which was published in the “Federal Register” on May 28. There are an estimated 38 awards for 36 months, annually estimated at $26,000,000. For more information about this grant opportunity, please visit the Native Hawaiian Education website or contact Hawaiian@ed.gov.

American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief — Homeless Children and Youth

On April 26, the Department issued to SEAs the first set of grants under the new American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief for Homeless Children and Youth program. Using a formula, the Department awarded $199,750,000 to states to identify homeless children and youth, to provide them with wrap-around services to address the challenges of COVID-19, and enable them to attend school and fully participate in school activities. The funds will follow the same requirements as the Department’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program under the McKinney-Vento Act. The Department encouraged states to provide supplemental awards to existing EHCY subgrantees to distribute funds quickly to the field to identify and provide supports for homeless children and youth. An additional $599,250,000 will be made available to SEAs this summer following the completion of rulemaking to guide the distribution of funds by SEAs to local educational agencies via a formula. For more information, visit this website.