Happy New Year! Looking back, it’s been quite the year, with ups and downs. I know we were all looking forward to a brighter outlook in 2022, but we seem to be moving into a time of unexpected uncertainty. I am heartened that we know much more about how to safely implement in-person learning, including layering protection, such as vaccines, masking, social distancing, and test-to-stay. We will continue to do everything we can to support your critical efforts to support teachers, school personnel, and school leaders. Equally important is support to families, and that is the focus of this month’s newsletter.
This month’s theme is Strengthening Family, Community, and Partner Connections. We often discuss the relationships among state educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), schools, teachers, and students. But we also recognize that our schools don’t exist in a vacuum and know that what happens in families and in communities impacts the learning in our schools as well. This month we highlight the Statewide Family Engagement Centers (SFEC). The 11 centers provide support to strengthen the family and school partnership. We also provide resources from the National Comprehensive Center, Regional 9 Comprehensive Center, and Region IV Equity Assistance Center.
January is also National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention month. We know that human trafficking has increased during the pandemic, particularly through online recruiting and grooming. We need everyone in our communities to be on the alert for signs of human trafficking. We continue to provide resources for schools and communities to stop human trafficking. We have a number of resources slated to be released this month, including a staff development series and an easy-to-use communication resource for schools and districts to support their trafficking prevention efforts. We are also planning a series of webinars to inform educators about recognizing, understanding, and preventing human trafficking in and around school environments. By working together and bringing awareness to this issue, we can help prevent human trafficking.
Wishing you a safe, healthy, and productive 2022! I hope to see some of you at the National ESEA Conference in February!
Ruth Ryder
|
The Statewide Family Engagement Centers (SFEC) program is authorized under title IV, part E of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA). The purpose of the SFEC program is to provide financial support to organizations that deliver technical assistance and training to SEAs and LEAs in the implementation and enhancement of systemic and effective family engagement policies, programs, and activities that lead to improvements in student development and academic achievement. The Secretary is authorized to award grants to statewide organizations (or consortia of such organizations) to establish SFECs that:
- carry out parent education and family engagement in education programs, and
- provide comprehensive training and technical assistance to SEAs, LEAs, schools identified by SEAs and LEAs, organizations that support family-school partnerships, and other such programs.
Grants were first awarded to 11 grantees in 2018. Some examples of SFEC resources include:
|
Meet Department Staff Member Beth Yeh
Learn more about Beth Yeh, federal program officer for the Statewide Family Engagement Centers program.
How long have you been at the Department?
- I’ve been at the Department for 21 years.
What do you most enjoy about working at the Department?
- My favorite thing about working at the Department is all the interesting and caring people I’ve met.
What is one thing you’d like to see happen for the SFEC Program in the next year?
- This program was first authorized in 2018 and only 13 states have centers. The grantees are currently in their fourth year of the grant and are producing a variety of excellent resources. I hope in the next year more people learn about the program and are able to use the resources to help families and schools work together more effectively.
|
COVID-19 Data Dashboard
The Department, in collaboration with the CDC, has launched a COVID-19 data dashboard to help the public keep track of the impact of COVID-19 on K-12 schools. Data will be updated each week, and where possible, the information is presented geographically so that educators and families can understand the impact of COVID in their communities.
|
Building School-Community Partnerships
These resources by the National Comprehensive Center can assist school districts, schools, and community organizations in engaging a diverse set of partners, implementing effective consultation practices, and building and sustaining working relationships. Topics include establishing data sharing agreements between community-based organizations and schools, sharing best practices in youth mentoring, and building school-community partnerships to advance equity, among others.
Literacy Priorities in Local District ARP Plans
This tip sheet by the National Comprehensive Center is an interactive tool intended to guide state-level staff as they review, strengthen, and monitor LEAs’ plans for American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to accelerate literacy learning to ensure the return on investments in the form of student success. The guide includes important questions to consider, along with tips and relevant links for more information.
Prioritizing Teachers: Importance of Self-Care and Adult Social and Emotional Competencies
This brief by the National Comprehensive Center highlights two critical components of professional development trainings for educators – self-care and adult social and emotional competencies (commonly referred to as “adult SEL”). The brief provides guidance for practitioners at the school, district, and state levels on how to develop a tailored approach for conducting professional development for educators, by fostering their well-being and building their capacity to engage in trauma-informed pedagogy.
|
Key Levers for Successful School-Family Relationships
This blog post by the Region 9 Comprehensive Center highlights levers for successful school and family engagement. These levers include making family engagement part of a larger ecosystem of support, leading by strengthening relationships and setting a welcoming tone, offering training and support to help families build their skills, and giving families a seat at the decision-making table.
|
Leveraging National Service in Your Schools: A Superintendent’s/Principal’s Toolkit to Utilizing National Service Resources
AmeriCorps has released an updated tool kit, aligned with ED’s Reopening Roadmap, to help schools leverage national service to support with their daily work. You can find additional information on AmeriCorps’ education-focused work on the “What We Do” page of its website.
|
|
$182 Million Announced for the Education Innovation and Research Grants
On Dec. 13, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced $182 million in new grant awards to 30 school districts, institutions of higher education (IHEs), and nonprofit organizations across the United States as part of the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program. These grants will support local efforts to develop, implement, and take to scale entrepreneurial and evidence-based projects that have the potential to improve academic achievement for underserved students.
Twenty-six of the thirty grantees address at least one of the priorities included in the competitions: addressing the impact of the pandemic and promoting equity in student access to high-quality educational resources and opportunities.
With these grants, the EIR program is supporting:
- over $46 million to grants serving rural areas,
- over $67 million to grants focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education (including computer science), and
- over $73 million to grants supporting social and emotional learning (SEL) projects.
A full list of selected grantees can be found on this page.
|
Regional Education Laboratory (REL) Report: Student Learning Changes during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Illinois School Districts
Leaders at the Illinois State Board of Education and in Illinois public school districts wanted to better understand how student learning changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, REL Midwest conducted a study examining data from 17 Illinois school districts over five years, including four years prior to the pandemic, to measure how student learning changed in fall 2020 relative to fall terms prior to the pandemic. The study demonstrates how learning changed in both mathematics and reading for students in grades 3-8, as well as how these changes varied across student characteristics and district size.
Key findings include the following:
- In fall 2020, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, students in grades 4-8 scored lower than expected in mathematics after adjusting for other factors. The study did not find significant changes in learning in mathematics in grade 3 or in reading in any grade level.
- The magnitude of changes in learning in mathematics varied by grade level, with larger estimated changes in learning in grades 6-8 than in grades 4 and 5.
- Student characteristics, such as eligibility for the National School Lunch Program, special education status, English learner status, and race/ethnicity, were associated with changes in learning in mathematics in some grade levels to varying degrees.
- District size was not related to changes in learning in mathematics, after adjusting for other factors.
|
Impact Aid FY 2023 Application Deadline Reminder
Does your district apply for Impact Aid Funding?
The deadline to submit applications for FY 2023 Section 7002 (payments for federal property) and Section 7003 (payments for federally connected children) is Jan. 31.
Visit the Impact Aid Portal to get started right away using our helpful instructions, tips, videos, and resource documents.
Start now to avoid the 10% penalty applied to applications submitted after Jan. 31!
Need Help?
You can submit questions from inside the application system, phone our Help Desk at 202-260-3858, or send an email to Impact.Aid@ed.gov.
|
Message from the Office of Indian Education Director
The Office of Indian Education (OIE) looks forward to kicking off another new year of supporting grantee activities. During the month of January, we are especially interested to hear about the needs of our grantee community. Please don’t hesitate to send us a message and let us know how we can better support your success.
Don’t forget to connect with us via our webpage and follow us on Twitter @OIEIndianEd for routine updates. Wishing everyone a happy New Year!
|
OIE Discretionary Grant News
The Discretionary Team invites you to check out their program webpages for up-to-date information on important events and activities:
Interested in joining the OIE Discretionary Team? Stay on the lookout for a vacancy notice and submit your application (Indian Preference will be applied) right away!
|
Notice Inviting Applications for FY 2022 Indian Education Formula Grants
The Department issued a notice inviting applications (NIA) for new awards for FY 2022 or SY 2022-23 for Indian Education Formula Grants to Local Educational Agencies. The Electronic Application System for Indian Education (EASIE) Part I will open in mid-February and close in early March.
All recent technical assistance information can be found on our http://easie.grads360.org website.
|
Notices Inviting Applications for the High School Equivalency Program and College Assistance Migrant Program
The FY 2022 NIAs are now available for the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) and College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP). HEP helps migratory and seasonal farmworkers (or children of such workers) who are 16 years of age or older and not currently enrolled in school to obtain the equivalent of a high school diploma and, subsequently, to gain employment or begin postsecondary education or training. CAMP assists students who are migratory or seasonal farmworkers (or children of such workers) enrolled in their first year of undergraduate studies at an IHE. The CAMP funding supports completion of the first year of studies. Competitive five-year grants for HEP and CAMP projects are made to IHEs or to nonprofit private agencies that cooperate with such institutions.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: Feb. 1
Applicant information pages:
|
American Rescue Plan Outlying Areas State Educational Agencies (ARP-OA SEA) Implementation Plans Approved
The Department is excited to announce the approval of all American Rescue Plan Outlying Areas State Educational Agencies (ARP-OA SEA) Grant Implementation Plans. The ARP-OA SEA Fund provided $850 million for the Secretary of Education to allocate to American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, based on their respective needs. The Secretary allocated these funds to support safely reopening and sustaining safe operations of schools, while meeting the academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of students resulting from the pandemic. ARP-OA SEA Grant Implementation Plans can be viewed on this page.
|
Native Achievement Programs Update
The Alaska Native Education and Native Hawaiian Education program team would like to acknowledge the strong engagement in technical assistance sessions from our grantees this past year. Highlights from 2021 include conducting over 60 post-award calls, holding two post-award informational webinars, and facilitating logic model technical assistance sessions. The technical assistance sessions supported grantees in finalizing their project logic models to help grantees enhance monitoring and evaluation practices. We look forward to another busy year of supporting teaching and learning in Alaska and Hawaii!
|
If you know someone who would like to subscribe to the OESE Newsflash, encourage them to sign up! This link also will allow subscribers to manage their subscriber settings and unsubscribe.
Archived newsletters are available on this website.
Sign up for more Department of Education-supported news resources:
This newsletter may reference and contain links to external sources. The opinions expressed in these sources do not reflect the views, positions, or policies of the U.S. Department of Education, nor should their inclusion be considered an endorsement of any organization.
|
