In May 2023, the RESTART Network hosted a two-day in-person forum to discuss accelerating student learning, fostering student connectedness and social and emotional learning, and emerging research related to pandemic recovery. The forum brought together researchers, policymakers, leaders, and practitioners from across the country to share their knowledge, perspectives, and experiences. 

The forum featured interactive panels and small-group discussions, with a focus on sharing current strategies for accelerating student learning. To wrap up the forum, a panel of high school students shared their experiences with remote learning and the return to in-person instruction.  

Session 1: Student Connectedness and the Implications for Accelerated Learning 

This session featured two research presentations and a panel of policy and practice leaders sharing their reflections and experiences. Forum participants engaged in a question and answer period, then in table-based conversations about the findings and ideas raised in the session. 

Session 2: Needs of the Field: Small Group Discussions 

These small group discussions brought together attendees based on their roles. These roles included LEA and SEA leaders and policymakers, national policymakers, and education researchers. Discussions focused on capturing strengths/successes, current areas of challenge, and identifying gaps where research may provide additional insights.  

Review notes from the session here.

Session 3: Early Findings on Common Strategies for Accelerating Learning 

This session featured two research presentations and a panel of policy and practice leaders sharing their reflections and experiences. Forum participants engaged in a question and answer period, then in table-based conversations about the findings and ideas raised in the session. 

Session 4: Small Group Topical Discussions 

Small groups were formed focused on learning recovery topics including addressing unfinished learning, attending to school climate, student engagement, operational management, and ESSER investment, and involving community members in recovery efforts. Discussions focused on capturing strengths/successes, current areas of challenge, and identifying gaps where research may provide additional insights. 

Review notes from the session here. 

Session 5: Charting our Ecosystem of Resources and Needs 

Attendees participated in an activity to identify their go-to resources for information related to recovery efforts, share what they have learned from the forum, and list information about recovery efforts they are still searching for.  

Session 6: Students Discuss Their Post-Pandemic Onset School Experiences 

Students from the Washington D.C. area shared their experiences transitioning to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent return to school. The students shared challenges they experienced during the pandemic and return to learning such as feelings of isolation, difficulty reacclimating to in-person learning, and the difficulty of managing the stress of the pandemic conditions and grief over loss of loved ones. They also shared the factors that supported them including their friends, caring teachers in the school, efforts made by school staff to welcome them back to school and foster a sense of belonging, and courses, clubs, sports, and after-school programs that engaged them. Their answers provided valuable insights into students’ experiences.