From the report: "This report offers recommendations for state departments of education on how to meet the assessment needs of students with disabilities, including English learners with disabilities and students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, during times of interrupted education due to extended school closures. It also includes ideas for information that state departments can give to local schools.

From the brief: "The need is obvious: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted schools across the country, negatively impacting student learning, especially for students of color and students experiencing poverty. While there is some debate about the appropriateness of the term “learning loss,” what is clear from recently released reports about achievement on standardized tests is that students are behind their pre-pandemic peers in math and reading... the American Rescue Plan (ARP), provides $122 billion to states, $110 billion of which must go to districts.

From the paper: "... we use NWEA MAP test data to examine variation in students’ achievement and growth during the pandemic across multiple dimensions.

From the paper: "Our findings highlight the challenges that recovery efforts faced during the 2021–22 school year. Although, on average, math and reading test score gains during the school year reached the pace of pre-pandemic school years, they were not accelerated beyond that pace. In the districts where we had detailed data on student participation in academic interventions, we found that recovery efforts often fell short of original expectations for program scale, intensity of treatment, and impact.

From the report: "Over the past 18 months, the parents of an estimated 10.8 million students, or nearly one in five of the nation’s schoolchildren, did not get what they wanted from their child’s school. These families are not a monolith — they represent a diverse range of communities found across America, both in terms of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Families’ preferences for their children’s education in the fall of 2020 looked very different from their preferences in any previous year.

From the report: "With the rapid closures of schools following the COVID-19 pandemic, the dissemination of information was chaotic and, at times, unavailable. Additionally, as families began to understand the closures would continue through the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, these same problems persisted. ...almost half of the districts did not provide information regarding grading procedures for assignments/tasks/assessments.

From the brief: "Teacher preparation programs and student teaching experiences play a major role in determining where candidates take job placements in ways that can influence both job markets and staffing shortages. School systems can provide in-service supports for new teachers whose student teaching experiences were interrupted or incomplete. Student teachers represent an important pool of additional talent for schools; creative deployment of student teachers could provide a major boost as the COVID-19 crisis continues."