Real-Time Data & Equitable Learning Recovery: Emerging Pathways to Smarter Decisions?

The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the learning and development of children across the country, with children in economically challenged families bearing the brunt. The release this fall of the 2022 NAEP scores confirm the sobering state of affairs, revealing widened gaps as lower-performing students lost significant ground while top performers largely held steady. Continued analysis of the data in what is frequently called “The Nation’s Report Card” can help us understand how best to respond to the current crisis. But, given the immensity of the learning loss and daunting challenges facing children, families, schools and communities, access to real-time data and actionable insights are critical. How are families with young children experiencing and navigating the pandemic and its physical, emotional, financial and educational effects? What are the top concerns and desires of parents and educators in this moment and where is there alignment? What types of actions have school districts taken to prevent learning loss and accelerate learning recovery, and how do they effectively engage families? Please join us as we explore three sources of real-time data that can help to answer the questions above, including the RAPID early childhood and family well-being survey based at Stanford University, the School Pulse national sample survey of schools and Learning Heroes’ 2022 national survey of parents and educators. In a panel conversation, moderated by CGLR’s John Gomperts, I will join leaders of these other data sources in discussing their implications for our collective efforts to advance equitable learning recovery. In the earliest months of the pandemic, CGLR joined McKinsey in calling pandemic-precipitated learning loss “the hurt that could last a lifetime.” While the new NAEP scores affirm the validity of those predictions, by taking research and data-informed action now we can help kids recover.