State creates post-pandemic education task force
A new state task force has formed to tackle pandemic learning loss and look at the future of Connecticut schools.
The Connecticut State Department of Education said the AccelerateCT Education Task Force would include more than 80 teachers, school administrators and staff, students, families and advocates and was charged with designing a plan for learning recovery and education after the COVID-19 pandemic. “While we acknowledge the pandemic’s substantial disruption to learning, profession and life, it is critical to our children’s education that we not go back to ‘how it was before,’” Charlene Russell-Tucker, the acting education commissioner, said in a statement. “Now more than ever, it is time to convene and leverage our collective knowledge and expertise and tackle the challenges that exist for our students now and in the future.”
The task force is expected to help develop a statewide education recuperation and acceleration framework along with enhanced learning and enrichment programs for this spring and summer. Plans include ways to reduce opportunity gaps and advance learning equity.
The task force held its first meeting March 18 and will gather weekly to identify best practices and offer guidance. The end result is expected to produce statewide guidance on academic support and acceleration, family and community engagement, safety and social-emotional well-being, the digital divide and summer enrichment.
Details will be released as they’re finalized by the task force. “We know districts are starting to plan for the summer and next school year,” a spokesperson for the education department wrote in an email. “We’re also aware districts are in the process of submitting their (emergency relief) funding applications, so we want to get them a preliminary product.”