[Senate Hearing 117-401]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                                                        S. Hrg. 117-401

                    SUPPORTING STUDENTS AND SCHOOLS:
                          PROMISING PRACTICES
                          TO GET BACK ON TRACK

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                                   ON

          EXAMINING SUPPORTING STUDENTS AND SCHOOLS, FOCUSING ON
                PROMISING PRACTICES TO GET BACK ON TRACK

                               __________

                             JUNE 22, 2022

                               __________

    Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
                            and Pensions




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                               ______
                                 

                 U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

48-913 PDF                WASHINGTON : 2023










          COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                    PATTY MURRAY, Washington, Chair

BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont          RICHARD BURR, North Carolina, 
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania       Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             RAND PAUL, M.D., Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut   SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia                  BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TINA SMITH, Minnesota                MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          MITT ROMNEY, Utah
                                     TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
                                     JERRY MORAN, Kansas

                     Evan T. Schatz, Staff Director
               David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
                  John Righter, Deputy Staff Director
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               STATEMENTS

                        WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2022

                                                                   Page

                           Committee Members

Murray, Hon. Patty, Chair, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
  and Pensions, Opening statement................................     1

Cassidy, Hon. Bill, a U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana, 
  Opening statement..............................................     4

                               Witnesses

Goldhaber, Dan, Director, CALDER (National Center for Analysis of 
  Longitudinal Data in Education Research at American Institutes 
  for Research), Director, CEDR (Center for Education Data and 
  Research at University of Washington), Seattle, WA.............     8
    Prepared statement...........................................    10
    Summary statement............................................    16

Russell-Tucker, Charlene M., Commissioner, Connecticut State 
  Department of Education, Hartford, CT..........................    17
    Prepared statement...........................................    19
    Summary statement............................................    26

Russell, Kurt, 2022 National Teacher of the Year and High School 
  History Teacher, Oberlin High School, Oberlin, OH..............    28
    Prepared statement...........................................    29
    Summary statement............................................    32

Wall, Erin, Parent, Cary, NC.....................................    33
    Prepared statement...........................................    35
    Summary statement............................................    36








 
                    SUPPORTING STUDENTS AND SCHOOLS:
                          PROMISING PRACTICES
                          TO GET BACK ON TRACK

                              ----------                              


                        Wednesday, June 22, 2022

                                       U.S. Senate,
       Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
                                                    Washington, DC.

    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in 
room G50, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray, 
Chair of the Committee, presiding.

    Present: Senators Murray [presiding], Casey, Murphy, Kaine, 
Hassan, Smith, Rosen, Cassidy, Braun, Marshall, Scott, and 
Tuberville.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY

    The Chair. Good morning. The Senate Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions Committee will please come to order. Today 
we are having a hearing on the impact of the pandemic on 
student learning and how schools are helping students get back 
on track. I will have an opening statement followed by Senator 
Cassidy, and then we will introduce our witnesses.

    After the witnesses give their testimony, Senators will 
each have 5 minutes for a round of questions. One of our 
witnesses is joining us by video and I want to thank our 
Committee staff for making that possible. And while we are 
unable to have the hearing fully open to the public or media 
for in-person attendance, live video is available on our 
Committee website at help.senate.gov.

    The livestream will include closed captioning. If you are 
in need of other accommodations, please reach out to the 
Committee or the Office of Congressional Accessibility 
Services. When COVID-19 upended daily life, the disruption for 
schools, and families, and our students was especially severe. 
I mean, seriously, put yourself in the shoes of any kid from 
Washington State to Louisiana. These kids lost valuable time in 
the classroom with their friends and teachers.

    They had to confide in a counselor or teacher over Zoom or 
a phone. And after school activities like sports are banned, 
got cut totally short. And some kids as we now face the earth 
shattering loss of a loved one. I hope we can all agree we need 
to do everything we can to bring stability to our kids' lives, 
which means keeping our communities safe and preparing better 
for the fall so our kids can learn safely and grow.

    Now, I have been talking to parents and educators and 
students back in Washington State about what they are going 
through. And every single conversation drives home how critical 
it is that we provide the support kids need to recover from the 
many ways this pandemic affected them. I think it is important 
to recognize how this pandemic has really made things harder 
for a lot of kids, particularly students of color, and students 
from families with low incomes who often lack access to 
resources.

    These students have faced decades of inequitable resources 
at the schools they attend, undermining these schools' ability 
to hire experienced teachers and provide advanced coursework 
options for their students. Kids living in rural communities 
have struggled, and I believe very strongly that children in 
the rural Yakima Valley deserve the exact same opportunities as 
kids in Seattle.

    I also want to note today is the anniversary of the 
landmark Olmstead decision, which affirmed people with 
disabilities have the right to an integrated life in their 
communities, at home, at work, and at school.

    We have to keep working to make the promises of Olmstead a 
reality for everyone. And to me, that means considering and 
meeting the needs of students with disabilities in our 
policymaking. Now, while we are still learning the full extent 
of how COVID has impacted our kids' learning, we know enough to 
know this needs to be a top priority for all of us.

    Data shows that kids are months or even years behind where 
they would be in a typical year. And a deepening educational 
divide between majority white schools and majority black 
schools, between wealthier school districts and higher poverty 
districts. The results of this year's statewide exams made 
abundantly clear what other data is showing as well.

    Our students across every demographic have been affected by 
this pandemic, and we need to do everything we can to help 
these students recover. This is something that I have been 
focused on since the earliest days of this crisis.

    It is why I was glad we were able to work across the aisle 
at the start of this pandemic to make sure our early bipartisan 
relief packages got schools the resources they needed to help 
keep students connected during remote learning and reopen for 
in-person learning as soon as public health officials deemed it 
safe.

    Given the scope of this crisis, I also fought hard to 
invest $122 billion for schools in the American Rescue Plan, 
which Democrats passed, by the way, without a single Republican 
vote. Because recovering from this pandemic and ensuring kids 
get the resources they need won't just take days. It is going 
to take months and years. And we cannot shortchange our public 
schools, our parents, or our kids.

    That funding we passed, both in our bipartisan work and 
through the Democrats' American Rescue Plan, has been critical 
for getting us to where we are today, to getting the vast 
majority of schools safely back open for in-person learning, to 
getting schools additional tests and mass and better 
ventilation, to supporting mental health and counseling 
services for our students, to provide students with summer 
learning, tutoring, and other opportunities to address the 
impacts of this pandemic.

    That last part is critical. I worked with Members on this 
Committee to ensure that the American Rescue Plan included 
specific resources to address learning loss. Because it was so 
clear to me from talking with just about any parent or teacher 
from Washington State that getting our kids learning back on 
track was not going to be like flipping on a switch.

    These are resources that were badly needed and are being 
put to good use in all kinds of ways, like school districts 
providing additional tutoring and addressing the social and 
emotional needs of students. But let's be clear, our work is 
far from over.

    What happens next in this pandemic is not a given, 
especially amid the threat of a fall surge and new variants. We 
have fought to protect the hard fought progress we have made, 
including schools--keeping schools safely open for in-person 
learning. That means passing additional COVID funding so our 
communities and schools can prepare now to keep students and 
families safe from whatever this pandemic throws at us next.

    These are resources we desperately need. I encourage my 
colleagues to work with us to make sure schools safely stay 
open for in-person learning this fall. We need to work together 
to give our communities more than just empty words. We need to 
get this COVID funding done immediately because our schools and 
our communities cannot afford to wait until there is a new 
variant or a new surge.

    Schools and educators need action from Congress now and 
support and expertise from the Administration so they can plan 
ahead for the fall to keep our students safely in the classroom 
because our kids cannot afford to deal with another major 
setback in their schooling, especially after the hardships of 
the past few years, the learning loss that has set so many 
students months and years behind through no fault of their own, 
the trauma and mental health challenges our kids are facing, 
the burnout that is causing so many educators to think about 
leaving a field they love, and the stress on parents' shoulders 
as they try to get their kids the support they need.

    Democrats are working to deliver real solutions for 
students, schools, parents, and educators on these issues. I 
want parents to know this. I am in your corner, fighting for 
you and your kids. I got my start in politics as a parent 
advocate. I organized moms and dads across my state to save a 
preschool program. I served on my local school board.

    I know how valuable it is to have parents involved, and I 
want to make sure every child in this country can get an 
excellent public education that prepares them to succeed in 
life. And every parent can have their voice heard and be 
involved in their kids school. Our schools are better off that 
way. That is why I fought to pass the American Rescue Plan, to 
deliver the resources our students, educators, and public 
schools need.

    Let's be clear, these resources are helping schools in 
every single state because kids in every state have affected by 
this pandemic. That is why I am focused on working to support 
families and lower costs and deliver good paying jobs. We are 
focused on the economy and tackling inflation, so parents 
actually have the time to ask their kids about school or to 
help with their homework and to stay involved.

    I am glad we are working in a bipartisan way to make 
progress on so many challenges families are facing right now. 
Earlier this month, we passed bipartisan legislation on this 
Committee to lower drug prices, address the formula shortage, 
and strengthen families' emergency and retirement savings. And 
we are in the process right now of passing meaningful, 
bipartisan steps to save lives and keep kids and families safe 
from gun violence.

    I want to thank Senator Murphy, who is here today, in 
particular for his hard work and leadership on this. Now, this 
package is, of course, not everything I believe we need to do 
to end gun violence, not by a mile, but the most extreme option 
on the table is doing nothing at all. This package will close 
the boyfriend loophole at the Federal level.

    An important step we can take to protect people, especially 
women, from abusive partners. And it is investments in access 
to mental health will help stem the mental health crisis our 
Country is experiencing. Let me be clear, we have to treat 
America's gun violence crisis as a gun problem, not a mental 
health problem. We need, I believe, universal background 
checks, a ban on assault weapons, and more investment in 
community violence intervention programs.

    With that in mind, I am continuing to work with Senator 
Burr to negotiate a bipartisan mental health package, as well 
as to address the stress, depression, anxiety, suicide, and so 
many other mental health challenges this pandemic has made so 
much worse. And there is more we need to do and so many other 
challenges that our families and students are facing.

    But today, I look forward to hearing from all of our 
witnesses about how we can tackle one of the biggest, the 
learning loss caused by this pandemic. And with that, I will 
turn it over to Senator Cassidy for his opening remarks.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CASSIDY

    Senator Cassidy. Good morning, and thank you, Madam Chair. 
Thank you for scheduling this meeting. And we are here to talk 
about our students and the enormous, unprecedented learning 
loss crisis, which is a direct result of school closures. I 
feel as if I have a kind of personal connection with this.

    My wife is the chair of a board for a public charter school 
addressing the needs of those with dyslexia. At the outset of 
the pandemic, she sent them all home with computers in which 
they could monitor what they were doing online, and if they 
didn't have internet at home, a Wi-Fi device by which they 
could monitor.

    But they had the--the school had the ability to check on 
which kids were using which programs. And they found that those 
children who are at the highest academic risk, their children 
from the lowest socioeconomic background, never opened their 
computer.

    Makes sense, mom may have been at work, single family, 
without supervision, and the child was not able to go online.

    This idea that we were going to make things up by doing 
things remotely turned out to be totally, tragically false. I 
thank my witnesses for coming to talk about this issue. Keeping 
schools closed flew in the face of logic, reasoning, science, I 
say that as a doctor, and evidence. And now children are facing 
the consequences of bad decisions made by adults with enormous 
consequences.

    Knowing that now it may take years to overcome the 
downwardly adjusted trajectory for some of the students further 
left behind. Now, by the way, money is not the issue. $190 
billion is going through the door to support K through 12 
education, but only 23 percent has been drawn down. So that is 
troublesome.

    Even with the massive influx of cash, we still, still 
witnessed massive, widespread school closures months into the 
pandemic, even after medical professionals said it was safe to 
go back. Also, despite a Federal vaccination distribution plan 
that prioritized teachers and other school employees.

    But even as more teachers became vaccinated, the goalpost 
for reopening schools was constantly moved back. Just this year 
in January in Chicago, teachers unions shut down schools for a 
week for refusing to return to in-person learning. And while 
the adults bickered, the students fell further behind. They 
struggled emotionally and mentally, which also affected their 
grades.

    While the evidence was clear that it was, in fact safe to 
return to the classroom, teachers unions forced shutdowns to 
continue, and in many cases, this was enabled by politicians. 
We know that it was safe to reopen because others in the United 
States did reopen and it was indeed safe.

    Childcare facilities and private schools were able to 
safely remain open even during the height of the pandemic, when 
the interest of the student was truly put first, rather than 
the interest of a union or a politician to pander to the union.

    A way to reopen was found and the students got the 
education and support they needed. As a result of remote 
learning and shuttered schools, we find ourselves in this 
current predicament. Scholarly research proves just how 
detrimental virtual schooling was for students.

    Keeping schools closed was detrimental for all, but 
especially for students from the disadvantaged background. 
While students in high income schools who had access to 
resources fell behind academically during remote instruction, 
their peers at lower income schools struggled even more.

    English learners, minority students, students with 
disabilities, and at least in the experience of the school my 
wife is involved with, dyslexic students face the brunt of 
this. Now, we already have problems with achievement gaps. 
Imagine a kindergarten student who has dyslexia and has yet to 
be diagnosed or given specific instructions during this time.

    The student would surely fall further behind, and the 
damage done could last for years. The student would have 
trouble learning to read, which would then make it harder for 
the student to read, to learn in the future. Now, these 
achievement gaps have been exacerbated to an even greater 
degree.

    Remote instruction is for students and parents and families 
into a crisis which we know could have been avoided. One study 
out of Sweden, where most primary schools remained open during 
the duration of the pandemic, showed no general learning loss 
accrued. Now I want to make it clear that Sweden's decision was 
not at the expense of teachers' and students' health.

    Severe cases of COVID-19 students was very low, despite the 
decision to keep schools open. GAO, the Government Accounting 
Office, a nonpartisan entity, found that 85 percent of teachers 
reported that any form of live instruction, whether fully or 
partially in-person, was beneficial to their students.

    Equally as telling, GAO found that 61 percent of all U.S. 
teachers had more students experiencing emotional distress than 
normal during the pandemic. And that's just for the students 
who remain enrolled. Remote instruction also has led to 
decreased enrollment across the Nation.

    For instance, most remote districts have lost 8.1 percent 
of their kindergarten students. I will also note that private, 
parochial, and charter schools were, if allowed, much more 
likely to remain open. And indeed their attendance increased. 
Giving parents the power to choose the school that is best for 
their child was powerfully good for the child. There is a long 
road ahead. Keeping schools closed has led us directly to this 
crisis.

    On top of the learning loss amassed, students have 
struggled and are struggling with emotional health. It is clear 
that the decisions made by adults have inflicted tragedy upon 
an entire cohort of students.

    Current students will feel the effects and consequences 
potentially years down the line if we do not work together to 
turn the tide now. For each student, for each year, students 
are behind academically, learning loss compounds and the issue 
bleeds into subsequent years, with the next year being worse 
than the last. We owe students more.

    They deserve better from the adults who made decisions 
daily about their lives and future livelihoods. I thank you 
again, witnesses, for testifying today. Their insight is 
valuable as we reflect on what could have been done better and 
how we move forward to best serve our Nation's students, and 
their families, and our collective future. I look forward to 
your testimony, and once more, thank the Chair.

    The Chair. Thank you. We will now introduce today's 
witnesses. Our first witness is Dr. Dan Goldhaber. He is the 
Director of the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal 
Data in Education Research at the American Institute for 
Research. He is also the Director for Education Data and 
Research at the University of Washington.

    Dr. Goldhaber's work focuses on the policies and practices 
that impact student learning in K-12 schools, like the many 
different issues that affect our teachers, including recruiting 
new teachers to the profession and supporting teachers in the 
classroom to be as successful as possible, and the connections 
between students K-12 experiences and their experiences and 
success after graduation.

    Thank you so much for joining us remotely for this hearing, 
Dr. Goldhaber. Appreciate you doing that. I am always happy to 
have folks from Washington State bring their voices to the 
Nation's capital, so great to have you here today. I will turn 
it over to Senator Murphy to introduce our next witness.

    Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Looking 
forward to this hearing and welcome all of our panelists. I am 
here to introduce our State Education Commissioner from 
Connecticut, my friend Charlene Russell-Tucker. She took over 
as our state's Education Commissioner when Miguel Cardona was 
selected by President Biden to serve as our Education 
Secretary.

    I will tell you that part of the reason that President 
Biden selected Secretary Cardona is because Connecticut was 
able to open our schools faster than many other states, and we 
did it in a safe way that put our kids in a position to avoid 
unnecessary learning loss.

    During that period of time, it was Commissioner Russell-
Tucker, then Deputy Commissioner, who was Secretary Cardona's 
right hand in making sure that we got our kids and our teachers 
back in the classroom as fast as possible. She has worked in 
education policy her entire career.

    She has had a specialty in child nutrition. She was 
President of the Connecticut Academy for Nutrition and 
Dietetics for a period of time. I will just add that she is 
someone who understands the needs of the whole child. How a 
children's nutrition, how a children's social emotional growth 
is so key to success in school.

    When this Committee and you, Madam Chair, led the effort to 
make sure that our Rescue Plan included funds for summer 
programing and summer learning, it was Commissioner Russell-
Tucker who led Connecticut's sort of model setting effort to 
get those funds out the door and give access to thousands of 
low income kids to summer programing, summer camps, and summer 
learning.

    That Connecticut program, I think, has become, as I said, a 
model many other states are following. I am grateful for her 
leadership and to hear from her today. Thank you, Madam Chair.

    The Chair. Thank you. Our next witness is Kurt Russell. He 
is a high school history teacher at Oberlin High School in 
Ohio. He is an advisor for his school's student led black 
student union and the head coach for the school's varsity 
basketball team. He is a 25 year veteran of the classroom and 
the 2022 National Teacher of the Year. Congratulations on that 
honor, Mr. Russell.

    I am really glad you could join us today to provide a 
teacher's perspective on the challenges our kids are facing 
right now. And thank you as well for all you do for your 
students, and for sharing your time and expertise with us 
today. Our final witness is Erin Wall. Ms. Wall is a mother 
from Cary,North Carolina, with three young children.

    Now, no two families who faced the same challenges during 
this pandemic. But it is pretty clear to me that every family 
is struggling and that we need to make sure we are listening to 
parents and making sure they have a seat at the table when it 
comes to figuring out how we can support their kids.

    Ms. Wall, I am really glad you could join us today to share 
your family's experience. We look forward to hearing from you 
as well. With that, we will begin the testimony. Dr. Goldhaber, 
we will begin with you.

 STATEMENT OF DAN GOLDHABER, DIRECTOR, CALDER [NATIONAL CENTER 
  FOR ANALYSIS OF LONGITUDINAL DATA IN EDUCATION RESEARCH AT 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH], DIRECTOR, CEDR [CENTER FOR 
   EDUCATION DATA AND RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON], 
                          SEATTLE, WA

    Mr. Goldhaber. Thank you. Chair Murray, and Senator 
Cassidy, Members of the Committee, good morning and thank you 
for the opportunity to speak with you today. As Senator Murray 
mentioned, my name is Dan Goldhaber and I direct research 
centers at the American Institute for Research and the 
University of Washington. But just to be clear of the opinions 
that I am going to offer here today are not necessarily 
reflective of either organization.

    The views I will express, however, are informed by work I 
have been doing over the past year with colleagues in a 
consortium of school districts. This work is designed to better 
understand the pandemic's impacts on student learning and the 
efficacy of school district recovery efforts.

    Some of what I am going to talk about was actually very 
well said in the introductory remarks. But let me just say two 
things. First, COVID had a devastating impact on student 
learning. It is really hard to overstate the magnitude of what 
we and other researchers have documented.

    Our analysis of millions of student test scores from last 
fall found that students were, on average, about 3 months 
behind what they would have been expected to achieve in math 
and about 2 months behind in reading. I don't know if these 
numbers sound big or small but based on the connection between 
test and future earnings, we estimate that this could result in 
upwards of $2 trillion in lost future earnings if students 
don't recover.

    Historically, disadvantaged students are considerably 
further behind. So the pandemic exacerbated existing lines of 
inequity in student outcomes. But second, while COVID was on 
average quite bad, it is clearly it did not have the same 
impact everywhere.

    I am sure this comes as no surprise, in fact, it is clear 
from the introductory remarks that it comes as no surprise, but 
remote learning was generally very bad for student achievement. 
So places that were remote longer tended to be further behind.

    For instance, high poverty schools that stayed largely 
remote in the school year 2021, were behind expectations by 
about 5.5 months in math versus 2 months for those that were 
in-person for most of 2021.

    Math generally, math achievement was generally worse than 
reading achievement. But there are some districts that we are 
working with where we see that reading losses were actually 
larger than math losses. I think the message here is that 
districts need to carefully assess the status of their students 
and not assume that the national trends are necessarily 
reflective of local student needs.

    In the districts that we are working with, we are seeing 
lots of smart academic recovery investments, high dosage 
tutoring, various ways of extending, learning time, etcetera. 
We don't yet to know the efficacy of these investments as part 
of the work that we are doing, but I want to offer five things 
that I think we should be doing to help ensure academic 
recovery.

    One, and honestly, this seems a little silly to say, but we 
need to make sure to keep schools open. While schools were 
almost all in-person this past school year, some school systems 
were periodically closed due to a combination of COVID 
outbreaks and tight labor market. I think to help prevent this, 
there are two things that can be done.

    One, states need to streamline the bureaucracy associated 
with getting and keeping a substitute teaching credential to 
make sure that there are enough substitutes. And two, I would 
urge districts to have plans to reallocate staff so that not 
all schools close in a district when there are labor shortages.

    I also think it is important for districts to protect the 
schools that are educating the most vulnerable students, too. I 
think it's important to make sure that district responses to 
the COVID pandemic add up and that we monitor progress over 
time. Research can help here by providing estimates of the 
effects of various interventions like tutoring in summer 
school.

    But states or the Federal Government could take this to the 
next level with a COVID academic recovery calculator that 
basically puts together the estimated effects of interventions 
with the number of students that are receiving them and shows 
the degree to which this all adds up to changes in student 
learning at the district level.

    I would encourage the Federal Government to require 
districts to not just submit their ESSER plans, but also make 
clear that the anticipated effects of their interventions add 
up to a plausible recovery, and to report out at the end of 
each year whether students are in fact on a trajectory toward 
full academic recovery.

    Three, districts are spending a good deal of their ESSER 
funds on teachers and other personnel, and that makes sense. 
But I am worried that some of that across the board raises or 
generic retention incentives that we see are solutions to 
staffing challenges that are kind of a mile wide and just an 
inch deep and thus not sending really strong signals to the 
teacher labor market about where there is acute need.

    I would urge districts to tailor financial incentives to 
schools and subjects that are especially hard to staff. Four, I 
think we need to improve remote learning and--it was bad for my 
kids too, so I get it firsthand. But it is easy to dismiss 
remote learning as a failed experiment that we ought to 
abandon.

    But we need to help find ways for kids that are out for 
sickness in the future and more generally, to allow instruction 
for kids that are maybe out because of snow days and to reach 
kids with specialized subjects, even in cases where there are 
only a few kids in a particular district who might be ready or 
want to take those subjects.

    I sort of see digital instruction as part of our future. I 
also think that the skill set that is necessary for digital 
instruction is likely to be different than the skill set for 
teaching in-person, so that it is important that we have some 
innovation about how we prepare, train, and support teachers 
for this kind of digital instruction.

    Last, I think that we need a sense of urgency, and I 
frankly fear that a sense of urgency has not fully permeated 
throughout schools and communities. I urge leaders to make it 
clear that academic recovery from the pandemic will in some 
places be a long run project. And that we describe to the 
community more generally in language that they get the 
situation.

    For instance, describe learning in weeks or months of 
learning rather than in standard deviation or scale scores. 
Clear communication is important because we shouldn't view 
pandemic recovery as being solely taking place in the 
schoolhouse. Parents need to know what is at stake for their 
kids, so they know what to do--they know to do their part in 
the home, including in some cases, getting kids off to summer 
school.

    More broadly, having a clear sense of the stakes involved 
is important because some of the interventions that school 
systems may need, like extending the school year, tend to be 
not so popular.

    Knowing the urgency of the situation, provide tools to 
stakeholders to advocate for sometimes politically challenging 
interventions. Thank you. And again, I appreciate the 
opportunity to talk with you today, and I look forward to your 
questions.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Goldhaber follows:]
                  prepared statement of dan goldhaber
    Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, Members of the Committee, thank 
you for inviting me to testify today. My name is Dan Goldhaber. I am 
the director of the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data 
in Education Research (CALDER) at the American Institutes for Research. 
I also direct the Center for Education Data and Research at the 
University of Washington. For the past 25 years, I have been studying 
schools and how they affect student learning. I also study how schools 
affect student outcomes later in life, including college attendance and 
labor market participation. Much of my work focuses on the impact that 
teachers have on student outcomes and the public policies that 
influence the composition, distribution, and quality of the teacher 
workforce.

    Over the last year, I have been working with colleagues from NWEA, 
Harvard University, and Dartmouth College to better understand the 
impact of the COVID pandemic on student learning and school district 
recovery efforts. \1\ This is what I will focus on in my testimony 
today. Before I begin, I should note that the views I express here are 
my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my organizational 
affiliations or collaborators.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\  For more information about our project and what we are 
learning, see https://caldercenter.org/covid-recovery. Note that people 
often refer to the pandemic's impacts on learning (especially test-
based measures) using the phrase ``learning loss.'' Learning loss does 
not necessarily mean that individual student test scores decreased; 
instead, it means student scores are lower than what we would expect 
given historical (prepandemic) trends.
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           COVID Had a Devastating Impact on Student Learning
    Consistent with a growing body of research, our team found that 
COVID has had a devastating impact on student learning. \2\ For 
example, our analysis of millions of students in about 10,000 schools 
nationwide found on average that students were roughly 3 months behind 
where they would typically be in math in the fall of 2021. \3\3 In 
reading, students were roughly 2 months behind.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\  For more on the magnitude of the pandemic's effects on student 
tests, see Darling-Aduana (2022); Goldhaber, Kane, McEachin, & Morton 
(2022); and Kuhfeld et al. (2022). Test scores are only one measure of 
the academic impact of the pandemic. Critics of testing 
notwithstanding, test scores are a useful measure because they strongly 
predict later life outcomes (Goldhaber & Ozek, 2019) and line up with 
other pandemic impacts on schooling, such as challenges with student 
attendance and engagement (e.g., Carminucci et al., 2021; Ohio 
Department of Education, 2021), and enrollment in college (Leukhina & 
Werner, 2021; National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2022).
    \3\  To put that in perspective, the magnitude of the pandemic 
learning loss is larger than what we saw in the wake of Hurricane 
Katrina in New Orleans. Fortunately, New Orleans also shows what is 
possible: with massive investment and changes to the school system, 
students largely recovered from academically from the effects of 
Hurricane Katrina (Harris & Larsen, 2021; Sacerdote, 2012).

    At the same time, there is clear evidence that COVID exacerbated 
preexisting inequities in our schools. Like other researchers, we found 
that students of color (Black and Hispanic students) and students in 
higher poverty schools experienced larger COVID learning losses than 
other students. These disparities threaten the decades-long progress 
the Nation has made on closing racial/ethnic achievement gaps. \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\  The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has 
shown a gradual closure of racial/ethnic achievement gaps over the last 
30 years. It is quite likely that we will see a reversal of this trend 
in the short run because of the pandemic.

    Preliminary analyses from NWEA of spring 2022 test data suggest 
some signs that student achievement is rebounding. But it is clear that 
there is still an incredible amount of work left to be done. \5\ At 
current rates of improvement, the best-case scenario suggests it would 
take several years to return to pre-pandemic levels of achievement. And 
academic recovery will take even longer for historically marginalized 
students who experienced the worse impacts.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\  There is also some optimistic evidence from state assessments 
that some students may be bouncing back from the pandemic (e.g., 
Kilbride et al., 2022; Kogan, 2022; Tennessee Department of Education, 
2022). While this is encouraging, restoring pre-pandemic student 
achievement will not address achievement gaps that have long troubled 
public education.

    To be blunt, the pandemic put the Nation in a deep academic hole. 
Unless we climb out, many students will face diminished life prospects 
and social inequity will increase.
               COVID Impacts Were Not the Same Everywhere
    As devastating as COVID's impact on student learning has been, the 
story was not the same everywhere. In the face of uncertainty about in-
person schooling and community COVID spread, \6\ some school systems 
opted to remain remote during significant portions of the 2020--21 
school year while others returned to in-person learning. \7\ At the 
time, there were lots of competing ideas about school reopenings. I 
know because we felt some uncertainty about in-person schooling in my 
own household.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\  The evidence about whether in-person schooling led to 
community spread of COVID is mixed, which is unsurprising given that 
spread may be influenced by both conditions in schools (social 
distancing, etc.) and in the broader community (Goldhaber, Kane, 
McEachin, Morton, Patterson, et al., 2022).
    \7\  By our calculations, about 50 percent of students nationally 
returned in person in the fall and spent less than a month remote 
during the 2020--21 school year. In these districts, where classrooms 
reopened relatively quickly, student-achievement gaps by race and 
socioeconomic status widened a bit in reading but, fortunately, not in 
math.

    However, in hindsight it has become clear that students who learned 
remotely during 2020-21 saw larger learning losses than those who 
returned to in-person school. Because students of color and students in 
higher poverty schools were less likely to be learning in person, 
remote learning explains a substantial amount of the widening test 
score gaps that happened during the pandemic (Goldhaber et al., 2022). 
Our team estimated that students in high-poverty schools that stayed 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
remote lost the equivalent of about 5.5 months of learning.

    Still, even these broad trends can mask important variation. In 
some districts, for example, we found that learning losses were--
contrary to national trends--worse in reading than they were in math. 
We also found that, while widespread, learning losses were not 
universal. \8\ Such local variation is unsurprising given the different 
community contexts in which schools operate and differences in how they 
approached in-person and remote instruction. The point is that while 
recovery plans need to be big enough to meet the scale of the challenge 
they also need to respond to local context and avoid blanket solutions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\  Although the median student experienced lower math test 
achievement growth during the pandemic than would have been expected 
based on prepandemic patterns in 89 percent of districts, pandemic test 
growth did not trail prepandemic trends in 11 percent of districts.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     How Can We Get Back on Track?
    In most systems, the academic recovery from COVID will likely take 
years. It will also require multiple strategies. In the districts our 
team is working with, leaders are using everything from expanded 
learning time (e.g., summer school, after school programs, Saturday 
Academies, intersessions, extended school days and school years), to 
tutoring, to extra instructional blocks (e.g., double doses of math). 
\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\  Although some similarities in interventions exist, districts 
vary widely in the students and schools they target and other key 
features of the implementation of their initiatives. For example, most 
tutoring initiatives primarily serve students who are performing below 
a district-determined threshold; most extended school years, 
intersessions, and additional instructional blocks serve low-performing 
schools; and summer learning is generally open to all students, with 
priority given to disadvantaged and low-performing students. Other key 
characteristics of the initiatives that vary within and across 
districts include the intended frequency and duration (i.e., ``dose''), 
student--teacher ratio, provider type and qualifications, mode of 
instruction (i.e., remote vs. in-person), location of delivery, and 
time of day.

    We do not yet know if these strategies are working to help students 
catch up. But when well implemented and targeted to students who need 
them the most, these are plausible strategies for recovery. We should, 
however, be cautious about assuming that the effects of strategies like 
these can be inferred from prepandemic research estimates. Schools have 
never tried to implement supplemental academic interventions at the 
scale they are trying today. Intervention effects at this scale are 
arguably less certain; there is already evidence, for example, that the 
tight labor market is making it hard to implement some recovery 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
programs at scale.

    In the coming months, our team will be working with our district 
partners to better understand which of these strategies are working and 
for whom. In the meantime, I want to highlight six ideas that we should 
keep in mind on the road to recovery:
                          1. Keep Schools Open
    One of the best things we can do to support COVID recovery is keep 
schools open. A significant share (roughly 50 percent) of districts 
plan to spend Elementary and Secondary School Relief Fund (ESSER) 
dollars on physical plant investments, such as heating, ventilation, 
and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. \10\ These investments should help 
reduce the spread of COVID and keep schools open for in-person 
instruction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\  This estimate comes from FutureEd's June 7 summary of data 
(2022) compiled by Burbio (2022) on spending plans (note that actual 
spending may deviate from these plans). Burbio's data cover plans 
submitted by more than 5,000 local education agencies that represent 
nearly 75 percent of public school students; see https://www.future-
ed.org/local-covid-relief-spending/

    But as we saw during the 2021-2022 school year, surging variants 
(e.g., Omicron) and tight labor markets can still disrupt learning 
(Goldhaber & Gratz, 2021; Velez, 2021). \11\ So, in addition to 
investing in new HVAC systems, states should other things to help 
schools stay open. For example, states can make it find substitute 
teachers by ensuring that bureaucratic processes do not limit qualified 
people from subbing in schools when teachers are out sick (Goldhaber & 
Payne, 2022). Beyond expanding the pool of substitutes, states and 
school districts should also have plans to redeploy teachers to schools 
with the most vulnerable student populations during a COVID surge. 
State and Federal Governments could provide guidance for and require 
the disclosure of staffing plans that prevent the closure of whole 
school systems during potential future COVID surges.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\  See data on school disruptions from Burbio: https://
cai.burbio.com/school-opening-tracker/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 2. Make Sure District Responses Add Up
    Even if they can keep schools open, school districts will still 
need to use a range of strategies to help students catch up. Business 
as usual will not be enough. As districts implement additional 
interventions to deal with COVID losses, they should make clear-eyed 
assessments of whether those interventions are up to the task. 
Researchers can help here. Estimated effects exist for some of the 
highest profile interventions that districts are using today, including 
high-dosage tutoring, longer school days, and summer school. \12\ 
School districts should use these estimates to calculate whether their 
intervention plans have a plausible chance of helping their students 
fully recover academically.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \12\  For example, see Figlio et al. (2018), Lynch et al. (2022), 
Robinson et al. (2021).

    States or the Federal Government could help districts make these 
assessments by supporting a ``COVID recovery calculator'' that adds up 
the possible impact of district initiatives and tracks academic 
improvement over time. Districts need this information now. As one of 
my colleagues has concluded, too many districts' plans currently appear 
to fall short of what is needed (Kane, 2022). The broader community 
also needs to know whether district plans add up to recovery. I would 
encourage the Federal Government to require districts to not just 
submit their plans for recovery but also make clear that the 
anticipated achievement effects of their interventions add up to a 
plausible recovery.
                  3. Help Districts Monitor and Adjust
    Although a recovery calculator would be useful for broad 
assessments of recovery plans, we should not overstate its precision. 
As I noted above, the tight labor market and scale of the recovery 
effort may mean that even smart strategies do not yield the magnitude 
of positive effects we might expect based on prepandemic impact 
estimates. It also seems likely that schools will be unable to meet all 
students' needs during a regular school day and year. Some students 
will need more schooling time to fully catch up, requiring districts to 
work with new partners in extended school programming. We know from an 
abundance of research that programs that are conceptually well grounded 
often fail to improve student outcomes (e.g., Heinrich et al., 2010). 
In the months and years ahead, we must be open to the possibility of 
failure and adjustment and not assume that plans laid out now are set 
in concrete.

    As districts and schools navigate this uncertainty, they will need 
data on programs and student outcomes so they can monitor results, 
learn from bright spots, and adapt their strategies before it is too 
late. Districts need to map out multiyear targets for student 
achievement that measure whether students systemwide are on a 
trajectory that looks like it will result in academic recovery and 
improvement over time. Over the next 3 years that Federal resources are 
available for recovery efforts, states and districts should 
transparently report on their progress at the end of each school year 
and comparing their progress relative to estimates of what students 
need to recover.
       4. Narrowly Target Spending on Personnel to Areas of Need
    Districts are spending a good deal of their ESSER funds on teachers 
and other personnel. Decades of research show that having a great 
teacher (Chetty et al., 2014) and a stable teaching staff (Ronfeldt et 
al., 2013) can make a huge difference in student learning. But when it 
comes to teacher compensation, some districts appear to be using their 
ESSER funds to pay for across-the-board ``thank you'' bonuses or raises 
for teachers. This approach recognizes the real hardships and pressures 
teachers have faced during the pandemic and might help retain some 
teachers, but I do not see it as the most effective use of dollars.

    Long-standing research on teachers suggests that districts need to 
take a more strategic approach. Districts should target funds to hard-
to-staff subject areas and hard-to-staff schools to send clear signals 
to the labor market about both the teaching skills needed and the 
places where teachers are needed most (Cowan et al., 2016; Goldhaber & 
Gratz, 2021). \13\ Treating all teachers the same ignores important 
differences across positions, working conditions, and student needs, 
differences that have important implications for improvement, 
efficiency, and equity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\  Districts should also be cautious about the ``fiscal cliff'' 
and the fact that many forms of compensation are pensionable, meaning 
that compensation today creates downstream costs. In short, raising 
salaries may be a desirable use of ESSER funds, but once Federal ESSER 
resources run out, districts may need to plan for ways to pay for 
personnel brought on with ESSER funding.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       5. Improve Remote Learning
    It is easy to conclude that remote instruction worked so poorly 
that we should abandon it. But the possibility of future disruptions 
due to staffing issues and other crises suggests we need to improve, 
not abandon remote learning. Beyond the pandemic, remote learning has 
the potential to address longer-standing problems in schools. For 
example, although chronic absenteeism has been an issue during COVID 
(Fortin, 2022), urban schools struggled with attendance long before the 
pandemic (Gottfried, 2015). Likewise, snow days are here to stay. And 
in some school districts, schools may not have enough students 
interested or ready for advanced physics to merit hiring a new physics 
teacher, but groups of students across systems might. In each of these 
cases, effective remote instruction/digital learning could help promote 
student learning for students who are out of school or for students who 
lack access to teachers in hard-to-staff subject areas.

    It is worth remembering that remote learning during the pandemic 
was created during a crisis. Better systems are possible. To that end, 
the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) recently expanded its 
competitions to support education innovation (Schneider, 2022). We need 
more of this kind of support for innovation in remote learning and 
education in general. To recover from the pandemic and expand 
educational opportunity, we need technological innovation. But we also 
need to innovate in how we prepare, train, and support teachers so that 
some teachers can specialize in effective digital instruction.
           6. Make Sure There's a Sufficient Sense of Urgency
    As we move into the next phase of the pandemic, the impulse to get 
back to ``normal'' is strong. But it would be a mistake to believe that 
we are ready to return to normal. Indeed, I fear too many of us lack 
the sense of urgency needed to meet this moment. If we do not build a 
sufficient sense of urgency and act quickly, the devastating impact of 
the pandemic on students' learning and future opportunities will be our 
legacy.

    Leaders need to send clear messages to their communities about the 
academic challenges students are facing and the importance of 
addressing them. We need clear communication about the stakes and 
magnitude of learning loss and recovery. Researchers and professional 
staff in government must move away from talking about standard 
deviations and percentiles and toward user-friendly language. \14\ 
Telling a parent that her child is recommended for summer school 
because he is .3 standard deviations behind what would be expected does 
not make sense. But telling her that he is a half-year behind where he 
should be might make summer school feel more urgent. \15\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\  See, for instance, Clifton (2022).
    \15\  Beyond the need to avoid technical language, some schools may 
also need to overcome cultural resistance to delivering bad news to 
families about how students are doing.

    Leaders will also need to rally political support for academic 
interventions and frame our collective responsibility to ensure that 
all students recover. As they clearly communicate about the stakes, 
leaders will need to encourage families to ensure that their children 
attend tutoring or summer school if recommended; leaders will need to 
ask families to help their children learn at home. And in some school 
districts, leaders will need to rally support for additional funding as 
ESSER funds run out or prove inadequate (Shores & Stenberg, 2022). 
State and Federal leaders will need to be ready to provide additional 
funds to support recovery and be clear about how continued funding will 
be spent to support students. Finally, communities should track 
recovery in their schools and hold systems accountable for progress. 
But communities also need to be flexible and supportive when educators 
make midcourse corrections and work to improve. As tempting as it is to 
move on, leaders need to make it clear that academic recovery from the 
pandemic will, in most places, be a long-term project that will require 
all of us to learn and improve.
                               References
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cai.burbio.com/school-opening-tracker

    Carminucci, J., Hodgman, S., Rickles, J., & Garet, M. (2021). 
National Survey of Public Education's Response to COVID-19: Student 
attendance and enrollment loss in 2020--21. American Institutes for 
Research. https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/2021-07/research-
brief-covid-survey-student-attendance-june-2021--0.pdf

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impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in 
adulthood. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2633--2679. https://
pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdf/10.1257/aer.104.9.2633

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equivalent to months of additional school time. (OLR White Paper Number 
2). Office of Learning Recovery & Acceleration. https://
drive.google.com/file/d/1uWy91FkkVxWEjcROK6raGA52s--RqZR6s/view

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elements in the discussion of teacher shortages. Educational 
Researcher, 45(8), 460--462. https://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/rbtfl/
Ye0TTT8LC.guQ/full

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(2022). Learning-mode choice, student engagement, and achievement 
growth during the COVID-19 pandemic (Working Paper No. 260-0122). 
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    Figlio, D., Holden, K. L., & Ozek, U. (2018). Do students benefit 
from longer school days? Regression discontinuity evidence from 
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    Fortin, J. (2022, April 20). More pandemic fallout: The chronically 
absent student. The New York Times, Daily Covid Briefing. https://
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Federal COVID aid. https://www.future-ed.org/local-covid-relief-
spending/

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    Goldhaber, D., & Gratz, T. (2021). School district staffing 
challenges in a rapidly recovering economy. (CEDR Flash Brief No. 
11082021-1). University of Washington. https://www.cedr.us/--files/ugd/
1394b9--7709c1ab926247469c2aa9c076b977bc.pdf

    Goldhaber, D., & Payne, S. (2022). Short on substitute teachers? 
Here's something states can do. EducationWeek, Opinion. https://
www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-short-on-substitute-teachers-
heres-something-states-can-do/2022/05'utm--source=tw&utm--
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T., & Staiger, D. O. (2022). The consequences of remote and hybrid 
instruction during the pandemic (CALDER Working Paper No. 267-0522). 
CALDER/American Institutes for Research. https://caldercenter.org/
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    Goldhaber, D., Kane, T. J., McEachin, A., & Morton, E. (2022). A 
comprehensive picture of achievement across the COVID-19 PANDEMIC 
YEARS: Examining variation in test levels and growth across districts, 
schools, grades, and students. (Working Paper No. 266-0522). CALDER/
American Institutes for Research. https://caldercenter.org/
publications/comprehensive-picture-achievement-across-covid-19-
pandemic-years-examining-variation

    Gottfried, M. A. (2019). Chronic absenteeism in the classroom 
context: Effects on achievement. Urban Education, 54(1), 3--34. https:/
/journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0042085915618709

    Harris, D. N., & Larsen, M. F. (2021). The effects of Hurricane 
Katrina on medium-term student outcomes in New Orleans. Education 
Research Alliance for New Orleans. https://
educationresearchalliancenola.org/files/publications/Harris-Larsen-
Reform-Effects-2021-05-17.pdf

    Heinrich, C. J., Meyer, R. H., & Whitten, G. (2010). Supplemental 
education services under no child left behind: Who signs up, and what 
do they gain? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 32(2), 273--
298. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373710361640

    Kane, T. (2022, May 22). Kids are far, far behind in school. The 
Atlantic, Ideas. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/
schools-learning-loss-remote-covid-education/629938/

    Kilbride, T., Hopkins, B., Strunk, K. O., & Yu, D. (2022). 
Michigan's fall 2021 benchmark assessments. Education Policy Innovation 
Collaborative/Michigan State University. https://epicedpolicy.org/
michigans-fall-2021-benchmark-assessments/

    Kogan, V. (2022). Academic achievement and pandemic recovery in 
Ohio. The Ohio State University John Glenn College of Public Affairs. 
https://glenn.osu.edu/academic-achievement-pandemic-recovery

    Kuhfeld, M., Soland, J., Lewis, K., Ruzek, E., & Johnson, A., 
(2022). The COVID-19 school year: Learning and recovery across 2020--
2021. AERA Open, 8. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/
23328584221099306

    Leukhina, O. & Werner, D. (2021). The pandemic dents college 
attendance. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://
www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2021/february/pandemic-dents-college-
attendance

    Lynch, K., An, L., & Mancenido Z. (2022). The impact of summer 
programs on student mathematics achievement: A meta-analysis. 
EdWorkingPapers. https://edworkingpapers.com/ai21-379

    National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. (2022, May). 
Current term enrollment estimates. https://nscresearchcenter.org/
current-term-enrollment-estimates/

    Ohio Dept. of Education (2021). Back to School Resources for 
Return: Data insights: Evidence of the pandemic's impact on students in 
2020-2021. https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Research-Evaluation-and-
Advanced-Analytics/Data-Insights/Data-Insights

    Robinson, C. D., Kraft, M. A., Loeb, S., & Schueler, B. E. (2021). 
EdResearch for Recovery Design Principles Series: Accelerating student 
learning with high-dosage tutoring. https://annenberg.brown.edu/sites/
default/files/EdResearch--for--Recovery--Design--Principles--1.pdf

    Ronfeldt, M., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2013). How teacher turnover 
harms student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 
50(1), 4--36. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/
0002831212463813

    Sacerdote, B. (2012). When the saints go marching out: Long-term 
outcomes for student evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 
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doi.org/10.1257/app.4.1.109

    Schneider, M. (2022, June 2). Using prize competitions to revamp 
IES' R&D infrastructure. Institute of Education Sciences. https://
ies.ed.gov/director/remarks/06-02-2022.asp

    Shores, K. A., & Steinberg, M. P. (2022). Fiscal federalism and K--
12 education funding: Policy lessons from two educational crises. 
(EDWorkingPaper No. 22-550). Annenberg, Brown University. https://
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    Tennessee Department of Education (2022, June 14). Tennessee 
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learning acceleration. https://www.tn.gov/education/news/2022/6/14/
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    Velez, M. (2021). Substitute shortages, staff burnout lead to 
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burnout-lead-to-seattle-area-school-cancellations/
                                 ______
                                 
                  [Summary Statement of Dan Goldhaber]
    Over the last year, I have been working with colleagues from NWEA, 
Harvard University, and Dartmouth College to better understand the 
COVID pandemic's impact on student learning and school district 
recovery efforts. I highlight two findings from this work in my 
testimony:

    First, COVID Had a Devastating Impact on Student Learning. Our 
analysis of millions of test scores last fall found students were on 
average about 3 months behind in math and 2 months behind in reading. 
Like other researchers, we also found that historically disadvantaged 
students were hit the hardest by these losses. The bottom line is that 
the pandemic put the Nation in a deep academic hole. Unless we dig 
ourselves out, many students will face diminished life prospects and 
social inequality will increase.

    Second, COVID Impacts Were Not the Same Everywhere. As devastating 
as COVID's impact on student learning has been, the story was not the 
same everywhere. Recovery plans need to be big enough to meet the scale 
of the challenge, but they also need to be responsive to local 
variation.

    My testimony also highlights six ideas for how to get schools and 
students back on track:

          1. Keep Schools Open. Beyond HVAC upgrades, states 
        can help keep schools open by streamlining the credentialling 
        of substitute teachers and helping districts plan to 
        strategically deploy substitutes and teachers in the case of 
        another COVID surge.

          2. Make Sure District Responses Add Up. Districts 
        need to make clear-eyed assessments of the potential impact of 
        their recovery-focused interventions and whether they are 
        sufficient to help all students catch up. States or the Federal 
        Government could help these assessments by supporting a ``COVID 
        recovery calculator'' that adds up the estimated impacts of 
        district initiatives and tracks academic improvement over time.

          3. Help Districts Monitor and Adjust. Although 
        interventions like high-dosage tutoring are promising, we do 
        not know yet if recovery interventions at scale will be 
        effective or sufficient. Districts will need to monitor results 
        as they go, learn from bright spots, and adapt as necessary. To 
        assess progress, districts should map out multi-year targets 
        for student achievement on a trajectory toward recovery.

          4. Narrowly Target Spending on Personnel to Areas of 
        Need. Districts are spending a good deal of their ESSER funds 
        on teachers and other personnel. Districts should target these 
        funds on hard-to-staff subject areas and hard-to-staff schools 
        to send signals to the labor market about where teachers are 
        needed most.

          5. Improve Remote Learning. To recover from the 
        pandemic and expand educational opportunity, we also need to 
        invest in remote learning. This includes technological 
        innovation but also innovation in how we prepare, train, and 
        support teachers to be effective at digital instruction.

          6. Make Sure There's a Sufficient Sense of Urgency. 
        As we move into the next phase of the pandemic, the impulse to 
        get back to ``normal'' is strong. I fear that too many of us 
        lack the sense of urgency this moment demands. Leaders need to 
        make clear that academic recovery from the pandemic will, in 
        most places, be a long-run project that will require all of us 
        to learn and improve.

                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you.

    Commissioner Russell-Tucker.

    STATEMENT OF CHARLENE M. RUSSELL-TUCKER, COMMISSIONER, 
    CONNECTICUT STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, HARTFORD, CT

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Good morning, Chair Murray, Ranking 
Member Burr, and Members of the Senate Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions. My name is Charlene Russell-
Tucker, and I am the Commissioner of Education for the State of 
Connecticut. I am honored and excited to testify before you 
today and to represent a state's response to the impacts of 
COVID-19 on student learning, and the supports and promising 
practices underway to maintain the forward momentum.

    You have my full testimony that highlights initiatives we 
have introduced for learning acceleration and enrichment, 
attendance and engagement, evaluating the investments of our 
COVID dollars, supporting educators, strengthening student 
voice, be a voice for change, engage in families and 
communities, and supporting the social, emotional, and mental 
health needs of students and school staff.

    I would like to underscore, however, that the single most 
important construct in place in Connecticut on which we have 
done and built everything since March 2020, is our best in 
class collaboration, working together, listening to each other 
in search of common ground for the sake of our children.

    To illustrate that point, I will highlight initiatives that 
served us well and provide a vision for improvement that may 
also be exemplary to others. The Connecticut State Department 
of Education fortified its relationship with our sister state 
agencies, particularly the Connecticut State Department of 
Public Health at the onset of COVID-19.

    The Education and Public Health Departments worked jointly 
in distributing timely and consistent communication in response 
to the pandemic's impact on schools. Beginning in August 2020, 
I launched with DPH, Health and Safety Tuesdays, which are 
weekly cause that provided opportunities for health and 
education stakeholders and policymakers to share COVID-19 
updates and guidance to triage questions and concerns, and 
answer life questions.

    We have had 75 sessions since 2020 through the end of this 
school year. With over 1,100 registrants, this became the 
reliable and credible space for maintaining safe school 
environments. We had districts that aligned their local COVID 
team meetings with our Tuesday sessions.

    Questions encompass the mundane to the complex, such as the 
number of days of quarantine for close contacts, specific 
practices to meet the needs of special education students, 
medically fragile students requiring medication administration 
and asthma treatments during the school day, requirements for 
isolation rooms, upkeep on mechanical ventilation systems, and 
more.

    Both our agencies learned each week what was needed via 
policy or guidance to navigate the pandemic and how to assist 
in keeping our schools safely open. The next illustration 
specifically addresses a learning recovery. We convened the 
Accelerate CT Task Force to develop a statewide education 
recovery framework and programing.

    Additionally, with a focus on populations 
disproportionately impact by COVID-19, the Department and 
Governor Lamont designated more than $16 million in our ESSER 
relief funds to provide comprehensive supports for students 
with disabilities whose services were interrupted during the 
pandemic.

    The final illustration is about engaging families. Families 
school connections, one of the Department's investment 
priorities for ESSER funds, has been especially critical during 
the pandemic. When families expressed concern about the return 
to school in August 2020 and 2021, we held virtual house calls 
for parents and caregivers in partnerships with the Connecticut 
Children's Medical Center and the Connecticut Chapter of the 
American Academy of Pediatrics. Through providing real time or 
after the fact translations of up to five languages, we ensured 
thousands of families were able to engage with these 
professionals regarding the safe return to school each fall.

    What you have heard, and we will see seen my detailed 
written testimony is this intentionality in working 
collaboratively toward multifaceted solutions for effective 
learning recovery and education acceleration.

    Together, we all must use this moment to think holistically 
about the continuum of supports necessary for our children to 
thrive. I will end my testimony there, and I am happy to take 
any questions that Members of the Committee may have. Thank you 
very much.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Russell-Tucker follows:]

            prepared statement of charlene m. russell-tucker
    Good morning. Chair Murray and Ranking Member Burr, Committee 
Members, thank you for having me here today.

    My name is Charlene Russell-Tucker, and I am the Commissioner of 
Education in Connecticut. I am honored to appear before you all today 
to represent our great state and share information regarding the 
impacts of the pandemic--March 2020 to today-on learning in my state, 
and the immense effort of the entire ecosystem that has been mobilized 
to facilitate learning recovery (academic renewal) that includes 
addressing the social, emotional, mental, physical and behavioral 
health needs of our students and school staff. I will address the 
impacts and supports/promising practices for students; our system of 
school administrators, educators and school staff, and families; as 
well as communities.

    I want to lead with what makes Connecticut unique--what in 
Connecticut is referred to as ``The Connecticut Difference.'' This is 
our longstanding focus on best-in-class collaboration, working 
together, and listening to one another, in search of common ground for 
the sake of our students.

    Throughout this pandemic, and into recovery, we have made it a 
hallmark of our response and recovery efforts to work with our various 
partners and stakeholders--educators and administrators, families, 
students, advocates, policymakers, local health officials, and more--as 
often as possible to develop and implement our policies. Policies 
designed without hearing different perspectives, and without our 
constituent's input and feedback, are not likely to produce the 
intended and needed results.

    In August 2020, I spearheaded, in robust partnership with the 
Connecticut Department of Public Health, ``Health and Safety Tuesdays--
'' virtual calls to provide weekly opportunities for superintendents, 
local health officials, school board members, school nurses, medical 
advisors, policymakers, teachers' union representatives, and other 
educational partners to engage in a dialog with the state education 
agency leaders and our public health epidemiologists and key expert 
staff for up-to-date and emerging COVID-19 guidance, to triage 
questions and concerns, and ultimately, forge, build, and maintain 
trusted relationships. These weekly sessions--75 held since the 
pandemic began through the end of this school year--had over 1,100 
registered participants and became the reliable and credible space for 
maintaining safe school environments to support learning.

    This collaborative approach is the way we build effective policy; 
we bring it to the people we serve and create numerous opportunities 
for conversation.

    When our families were concerned about returning their students to 
school in the fall of 2020 and 2021, we held Virtual House Calls for 
parents and caregivers in partnership with Connecticut Children's 
Medical Center and the Connecticut Chapter of American Academy of 
Pediatrics. This gave thousands of families the opportunity to directly 
ask questions and share concerns with pediatricians and medical 
experts, and get immediate answers and guidance to COVID-19 and their 
children's health and safety. This solidified trust among family 
members regarding the safe return to school each fall.

    When planning how to prioritize and implement our Elementary and 
Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, this same methodology 
was used. We engaged our stakeholders through roundtables, feedback 
sessions, and focus groups. Some may ask why we do this? We do this be 
because our students, educators, school staff and families deserve this 
level of effort from their leaders.

    Connecticut has a beautifully diverse student body of more than 
half-a-million students. Across 205 districts, we have over 1,500 
schools and more than 110,000 school staff devoted to helping our 
students thrive.

    Looking more closely at our student population, more than half of 
students identify as nonwhite; 42.7 percent are eligible for free or 
reduced-price meals, 16.2 percent are students with disabilities, and 
8.2 percent are English learners with more than 145 spoken languages--
across our student body over 180 languages are spoken.

    Also important to Connecticut's context and background, with each 
round of ESSER funds distributed to states, Connecticut established the 
priorities for investing the more than $1.7 billion that has been 
allocated for education. The priorities at both the state and districts 
levels are:

           Learning Acceleration, Academic Renewal, and Student 
        Enrichment, which focuses on the academic supports students 
        need to thrive and become well-rounded, engaged citizens upon 
        graduation. (over $729M budgeted for investment statewide)

          Family and Community Connections, which focuses on 
        investing in strengthening or forming new school-family 
        community partnerships to support students. (over $70M budgeted 
        for district investment statewide)

          Social, Emotional, and Mental Health of Students and 
        School Staff, which focuses on supporting students and school 
        staff to re-engage with their school communities as we've 
        returned to in-person learning. (over $183M budgeted for 
        district investment statewide)

          Strategic Use of Technology, Staff Development, and 
        the Digital Divide, which focuses on the importance of in-
        person learning balanced with the strategic use of technology 
        to expand learning opportunities. (over $147M budgeted for 
        district investment statewide)

          Building Safe and Healthy Schools, which focuses on 
        allocating resources to support the physical health and safety 
        of students and school staff. (over $254M budgeted for 
        investment statewide)

    As you can see, these priorities cover the experiences of our 
students, educators, school staff, and wider communities. It is through 
thorough guidance issued at the state level, diligence and innovation 
at the district level, and partnership at the community level, that 
Connecticut has embarked on a bold and equitable learning recovery from 
this pandemic.

    As of June 10, 2022, all funds have been obligated for all three 
streams of ESSER funds. The charts and table below contain more 
information regarding the percent of each stream that has been drawn-
down at the district level and expended at the state level.

 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             Connecticut Federal COVID Recovery Funds--State Reserve
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                       ESSER I                     ESSER II                    ARP ESSER
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                Obligated                   11,106,393                  49,242,646                 110,669,666
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Expended                    7,838,867                  10,572,207                  10,617,921
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  Balance                    3,267,526                  38,670,439                 100,051,745
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Percent of Funds Expended               70,.58 percent               21.47 percent                9.59 percent
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
                                                                                      
                                                                                      
                     Addressing the Digital Divide
    In March 2020, when the pandemic necessitated the closure of 
schools and the sudden shift to remote learning, we were all faced with 
an uncertain future. Our state immediately bolstered our relationships 
across state agencies, districts, and communities--and we provided 
consistent, timely communication to the field. We had school districts 
that made a smooth transition seamlessly to remote instruction, while 
others struggled with paper packets that needed to be picked up by 
families etc. In June 2020, the Connecticut State Department of 
Education (CSDE) published results of its ``Student Participation in 
Distance Learning'' survey. In sum, CSDE found that:

          Over 90 percent of students who participated in 
        distance learning after class cancellations due to COVID-19 
        participated through technology-based online learning while 
        fewer than 10 percent participated through other methods (e.g., 
        printed learning materials/packets, 1:1 phone calls, wellness 
        checks).

          Tens of thousands of students statewide experienced 
        the following barriers to greater participation in distance 
        learning:

                Y  Access to a device in the home--nearly 10 percent 
                (around 50,000 students)

                Y  Internet access in the home--nearly 6 percent (over 
                29,000 students)

                Y  Family, health, and trauma issues--over 17 percent 
                (nearly 92,000 students).

    With the first round of ESSER signed into law, we set out to ensure 
students could access their learning, and this meant addressing the 
digital divide. Ensuring connectivity among our student body required 
strong school-family state partnerships, as we had to accurately assess 
the need in each community.

    Under Governor Lamont, we launched the Everybody Learns Initiative 
which invested more than $43 million to purchase more than 142-thousand 
laptops, 12-thousand hotspots, and 40-thousand cable broadband vouchers 
to address the digital divide in Connecticut and empower students and 
families across the state to learn from home. This initiative brought 
together the Office of the Governor, Connecticut State Department of 
Education, Department of Administrative Services, Office of Policy and 
Management, and the Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology 
to coordinate with internet companies and school districts.
              Focusing on School Attendance and Engagement
    Beginning with the 2020-21 school year, we also rolled out two new 
data collections--weekly collection of Learning Models (e.g., in-
person, hybrid, or remote) and Enrollment, as well as the monthly 
collection of Student Membership and Attendance, to allow us to make 
data-informed decisions to focus resources on student engagement and 
participation during the 2020-21 school year.

    When we returned to school in Fall of 2020, 34 percent of districts 
were fully in-person; 60 percent were hybrid; and 6 percent were fully 
remote. Come December 2020, 42 percent of districts were fully in-
person; 30 percent were hybrid; and 28 percent were fully remote. By 
June 2020 we were proud to announce that, 86 percent of districts were 
fully in-person; 14 percent were hybrid; and none were fully remote. 
For the 2021-22 school year, all districts operated fully in-person 
with extremely rare exceptions of limited closure due to local COVID 
outbreaks.

    In 2020-21, student attendance on days when they learned remotely 
was substantially lower than on days when they learned in-person. This 
was true for almost all student groups. Additionally, students from 
some of our more vulnerable populations including English learners, 
students from low-income families, and students experiencing 
homelessness, tended to be learning remotely at greater rates than 
their peers.

    These just-in-time data points allowed us to better identify 
patterns early on around issues with participation so we could 
proactively work with educators, families, and community partners to 
address the root causes of chronic absence and disengagement and 
establish systems of support to reach all of our students.

    In September 2020, attendance rates were slightly lower than those 
in the 2019-20 school year; however, student groups disproportionately 
impacted by the pandemic experienced substantially lower attendance 
rates when compared to the previous year.

    Come December 2020, the year-to-date chronic absenteeism rate was 
21.4 percent. However, the rate was 36.1 percent among English 
learners, 33.1 percent among students with disabilities, 35.8 percent 
among students eligible for free meals, and 55.6 percent among students 
experiencing homelessness.

    By the end of the school year, the state average chronic 
absenteeism rate was 20.7 percent, 33.9 percent among English learners, 
32.0 percent among students with disabilities, 36.1 percent among free 
meal eligible students, and 57.9 percent among students experiencing 
homelessness.

    The state's response to this data collection was the Governor's 
Learner Engagement and Attendance Program, or LEAP, which was announced 
in April 2021. Underway in 15 high-needs districts, LEAP is aimed at 
addressing student chronic absenteeism and disengagement resulting from 
the COVID-19 pandemic. Local home visitors meet families where they 
are--at home--and provide the necessary resources to support students' 
return to school.

    Through these visits, families have obtained back-to-school 
supplies; support with technology, including student laptops and 
assistance with school district portals; connections with healthcare 
providers to support student mental health and well-being; and more.

    As of December 2021, nearly 7,000 students across the 15 LEAP 
school districts had received more than 12,000 contacts from home 
visitor staff to encourage and support increased student attendance in 
school. This upcoming school year, thanks to financial commitments of 
our legislature, we are able to continue this program.
    Learning Acceleration, Academic Renewal, and Student Enrichment
    Learning recovery to me--our definitions may differ slightly--
begins with identifying gaps in learning that have occurred during the 
pandemic. Then, we ensure we institute and bolster evidence-based 
supports to promote academic achievement and improved outcomes for all 
students. Importantly, a focus must be placed on student groups 
disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including but not 
limited to students with disabilities, English learners, students 
experiencing homelessness and students who faced barriers to remote 
learning in 2020 and 2021.

    To objectively gauge the academic impact of the pandemic on student 
achievement and growth, CSDE committed to administering all state 
student assessments in Spring 2021 to the fullest extent possible. The 
purpose of administering these assessments was not to hold the adults 
accountable for student outcomes during challenging times; instead, it 
was intended to objectively know how our students were progressing 
academically through the pandemic so we could collectively target 
supports and resources where they're needed the most. These assessment 
data, when coupled with our attendance data, produced clear evidence to 
show that students who learned in-person lost the least ground 
academically, as compared to those who learned in hybrid or remote 
modes. Moreover, the effects were greater in mathematics, and in the 
elementary and middle grades, but not in high school. A similar finding 
was seen in our chronic absenteeism analyses where the gap in chronic 
absence rates between in-person and hybrid students was greater for 
elementary and middle school students, but not for high school 
students. These findings informed CSDE's decision to advocate strongly 
for in-person instruction for all students in 2021-22.

    With the third round of ESSER funding, we used our state-level set-
aside to extend licenses with online learning/credit recovery 
platforms, continue the development of our K-8 model curricula, and 
provide direct financial support to our 58 Family Resource Centers.

    With Governor Lamont, we announced the deployment of more than $16 
million to provide comprehensive supports for students with 
disabilities whose services were disrupted during the pandemic. This 
includes addressing delayed, interrupted, suspended or inaccessible 
individualized education program (IEP) supports and services; 
conducting special education evaluations; supporting supplementary 
tutoring and reading instruction; and providing individualized in-home 
support.

    At the district level, we saw flexible course offerings to promote 
credit recovery, improvements to parent-school communications, 
continued technological updates, and more. All approved district ESSER 
plans, among other grants, are available for anyone to see on 
Connecticut's electronic grants management system (eGMS) at 
connecticut.egrantsmanagement.com. This information is routinely 
communicated with families and stakeholders to encourage two-way dialog 
at the district level regarding ESSER investments.

    With the more than $1.1 billion American Rescue Plan ESSER funding 
coming to Connecticut, learning recovery was certainly at the forefront 
of our minds--and we knew this was a collective call to action to 
transform education in Connecticut.

    Moving quickly to deploy these funds, we invested more than $8.6 
million in our first round of Summer Enrichment Grants, which served 
more than 108,000 students and was evaluated by our research 
collaborative, the Connecticut COVID-19 Education Research 
Collaborative (CCERC). CCERC found that the initiative met its goal of 
expanding access to summer programming for Connecticut students, 
including nearly doubling the number of students among camps that also 
operated in the summer of 2020, and students and staff overwhelmingly 
enjoyed their camp experiences. This year, our Summer Enrichment grants 
total more than $12.2 million, and we look forward to learning from 
another evaluation to guide future investments.

    The Department, as well as our legislative counterparts in 
Connecticut, has recognized the immense need to focus on ensuring our 
students are reading at grade level and that students who need 
additional literacy support are identified.

    In collaboration with experts and stakeholders, the Department 
recently announced the launch of the Science of Reading Masterclass, 
funded through ESSER II. The Masterclass includes statewide 
professional learning and coaching to district teams to support 
comprehensive K-3 literacy instruction aligned with the science of 
reading.
              Evaluating Effectiveness and Sustainability
    ESSER II funds were used to establish the first-of-its-kind, 
aforementioned research collaborative called the Connecticut COVID-19 
Education Research Collaborative (CCERC). CCERC will not only study the 
impacts of COVID-19 on students' learning but also study the efficacy 
of the programs and supports put in place in respond to the pandemic's 
effects. CCERC brings together researchers from public and private 
universities across Connecticut to work collaboratively on these 
evaluations. Among its projects, CCERC is currently conducting a remote 
learning audit so that we can learn of the impact, challenges, and 
promising practices brought about by the sudden shift to remote 
learning in March 2020.

    Beyond understanding the impacts of the pandemic, CCERC 
demonstrates the Department's commitment to programmatic 
accountability, and sustainability. So, instead of being concerned 
about a funding cliff that is talked about in many circles, Connecticut 
is instead focused on building evidence on the effectiveness of its 
interventions because by knowing what works, we will be able to 
advocate for continued, sustainable funding at both the state and 
Federal levels as well as with philanthropy. Connecticut will have the 
strength of results to say, ``fund and sustain what works.'' This will 
hopefully serve as a parachute that will help Connecticut's education 
community land safely from the cliff.
                          Supporting Educators
    Our Connecticut educators and school staff worked heroically 
throughout the pandemic. In working to keep schools safely open, 
Connecticut prioritized access to COVID testing, vaccines, and contact 
tracing support for educators and school staff. However, we were not 
immune to the nationwide staffing shortages.

    We offered staffing flexibilities to districts while ensuring that 
all Connecticut students have access to appropriately certified, 
authorized, and permitted educators through collaboration with educator 
preparation programs across Connecticut. In addition to the 
Department's efforts, our State Board of Education also approved 
emergency certification endorsements and flexibilities regarding 
educator evaluation.

    Responding to the need for increase technological support, CSDE 
used a portion of its ESSER funds to offer the International Society 
for Technology in Education (ISTE) Summer Learning Academy to 
Connecticut educators at no cost, and we are currently contracting to 
provide additional professional development to districts, including, 
but not limited to, ISTE certification and additional ISTE University 
courses.

    At the district-level, we have seen innovative practices such as 
offering training workshops on school learning platforms, creating a 
technology-based Professional Development Hub for educators to expand 
their expertise in utilizing learning platforms, upgrading all school 
and district-based technology systems, and more.

    CSDE's continued efforts to diversify the state's educator 
workforce did not cease amidst the pandemic. In fact, in May 2021, 
Governor Lamont announced we had met our State Board of Education's 5-
year goal of having 10 percent of Connecticut educators be people of 
color. Continued efforts include Educators Rising, recruits and 
supports high school students' with interest in the teaching 
profession, and NextGen Educators, which brings highly motivated 
students enrolled in educator preparation programs into classrooms to 
serve as building substitutes. NextGen not only provides additional 
relief to substitute teacher shortages; it also allows teacher 
candidates to build strong resumes and rapport with districts.

    Finally, we recently announced a $2-million investment in aspiring 
educators in preparation programs across Connecticut. This investment 
will help defray costs associated with testing and obtaining educator 
certification in Connecticut.
            Supporting and Engaging Families and Communities
    I like to say, ``It can't be about them without them.'' We cannot 
assess the impact of this pandemic on student learning, educators, and 
families without authentically engaging with them. CSDE is staunchly 
committed to two-way dialog with our array of stakeholders--from 
educators to families to advocates, including our monthly meetings with 
partners representing unions, superintendents, and school boards, and 
advocates who represent families.

    Family and community engagement is a particular passion of mine. In 
2017, I developed and implemented the Commissioner's Roundtable for 
Family and Community Engagement in Education, which is a diverse 
constituent group of education stakeholders representing school and 
district staff, advocacy organizations, parents and guardians, 
community members, and students, to advise the Commissioner of 
Education regarding policy and programmatic priorities. The Roundtable 
meets quarterly to bring authentic parent and community voice to CSDE's 
products and initiatives; communicate state-level initiatives with 
families and communities; recommend effective practices to increase 
successful school and district engagement with families; and provide 
strategies to empower families in supporting their children's 
education.

    Prior to the pandemic, the Department, the Family Engagement 
Roundtable, and other partners led the co-creation of a Definition and 
Framework for family engagement in Connecticut. It states: ``Family 
Engagement is a full, equal, and equitable partnership among families, 
educators and community partners to promote children's learning and 
development form birth through college and career.'' This provided an 
excellent foundation on which to build our pandemic relief efforts. 
Authentic partnerships between schools and families have been 
especially critical during this pandemic, which is why Family and 
Community Connections is one of our ESSER investment priorities--not 
just one we set for districts.

    We also recently completed our second formal round of ARP ESSER 
stakeholder forums/surveys just last week. Stakeholders participated in 
focus groups and were also given the opportunity to complete a survey 
to provide feedback on current and planned investments of state set-
aside funds in family and community connection initiatives. District 
investments in this area include partnering with non-profit and 
community agencies to support the creation of parent academies on 
technology; supporting emotional well-being; and expanding family 
access to cultural experiences, no-cost after-school programs, and 
multigenerational activities at local libraries and parks in the 
community.
                      Strengthening Student Voice
    In November 2021, we launched Voice4Change, the first statewide 
student participatory budgeting initiative in the country, to give 
students a direct say in how a portion of the ESSER funding ($1.5M) 
should be spent across Connecticut schools. With goals of boosting 
engagement among high school students and sparking lifelong passions 
for civic engagement, Voice4Change is grounded in the Connecticut State 
Board of Education's mission emphasizing the importance of preparing 
students to civically engage in the world around them. Studies have 
shown that modeling civic engagement in school prepares students to 
make it a lifelong habit. We are preparing our students to be future 
leaders by empowering them to make an impact today.

    Under the guidance of the same five investment priorities we set 
forth for districts, students crafted and voted on proposals. What did 
we see? More than 80 percent of winning proposals addressed the need 
for more supports for student social, emotional, and mental health. 
They also saw what worked during the pandemic--best practices they 
wanted to make permanent in their school going forward, like creative 
and innovative learning environments such as outdoor classrooms. We are 
so proud of the innovation we saw among the students who participated 
in Voice4Change, and we cannot wait to see these projects come to life 
this fall.
 Supporting the Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs of Students 
                               and Staff
    This pandemic has brought keen attention to the need to address the 
social, emotional, and mental health needs of our students and school 
staff. While Connecticut has a longstanding history with this work, 
COVID-19 has increased the demand for mental health services and 
supports. ESSER funding has afforded us the opportunity to support 
resources that can be deployed locally at no cost in districts and to 
launch the Connecticut Behavioral Health Pilot.

    The Behavioral Health Pilot stems from what I call my ``Big 
Audacious Goal,'' which is to ensure every Connecticut school has a 
coordinated and sustainable system of care for all K-12 schools to 
provide comprehensive behavioral and mental health supports and 
services to students and staff. Currently, our Behavioral Health Pilot 
is underway in select demographically varied districts in partnership 
with community partners to assess their mental health support needs. 
The specific needs and gaps in service will drive the development and 
implementation of these systems of care. The Pilots will then inform 
our plans to scale these systems statewide.

    I am privileged to live in a state where education receives robust 
bipartisan support from the legislature. This past session, Connecticut 
lawmakers passed the most comprehensive mental health bills in the 
state's history--including grants for schools to hire staff to support 
student well-being, bolstering the Governor's home-visiting initiative 
already underway, increasing summer programs' capacity to support the 
mental health of its campers, and more. We all know that recovery is a 
long path ahead of us, but I am confident in leveraging the strong 
partnerships already in place in Connecticut for the benefit of our 
students.
                        Mobilizing the Community
    While you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't believe 
this pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions to school, work, and 
life, disruption is a time to innovate, create, partner, and 
collaborate so we are constantly learning and growing together.

    This is the time to find our collective strengths and intentionally 
move forward to redesign education with a focus on equitable access to 
a world class education, including leveraging new and existing 
strategic partnerships to strengthen our systems of support.

    Connecticut is grateful for the financial support provided to spark 
learning recovery, and we look forward to continued partnership with 
our Federal counterparts, including the U.S. Department of Education.

    As Commissioner, I am part of a strong, nationwide network of state 
commissioners, and I can guarantee you no two stories are alike. But 
what I can surely guarantee you is that we wake up every morning with 
our students, educators, and school staff at the forefront of our 
minds, because it is when our schools are supported that our students 
achieve more, and our communities achieve more, and together--we all 
achieve more.

    We must use this moment to think holistically about the continuum 
of supports necessary for our children to thrive.

    Finally, none of the efforts and initiatives that I bring from our 
great state would be possible without the excellent staff at the CSDE, 
our sister agencies, particularly the Department of Public Health, our 
policymakers, and the many education partners in our state. That truly 
is the Connecticut Difference.

    Chair Murray and Ranking Member Burr, HELP Committee Members: thank 
you once again for the opportunity to share CT's education story with 
you today. Thank You.
                                 ______
                                 
           [Summary Statement of Charlene M. Russell-Tucker]
    The Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) fortified its 
relationships with sister agencies, particularly the Connecticut State 
Department of Public Health (DPH), at the onset of COVID-19. CSDE and 
DPH distributed timely and consistent communication in response to the 
pandemic's impact on schools. Beginning in August 2020, CSDE and DPH 
met weekly with superintendents, local health officials, school board 
members, school nurses, medical advisors, policymakers, teachers' union 
representatives, and other educational partners during ``Health and 
Safety Tuesdays.'' More than 1,100 were registered for these calls, 
where CSDE and DPH would share the latest guidance and answer live 
questions and concerns from the field.

    When families expressed concern about the return to school in 
August 2020 and 2021, CSDE held Virtual House Calls for parents and 
caregivers in partnership with Connecticut Children's Medical Center 
and the Connecticut Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics. Having 
the ability to ask questions and hear from these professionals 
solidified trust among family members regarding the safe return to 
school each fall.
    Learning Acceleration, Academic Renewal, and Student Enrichment
    CSDE has invested portions of its Elementary and Secondary School 
Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to extend licenses with online learning/
credit recovery platforms, award grants for summer enrichment to expand 
access and affordability, continue the development of our K-8 model 
curricula, and provide direct financial support to our Family Resource 
Centers. At the district level, we saw flexible course offerings to 
promote credit recovery, improvements to parent-school communications, 
continued technological updates, and more.

    With a focus on populations disproportionately impacted by COVID-
19, CSDE and Governor Lamont announced the deployment of more than $16 
million to provide comprehensive supports for students with 
disabilities whose services were interrupted during the pandemic. This 
includes addressing delayed, interrupted, suspended or inaccessible 
individualized education program (IEP) supports and services; 
conducting special education evaluations; supporting supplementary 
tutoring and reading instruction; and providing individualized in-home 
support.
                      Strengthening Student Voice
    In November 2021, we launched Voice4Change, the first statewide 
student participatory budgeting initiative in the country, to give 
students a direct say in how a portion of the ESSER funding ($1.5M) 
should be spent. With goals of boosting engagement among high school 
students and sparking lifelong passions for civic engagement, 
Voice4Change is grounded in the Connecticut State Board of Education's 
mission emphasizing the importance of preparing students to civically 
engage in the world around them. Under the guidance of the same five 
priorities we set forth for districts, students crafted and voted on 
proposals. More than 80 percent of winning proposals addressed the need 
for more social, emotional, and mental health supports. They also saw 
what worked during the pandemic-best practices they wanted to make 
permanent in their school going forward, like creative and innovative 
learning environments such as outdoor classrooms. We look forward to 
monitoring proposals' progress in the fall.
            Supporting and Engaging Families and Communities
    CSDE is staunchly committed to two-way dialog with our array of 
stakeholders-from educators to families to advocates. Family school 
connections have been especially critical during this pandemic, which 
is why Family and Community Connections is one of CSDE's investment 
priorities-not just one we set for districts.

    Some of our standing meetings including the quarterly 
Commissioners' Roundtable for Family and Community Engagement, monthly 
Special Populations Roundtable, and weekly meetings with partners 
representing unions, superintendents, and school boards. We also 
recently completed our second formal round of ESSER stakeholder forums/
surveys just last week. Stakeholders participated in focus groups and 
were also given the opportunity to complete a survey to provide 
feedback on current and planned investments of state set-aside funds.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you.

    Mr. Russell.

 STATEMENT OF KURT RUSSELL, 2022 NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR 
AND HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER, OBERLIN HIGH SCHOOL, OBERLIN, 
                               OH

    Mr. Russell. Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and Members 
of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on 
such an important topic today. My name is Kurt Russell. I have 
been a high school history teacher at Oberlin High School in 
Oberlin, Ohio for 25 years and proud to represent teachers 
nationwide as the 2022 National Teacher of the Year.

    Allow me to invite you into room 200 where I have taught my 
entire career. A place filled with joy and excitement. A safe 
place for all children. A place of creativity and learning. 
Room 200 is home. It is a place I enjoy spending time with 
students. A place where I feel energize.

    A place of belonging. Sadly, room 200 has changed. During 
virtual learning, the room that was bustling with student 
voices and energy suddenly became silent and dull. The sound of 
discussions about major events in history, like the role of 
Margaret Thatcher during the Falkland Wars, was suppressed with 
hesitance and apathy.

    The intentionality of reading and analyzing primary texts 
to better understand the time period was replaced with 
summaries. Due to the lack of resources and stable internet 
connections, students became frustrated and many of my students 
checked out, ultimately resulting in academic loss.

    Students who were once able to orally defend and debate the 
most sacred historical documents with evidence and supporting 
details are now using emotions and feelings as answers. Along 
with this, emotionally, students were not well. Online learning 
caused many of my students to experience social anxiety and 
even a fear of returning to school.

    As Oberlin returned to a hybrid model in spring of 2021, 
over two-thirds of students remained home. This further caused 
an academic gap for students who remained virtual and for those 
with learning disabilities. As students suffered during online 
learning, teachers were also affected.

    The toll of more responsibilities with stagnant pay has, 
for some, become unattractive and unbearable. Teachers are 
leaving the profession in alarming rates, causing school 
districts to scramble to find replacements. The disregard of 
teacher voices and expertise when dealing with educational 
policies is appalling.

    It is unfair to blame teachers for the current educational 
crisis. In order to solve this generational teacher shortage 
problem, teachers must feel valued and important. Teachers must 
receive pay comparable to other professions. There must be a 
concentrated effort to recruit a more diverse teaching pool 
that better reflects the student population. Thanks to ESSER 
funding, Oberlin City Schools are able to address some clear 
problems facing our students and teachers.

    We hired literacy and math coaches to work with our 
struggling students, along with providing tools to equip 
teachers in better instructional pedagogy. Money was also used 
to provide a summer enrichment program to focus on the 
continuation of summer learning while providing recreational 
activities that support the social and emotional growth of our 
students.

    Furthermore, Oberlin City Schools hired a social worker to 
deal with students and faculty trauma. It is the first time my 
school has had a social worker in my 25 year career. This is my 
fear.

    Despite the unprecedented Federal investments that have 
shown a positive impact on student growth, what happens when 
the money is no longer there? Many schools will be forced to 
let go of quality teachers, end summer enrichment programs, and 
stop new mental health supports.

    Sustaining ESSER funds is vital in ensuring a successful 
recovery for our students and teachers. Thank you for inviting 
me today. I look forward to answering your questions.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Russell follows:]

                   prepared statement of kurt russell
    Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr and Members of the Committee, 
thank you for the opportunity to testify on such an important topic 
today. My name is Kurt Russell. I have been a high school history 
teacher at Oberlin High School in Oberlin, Ohio for 25 years and am 
proud to represent teachers nationwide as the 2022 National Teacher of 
the Year.

    As an Oberlin native who teaches at the school that both I and my 
children attended, I have the unique perspective of having been a 
student, parent and teacher at Oberlin High School (OHS). Throughout my 
career, I have been proud to support students outside the classroom and 
am passionate about my work as an advisor to our Black Student Union, 
junior class, student council and prom committee and my role as head 
coach of the varsity boys' basketball team. For those who don't know 
about Oberlin, it is a small town located about a half an hour outside 
of Cleveland and is home to Oberlin College. OHS enrolls about 300 
students. About half are white and half are students of color, and 
approximately three-quarters are from economically disadvantaged 
families.

    In the spring of 2020, as with schools nationwide, OHS had to 
quickly pivot to online learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
This online environment was different and difficult for our students. 
Many students didn't have the necessary equipment or strong enough 
internet connections to fully engage with and participate in online 
learning. Students who had previously been active participants in class 
discussions were now quiet and unwilling to speak up. Some were 
frustrated by technological challenges, and others were embarrassed by 
their families' economic circumstances and didn't want classmates to 
see into their homes. A wide disconnect developed between me and my 
students.

    These challenges forced my colleagues and me to recognize the 
importance of checking in on our students' well-being. When we were 
completely virtual, I capitalized on this by having one-on-one 
conversations with my students who logged into class early, and I began 
spending the first few minutes of each class checking in with students 
to see how they were feeling, even if it was asking for a simple 
virtual thumbs up or down.

    In spring 2021, OHS began offering students hybrid learning 
options, though less than a quarter of students chose to attend in 
person. With some students in-person and others virtual, teachers had 
to split their time and attention in an effort to keep two classrooms 
engaged at once. This proved to be a very difficult task, particularly 
as the challenges of virtual learning didn't go away for the majority 
of students--they had trouble hearing lectures, participating in class 
discussions, and connecting with teachers and peers.

    We were thrilled to finally return to full in-person learning in 
the fall of the 2021-2022 school year. As a result of the challenges 
posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Oberlin City School District has been 
allocated slightly over $3 million among the different COVID relief 
bills. Our school was quick to begin spending on academic and social-
emotional supports for students.

    The rest of my testimony will walk through how COVID-19 has 
impacted my students, how my colleagues and I have worked to combat any 
negative impacts, how Federal COVID-19 funds have been used to help 
support those students succeed, and the need for more teachers to 
support this work going forward. I hope that these examples 
successfully highlight how critical this Federal funding for schools 
is, as teachers like me work daily to combat the learning disruption 
and emotional trauma caused by the pandemic.

    The students I welcomed back after 2 years of virtual and then 
hybrid learning were not the same students I said goodbye to in March 
2020. Prior to the pandemic, I was able to use primary sources to teach 
history first-hand. Since the pandemic, I feel that I've had to ``water 
down'' my curriculum because students can no longer dissect or 
comprehend the same complex concepts and ideas as before. This literacy 
loss has impacted all my students from 9th grade general education 
classes to advanced 12th grade courses. Student writing has suffered as 
well, as I find that students are not as able to fluidly communicate in 
writing as they used to and they now rely heavily on internet sources. 
Their oral communication skills have also declined.

    An example that particularly illustrates these changes is a lesson 
I use every year debating Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's role in 
the Falklands War. After the pandemic, I found the majority of 
students' responses missed the mark--they didn't have a factual backing 
for arguments or based their arguments on emotions rather than facts. 
These were students I had previously taught in 9th grade, and who I 
knew had the skills to be successful in this assignment. When they 
returned in person in 11th grade, they had lost those skills. I noticed 
that students with learning disabilities in particular lost confidence 
in public speaking when presenting their arguments, on top of facing 
the same challenges with formulating arguments. Again, these were 
students who had thrived with this type of assignment before the 
pandemic.

    While I have observed deficits in student achievement, the shared 
experience of the pandemic has also led to student growth in other 
areas. For example, having been the varsity basketball coach for 15 
years, I can clearly see that my players are friendlier with their 
competition than in prior years--they are just happy to be playing. 
I've also noticed students are mixing up the groups they're eating 
lunch with and making a more conscious effort to socialize with 
different people. It seems as if the shared trauma of the pandemic has 
pushed students not to take things for granted and to gain a stronger 
sense of community and take better care of one another.

    This type of empathy and kindness can be seen clearly throughout 
the school. The pandemic reminded our school--both students and 
teachers--that we provide much more than academic learning, and we are 
working hard to support students in healing from the trauma caused by 
the pandemic, whether they are experiencing a new sense of social 
anxiety or grief over the loss of a loved one.

    The need to consider both academic achievement and mental health 
needs of my students has shifted my perspective as a teacher. I no 
longer jump right into my lesson plan at the beginning of each class. 
Instead, I continue the practice I started when we were learning 
virtually, and now spend a few minutes checking in with students to 
make sure they are mentally and socially present. There have also been 
times when our quick check-in lasts a half hour or more when students 
need the time and space. When students are able to share their concerns 
about their own lives, or to discuss broader events happening in our 
Country or across the globe, they're better able to focus on their 
lesson and are more willing to participate in discussions.

    I have always seen basketball as an extension of the classroom and 
adopted a similar practice with my team. We have ``baseline talks'' 
before and after practice, where the only rule is that we don't discuss 
basketball. This gives students another outlet to express their 
concerns and get any resources they might need--because practice ends 
at 5:30 p.m., this often means ensuring my players have enough food for 
dinner.

    In responding to the pandemic, I also engaged families in 
consistent and new ways. When we were fully virtual, our school decided 
to hold ``Asynchronous Fridays,'' where we assigned students 
independent lessons for the day and spent the time we would have been 
teaching reaching out to and engaging with parents. Even when we 
returned to the classroom in person, maintaining strong relationships 
has been a priority--OHS has given us two prep periods rather than just 
one, which gives us additional time to make sure families are engaged 
and involved in their student's learning.

    While I am trying to make my classroom and the extracurricular 
activities I lead safe and nurturing environments for students, my 
school needs additional assistance as it tries to navigate post-
pandemic learning.

    We appreciate the resources provided to our school from the CARES 
Act, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations 
Act, and the American Rescue Plan. They have been critical in getting 
much-needed support to our schools, teachers, and students. Our school 
has implemented many new initiatives and policies with this funding. 
These initiatives include the hiring of a new social worker--the first 
school social worker I've had in my building in my 25-year career--who 
works with about 10 percent of students, those who are struggling the 
most in school. Having a social worker in our school makes me more 
confident as a teacher, as I know that there is somebody who is 
committed to supporting student mental health. I have also seen the 
confidence of my students grow after working with the social worker. 
Our social worker also created the school's first food and clothing 
bank for students in need.

    Additionally, OHS used Federal COVID-19 relief funds to hire both a 
reading coach and a math coach to provide targeted support to 
struggling students. Collectively, these coaches work with roughly 60 
percent of students, and I have seen how their support increase 
students' engagement with, and comprehension of, lessons. These coaches 
work at all levels across the district. Additionally, the funding has 
allowed us to provide after-school tutoring for students at the 
secondary level, and, for younger students, an 8-week summer enrichment 
program that combines academic lessons in math, science and reading 
with fun summer recreation activities.

    Our school has also invested in student morale, as we now have 
quarterly ``fun days'' where we recognize student work and celebrate 
with a fun activity--whether it's an ice cream sundae bar or a field 
day. Additionally, we have hired an individual to help lead a girls 
program called ``Girls Rock'' to help empower young women in our 
school.

    The funding has also helped hire additional custodians to help make 
sure our schools are clean and healthy environments for students and 
staff.

    Collectively, these programs are strengthening our school's 
academic and social success and giving us hope for a full recovery in 
the future. We will continue to invest in our kids to make sure we can 
get our students back on track with learning and engaged in school, 
while also paying attention to their non-academic needs. I do have 
concerns that, while we have the resources now for these new staff and 
programs, once COVID-19 relief funding runs out we may not be able to 
continue these critical supports. Having Oberlin College in our school 
district is a great asset academically, but has, in the past, limited 
the funding the district can raise locally because the College's 
properties are non-taxable. We ask for continued help and support from 
Congress to be able to sustain these important and impactful efforts 
into the future.

    While we are doing a lot of positive things in our school, we have 
a long way to go. Continuing all of this essential work to help 
students will require excellent teachers at OHS and across the country, 
just as we are facing a massive teacher shortage.

    As one example, OHS has recently had trouble filling a job for a 
math teacher. We usually had a wide pool of qualified applicants and 
found excellent teachers, even in harder-to-fill subjects like math and 
science. Now, there are maybe one or two people applying for these 
jobs. Although our district's pay is around the median for our area, 
and our district is considered relatively high-need, we simply didn't 
have this problem before the pandemic.

    There are several reasons why teachers are leaving the profession, 
including low pay and increasing demands. Additionally, there is a lack 
of respect for the profession. Teachers are truly the experts in the 
classroom, but in many places aren't treated as such. Instead, they're 
being told what to teach without having a say in setting education 
policy.

    As we look to stop the exodus of current teachers, we also must 
look at how we can attract new teachers to the profession. Along with a 
focus on higher pay and student loan forgiveness, we should also 
support grassroots programs like Educators Rising that seek to identify 
students who want to pursue jobs as teachers early in their academic 
careers. Throughout all of this work, we should commit to diversifying 
the teaching profession, so that teachers look more like the students 
in our schools.

    Though the pandemic presented huge challenges for our students, 
academically and emotionally, they are resilient and have the support 
of communities and teachers behind them. Like my colleagues in Oberlin 
and I, teachers across the country are committed to doing everything in 
our power to help students recover from the pandemic.

    Resources provided through the Federal COVID relief bills have made 
a huge difference to our ability to help students accelerate their 
learning and work through trauma brought about by the pandemic. We need 
more excellent educators to help us continue this essential work over 
the long run. I urge you to look at the great work going on in your 
states and across the country to help students' recovery and to 
continue funding these programs.

    Thank you for your time and consideration, and I look forward to 
answering your questions.
                                 ______
                                 
                  [Summary Statement of Kurt Russell]
   Students' Struggles During Virtual Learning + Impact on Academics
    The online learning environment was difficult for students. Many 
students didn't have the necessary equipment or strong enough internet 
connections to fully engage with and participate in online learning. 
Students who had previously been active participants in class 
discussions were now quiet and unwilling to speak up. Some were 
frustrated by technological challenges, and others were embarrassed by 
their families' economic circumstances and didn't want classmates to 
see into their homes. A wide disconnect developed between me and my 
students.

    When we returned to school, I saw a deficit in students' academic 
skills. I've had to ``water down'' my curriculum because students can 
no longer dissect or comprehend the primary sources I used to use. I've 
seen this drop in students at all levels, from 9th grade general 
education classes to advanced 12th grade courses. Student writing has 
suffered as well, as I find that students are not as able to fluidly 
communicate in writing as they used to and they now rely heavily on 
internet sources. Their oral communication skills have also declined.
                   Importance of Federal COVID Relief
    Federal COVID relief has been critical in getting much-needed 
support to our schools, teachers, and students. My school has hired a 
social worker, the first I've had in my building in my 25-year career. 
Additionally, Oberlin High School used Federal COVID-19 relief funds to 
hire both a reading coach and a math coach to provide targeted support 
to struggling students.

    Collectively, these new staff, and other programs we have 
implemented, are strengthening our school's academic and social success 
and giving us hope for a full recovery. I do have concerns that, while 
we have the resources now for these new staff and programs, once COVID-
19 relief funding runs out we may not be able to continue these 
critical supports. We ask for continued help and support from Congress 
to be able to sustain these important and impactful efforts.
                            Teacher Shortage
    Continuing all of this essential work to help students will require 
excellent teachers at OHS and across the country, just as we are facing 
a massive teacher shortage.

    There are several reasons why teachers are leaving the profession, 
including low pay, increasing demands and, particularly, a lack of 
respect for the profession. Teachers are truly experts in the 
classroom, but in many places aren't treated as such. Instead, they're 
being told what to teach without having a say in setting education 
policy.

    Along with a focus on higher pay and student loan forgiveness, we 
should also work to attract new teachers through programs that identify 
prospective teachers early in their academic careers. And throughout 
all of this work, we should commit to diversifying the teaching 
profession, so that teachers look more like the students in our 
schools.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you.

    Ms. Wall.

            STATEMENT OF ERIN WALL, PARENT, CARY, NC

    Ms. Wall. Good morning. My name is Erin Wall, and I am from 
Cary, North Carolina. Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Burr, 
and Members of the Senate HELP Committee, thank you for having 
me today and for convening a hearing on such an important 
topic. I have three young children ages 10, 7, and 5.

    My oldest son, Carter, has a learning disability which 
causes significant developmental delays. At the age of four, 
Carter entered the Wake County public school system through 
North Carolina's Child Find. Since that time, he has received 
services including physical therapy, speech therapy, 
occupational therapy, and special education services.

    I will never forget that Friday in March 2020 when school 
as we knew it came to a screeching halt and teachers, students, 
and parents were thrust into the unknown world of virtual 
learning. From that point until the start of the following 
school year, Carter did not receive any of his required 
services.

    The following school year, Wayne County schools were 
virtual, which included special education services. One of 
Carter's biggest challenges in school is his focus. Therefore, 
someone had to be physically present and engaged with him 
during his virtual learning. Considering we had a front row 
seat, we saw the struggles teachers and students had in trying 
to adapt.

    We observed that teachers were spending most of their time 
trying to focus the students and engage them in their lessons. 
Students were often distracted and unable to navigate the 
technical aspects of being online at such a young age. A 
virtual platform is a huge transition, and for this community 
of children, change is very hard. The therapies that Carter 
receives require a hands on approach.

    These are interactions that often use personal touch and 
demonstration to achieve success in reaching his goals. Another 
important part of Carter's IEP is to buildupon and improve his 
social skills. This requires the teacher to encourage and help 
Carter navigate these social interactions, which simply cannot 
be done in a virtual environment. At the same time, we also had 
to consider the educational needs of our youngest boys.

    Our middle child was a rising kindergartner, and we 
enrolled him in a private school which provided in-person 
instruction. Our youngest son also intended an in-person 
preschool program the same year.

    It became clear to us that we could not rely on the public 
school system to provide in-person instruction, so we had to 
take matters into our own hands. We hired a tutor to work with 
Carter daily. In order for Carter to meet his specific 
educational goals, we had to choose in-person instruction with 
the tutor over virtual learning.

    Because of Carter's learning lost experience over this 
timeframe, we were forced to continue his tutoring on a weekly 
basis to help bridge the gap. Fortunately, we are blessed to 
have the resources for this outside service. However, most 
parents in this situation do not. Up to this point, Carter has 
always experienced some delays. However, that gap has grown 
even wider because of the length of the pandemic and continued 
disruptions to his learning.

    Just this year, our son's school has experienced the loss 
of several dedicated educators. For example, Carter's speech 
language pathologist left the school at the beginning of the 
December, and that position was never filled, and the vacancy 
remained until the end of the school year.

    Carter went 7 months without speech services. On multiple 
occasions, I was reassured that they were working diligently to 
fill the position and that Carter was owed compensatory 
services. However, not only was the position not filled, he did 
not receive any compensatory services during those 7 months.

    I also want to focus on the important role of special 
education teachers and what they face to care for children, 
both educationally and mentally. Special education teachers in 
the State of North Carolina provide direct instruction and case 
management that includes paperwork, reports, and meetings. 
There simply isn't enough time in a school day for all the 
roles that special education are asked to perform.

    Because of all the responsibilities that special education 
teachers are required, they have very little time to work with 
the children, which is their passion. Now is the time for 
teachers, students, parents, and all stakeholders to come 
together to work on solutions and improvements. Everyone needs 
to take a step back and really look at our children. A lot of 
them are not okay.

    I was recently told by one of Carter's therapists that even 
if we think a child seems okay, most of them are not. She 
spends most of her sessions allowing kids to talk and to be 
heard. We need to slow down, teach the basics, stop, look, and 
smile at the kids, and give them what they have been missing 
for 2 years.

    Many children entered school this past year, nervous, 
behind, and unsure. They need to be cared for. School systems 
need to work closer with teachers and parents to problem, solve 
and develop feasible and meaningful solutions. As parents, we 
need more support from the school to help our children at home.

    Brainstorming what might be beneficial, parents needs to be 
in collaboration with teachers to develop strategies to extend 
their learning at home. In closing, the fallout from the 
pandemic resulted in setbacks for our children academically, 
socially, and emotionally.

    There isn't a quick fix, but I certainly hope that we can 
come together to create some solutions to help us move forward. 
Students, teachers, and parents are crying for help. Our boys 
would not be where they are today if it weren't for the village 
of teachers and therapists that have supported and love them 
along the way.

    We must take steps to provide support for students, 
teachers, and parents for the sake of everyone's future. Thank 
you for your time.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Wall follows.]

                    prepared statement of erin wall
    Good morning. My name is Erin Wall and I'm from Cary, NC. Chairman 
Murray, Ranking Member Burr and Members of the Senate HELP Committee, 
thank you for having me today and for convening a hearing on such an 
important topic. I have three young children ages 10, 7 and 5. My 
oldest son, Carter, has a learning disability which causes significant 
developmental delays. At the age of four, Carter entered the Wake 
County Public School system through NC Child Find. Since that time, he 
has received services including physical therapy, speech therapy, 
occupational therapy, and special education services.

    I'll never forget that Friday in March 2020 when school as we knew 
it came to a screeching halt and teachers, students and parents alike 
were thrust into the unknown world of virtual learning. From that point 
until the start of the following school year Carter did not receive any 
of his required services.

    The following school year, Wake County schools were virtual which 
included special education services. One of Carter's biggest challenges 
in school in his focus; therefore, someone had to be physically present 
and engaged with him during his virtual learning. Considering we had a 
front row seat we saw the struggles teachers and students had in trying 
to adapt. We observed that teachers were spending most of their time 
trying to focus the students and engage them in their lessons. Students 
were often distracted and unable to navigate the technical aspects of 
being online at this young age. A virtual platform is a huge transition 
and for this community of children change is hard.

    The therapies that Carter receives require a hands-on approach. 
These are interactions that often use personal touch and demonstration 
to achieve success in reaching his goals. Another important part of 
Carter's IEP is to build upon and improve his social skills. This 
requires the teacher to encourage and help Carter navigate these social 
interactions which simply cannot be done in a virtual environment.

    At the same time, we also had to consider the educational needs of 
our youngest boys. Our middle child was a rising kindergartener, and we 
enrolled him in a private school which provided in-person instruction. 
Our youngest son also attended an in-person preschool program the same 
year.

    It became clear to us that we could not rely on the public school 
system to provide in-person instruction, so we had to take matters into 
our own hands. We hired a tutor to work with Carter daily. In order for 
Carter to meet his specific educational goals we had to choose in-
person instruction with the tutor over virtual learning. Because of 
Carter's learning loss experienced over this time frame we are forced 
to continue his tutoring on a weekly basis to help bridge the gap. 
Fortunately, we are blessed to have the resources for this outside 
service; however, most parents in this situation do not. Up to this 
point Carter has always experienced some delays; however, that gap has 
grown even wider because of the length of the pandemic and continued 
disruptions to his learning.

    Just this year, our son's school has experienced the loss of 
several dedicated educators. For example, Carter's speech language 
pathologist left his school at the beginning of December and that 
position was never filled and the vacancy remained until the end of the 
school year. Carter went 7 months without speech services. On multiple 
occasions I was reassured that they were working diligently to fill the 
position and that Carter was owed compensatory services. However, not 
only was the position not filled he did not receive any compensatory 
services during those 7 months.

    I also want to focus on the important role of special education 
teachers and what they face to care for children both educationally and 
mentally. Special education teachers in the State of North Carolina 
provide direct instruction and case management that includes paperwork, 
reports, and meetings. There simply isn't enough time in a school day 
for all the roles that special education teachers are asked to perform. 
Because of all the responsibilities special education teachers are 
required they have very little time to work with children which is 
their passion.

    Now is the time for teachers, students, parents and all 
stakeholders to come together to work on solutions and improvements. 
Everyone needs to take a step back and really look at our children. A 
lot of them are not okay. I was recently told by one of Carter's 
therapists that even if we think a child seems okay most of them are 
not. She spends most of her sessions allowing kids to talk and be 
heard. We need to slow down, teach the basics, stop, look, and smile at 
the kids and give them what they've been missing for 2 years. So many 
children entered school this past year behind, nervous, and unsure. 
They need to be cared for. School systems need to work closer with 
teachers and parents to problem solve and develop feasible and 
meaningful solutions.

    As parents we need more support from the school to help our 
children at home. In brainstorming in what might be beneficial, parents 
need to be in collaboration with teachers to develop strategies to 
extend their learning at home.

    In closing, the fallout from the pandemic resulted in setbacks for 
our children academically, socially, and emotionally. There isn't a 
quick fix, but I certainly hope that we can come together to create 
some solutions to help us move forward. Students, teachers and parents 
are crying for help. Our boys would not be where they are today if it 
weren't for the village of teachers and therapists that have supported 
and loved them along the way. We must take steps to provide support for 
students, teachers, and parents for the sake of everyone's future.

    Thank you for your time.
                                 ______
                                 
                    [Summary Statement of Erin Wall]
    My name is Erin Wall and I have three young children ages 10, 7 and 
5. My oldest son, Carter, has a learning disability which causes 
significant developmental delays. At the age of four, Carter entered 
the Wake County Public School system and has since received special 
education services and related therapies.

    Due to the pandemic and disruptions to the school year, students 
have experienced significant learning loss. We are witnessed to the 
struggle our school system continues to have to keep qualified 
personnel and to address the deficits in learning the students are now 
facing.

    During the pandemic, in order for Carter to meet his specific 
educational goals and bridge the learning gap we had to choose in-
person instruction with a tutor over virtual learning. We are blessed 
to have the resources for this outside service; however, most parents 
in this situation do not. If we don't come together to address this 
problem now our educational systems will worsen. The fallout from the 
pandemic resulted in setbacks for our children academically, socially, 
and emotionally. There isn't a quick fix, but I certainly hope that we 
can come together to create some solutions to help us move forward.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you so much to all of our witnesses today. 
We really appreciate your being here and your testimony. We 
will now begin a round of 5 minute questions of our witnesses. 
I ask my colleagues to please keep track of your clock and stay 
within the 5-minutes.

    My first question is for Mr. Russell. And first of all, Mr. 
Russell, congratulations on being selected 2022 Teacher of the 
Year, and thank you for all the work you do educating our kids.

    You know, the past few school years have been incredibly 
challenging for educators, and I know the tragedies in Uvalde 
and elsewhere only add to that strain as educators have to help 
students navigate the heartbreak that comes with these far too 
frequent school shootings as well.

    Amid all of this, our educators like yourself continue to 
work hard to get our students back on track. Mr. Russell, I 
wanted to ask you today, what can districts, and states and the 
Federal Government do to better help our educators, including 
by addressing burnout and supporting their mental health 
challenges that they face today so that you are able to focus 
on what you are expert in, which is teaching our students?

    Mr. Russell. Thank you so much, Chair, for that question. 
There are several levels to that--to my answer. I think, Number 
1 is the responsibility that teachers have now is demanding. 
And there has to be a way in which we could elevate teachers by 
compensation is one, in regards to making sure that the level 
of compensation is equal to the responsibility that they have.

    I think Number 2 is for teachers to have a voice, for 
teachers to sit down at the table with legislation and create 
policies. Teachers are the experts. Teachers are the ones that 
are on the grind every day in the classroom. I believe that 
teachers must have the respect to be able to sit down and make 
policy changes along with legislation.

    The Chair. Thank you. My next question is for Commissioner 
Russell-Tucker and Dr. Goldhaber. The last few years have been 
incredibly tough on our students and our families and our 
educators.

    Given this pandemic's impact on learning, we need to do 
everything we can to help our students get back up to speed and 
successful, which I think is why it was so important the 
American Rescue Plan provided schools with the resources they 
need to stay open and to address students' learning loss, with 
a particular focus on addressing the disproportionate impact of 
the pandemic on students of color, students with disabilities, 
students from families with low income, and so on.

    Commissioner, let me start with you. Congress required 
states to address learning loss with the American Rescue Plan 
funding. How is Connecticut using this funding to help our 
schools and districts and students address learning loss and 
address their academic, social, emotional needs?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Thank you, Chair, for that question as 
well. So critically important. I am really pleased to say that 
we were very intentional in Connecticut to make sure that we 
had investment priorities. And to your point, the learning 
recovery and acceleration was a big part of that.

    Our districts are actually investing over $700 million 
across all the districts in that particular domain. They are 
looking at smaller class sizes, bringing in tutors in that 
particular space. But you are also so clear, it is so clear 
that we have to address fundamentally the social, emotional, 
and mental health well-being of not only our students, but for 
our staff.

    That was another funding priority that Connecticut put in 
place not just for our district, but also for ourselves with 
our state set aside funding. And in that particular priority 
area, over $183 million have been invested in that space. It is 
hiring additional support staff, social workers, and counselors 
to be in that space.

    In some cases, it is working with partner organizations 
that are providers of services that can also support them in 
that category as well. So those are the kinds of things that we 
are working on.

    In Connecticut, I talk about my big audacious goal, which 
is to make sure that every school building has that level of 
behavioral health supports in it to make sure that children can 
thrive, and the teachers can also be supported.

    The Chair. Thank you. Dr. Goldhaber, what strategies are 
you seeing work best to help boost students learning?

    Mr. Goldhaber. Well, I want to be clear that we don't have 
evidence yet about what is actually working based on the 
current investments. But there is lots of evidence from pre-
pandemic investments about what works.

    There are some of the strategies that I outlined earlier 
that seem to have quite large effects on student achievement. 
High dosage tutoring, which is small group tutoring at least 
three or four times a week throughout the school year, that has 
been shown to have quite large impacts on student achievement. 
Double dosing of academic subjects.

    Where some where students may get extra subjects in math or 
reading. That has larger impacts. And then various ways of 
extending the amount of learning time that students get. So 
extended school days, Saturday school, intersession extended 
school year, and summer school.

    All of those are strategies that make good sense. But 
again, as I mentioned before, are a little bit politically 
contentious.

    The Chair. Thank you. Finally, Ms. Wall, these have been 
pretty difficult years and I think parents' concern about their 
students' learning is at the highest level since the start of 
the pandemic. As a parent of three children, looking forward, 
how would you like to see schools and districts use these funds 
from the American Rescue Plan and better communicate with 
families?

    Ms. Wall. Thank you for the question, Chairwoman. As 
everyone has kind of mentioned, I think it is important for the 
teachers and parents in the schools to come together to try to 
help address these needs for the children. And coming out these 
past 2 years, children are faced with a lot of deficits in 
their learning. I think that those need to be identified by the 
teachers.

    Then the teachers are--they need training and resources to 
help those children. I feel like children have been promoted to 
the next grade level and those teachers are required to teach 
at that grade level. However, those children are behind in math 
and in reading.

    For instance, our son Carter, he is still learning how to 
read, and he is going to be going into the fourth grade next 
year. And so a fourth grade teacher doesn't have the training 
and the resources to teach a child phonics and how to continue 
their reading skills. I feel like they are not able to fully 
help him.

    I feel like giving teachers the training and the resources 
they need so that they can then identify those learning gaps 
for the children and then working with parents too, so parents 
can then help their children at home and work outside of the 
school setting to try to help them move forward.

    The Chair. Thank you very much.

    Senator Cassidy.

    Senator Cassidy. Thank you. Mr. Russell, once more man, how 
impressive is that? I feel like you are the LeBron James of 
secondary and primary school teaching. So just hats off to you. 
That said, Dr. Goldhaber, okay, you say that 5 months is the 
average for children with dyslexia versus an average of 2 
months for all students.

    What if you just compare students who are lower 
socioeconomic class versus higher socioeconomic class? What is 
the difference in math progression in that spread, if you will?

    Mr. Goldhaber. Well, actually, the comparison was not for 
dyslexic students with----

    Senator Cassidy. No, I am sorry--I shouldn't have--lower 
socioeconomic class, lower socioeconomic versus higher 
socioeconomic. If you just compare those two without the 
overall average, what is the difference?

    Mr. Goldhaber. Oh, the difference is and these are around 
about but roughly five and a half months behind for students in 
high poverty schools versus more like a month and a half to 2 
months in--for students that are in low poverty schools.

    Senator Cassidy. But did you--in a low poverty school, that 
is a mix of students. That is, those children who are both from 
poor families as well as those who are richer. Is just that the 
average is that the students are richer. Were you able to 
differentiate again between students who come from a census 
track of high poverty versus a census track of low poverty?

    Mr. Goldhaber. In our study, we couldn't differentiate at 
the individual school level based on poverty.

    Senator Cassidy. Okay, let me stop you there, because I 
have limited time. Ms. Wall creates a very compelling case that 
children with disability--learning disability or disability in 
general are particularly vulnerable. Did any of your research 
look at the impact upon children with--now I will go to 
dyslexia, but just pick learning disability in general versus 
those who do not have a learning disability?

    Mr. Goldhaber. Again, I don't want to rely on our research, 
but I have read a lot of research by other researchers and the 
answer is that more vulnerable students were clearly made worse 
off by the pandemic. It is not clear that is solely about what 
was going on in the schools, as I think you mentioned in your 
opening remarks.

    Some of this may be about what was happening in the homes 
from folks from different backgrounds, too.

    Senator Cassidy. Did you track in your--we have talked 
about the 8.1 percent of children leaving public schools, but 
we have seen an uptick of about 240,000 of children going into 
charter schools. And anecdotally, there has been increased 
enrollment in private and parochial schools. Did your data 
track the migration of such students?

    Mr. Goldhaber. No, that was not the focus of our work.

    Senator Cassidy. Ms. Tucker, in your experience in 
Connecticut, have you tracked, I don't know of the fallen 
enrollment in public schools in Connecticut, but assuming that 
there was some decrease in enrollment, did you track what 
percent of those students who are no longer in public school 
are either in a charter, a private, or parochial school?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Thank you, Senator, for the question. 
We have a really robust data system that allows us to do data 
tracking of our students. Specifically, we have looked to see 
when we did an assessment in the previous year, basically how 
students did based on their learning models.

    We have looked, out enrollments are down and also now 
coming back up, and we are able to disaggregate. I don't have 
those specific numbers for you, but we are able to disaggregate 
our data and we are able to tell how all those student groups 
are performing.

    To the point that was made earlier, certainly they were all 
impacted, or students with disabilities and I know it is a 
concern of yours, were disproportionately impacted wider areas 
than a student group that we are working very hard to address 
those needs.

    Senator Cassidy. But specifically, were you able to track 
whether or not the children who disenrolled from a public 
school subsequently enrolled in a charter--I don't know if you 
have charters, I assume that you do, a charter, a private, or 
religious school?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. We--I don't have that level of data----

    Senator Cassidy. Okay, let me stop you there. I happen to 
know that the people who literally wrote the book on dyslexia, 
Dr. Shaywitz in Yale, and one in five children are affected by 
dyslexia. I don't know if you screened first--the first part of 
the question is if you screen for dyslexia.

    Second, do you have specific data as regards how those 
children did during the kind of remote learning period, 
subsequent to the remote learning period. Did they fall further 
behind than their peers independently of their income level of 
the family?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. We have looked at the student with 
disabilities. We can disaggregate. I don't have the information 
specifically for students identified with dyslexia, but those 
students with disabilities in general, certainly were 
disproportionately impacted.

    Senator Cassidy. Does Connecticut screen and then 
subsequently test to confirm if somebody is dyslexic? Do you 
screen children for dyslexia?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. That is occurring. It is an area of 
concern for us this past session. An Office of Dyslexia and 
Reading Disabilities was placed by our legislature in our 
office to really get closer to those issues, to work with also 
higher education. Make sure that our teachers----

    Senator Cassidy. Okay. I am sorry. She is about to rein me 
in.

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Okay.

    Senator Cassidy. Can you tell me what percent of your 
students have been identified as dyslexic?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. I don't have that specific number for 
you, but we will get back to you.

    Senator Cassidy. I suspect there will be a second round, so 
I yield.

    The Chair. Thank you.

    Senator Kaine.

    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you to all the 
witnesses. I am going to ask a question about teacher 
recruitment, teacher retention. I want to hear from all of you. 
Before I do, Chairman, I just wanted to recount something that 
I heard not long ago.

    It has been a tough challenge for parents and teachers and 
school board members. I have had some school boards in 
Virginia, and almost all of our school board members are 
parents of kids, and some are grandparents, maybe former 
teachers. They are deeply connected to education issues.

    Many of them have kids in the system right now, and they 
are very poorly paid. I had a school board member in one of my 
jurisdictions where there has been really volatile public 
meetings, choose not to run again. I asked her why. And her 
answer stopped me absolutely dead in my tracks. She said my 
salary would not pay for a funeral.

    She and her children have received death threats over 
decisions that they have been grappling with the school board 
members. And it has been a tough time and people are stressed, 
I get that. But I worry about people choosing other lines of 
work because of a perception that, wow, this is a job that's 
always been tough.

    Now I got to grapple with physical security issues, whether 
it is a shooter in a classroom or somebody who is putting death 
threats on my email because of a decision that the school board 
might make.

    Here is the question I wanted to ask. Ms. Wall talked about 
in her school, the school that are older son is connected, with 
a speech therapist leaving midyear and then one replaced at the 
end of the year. And as I talk to superintendents, they really 
sing the blues to me about teacher shortages and teacher 
retention, and particularly about any teacher in the special ed 
space.

    Could each of the four of you from kind of the research 
standpoint, a state system, a local high school and parent, 
just share with the Committee what are things we ought to be 
thinking about in terms of attracting and retaining teachers?

    Mr. Goldhaber. I am happy to quickly weigh in, and thank 
you for the question, Senator Kaine. I think that we do need to 
be concerned generally with the desirability of the teaching 
profession, given everything that is going on in schools.

    But I also think that it is very important not to talk 
about teachers generically, because what we know about the 
teacher labor market is that the degree of staffing challenge 
varies a great deal based on geography. It varies a great deal 
based on teacher specialization. So you mentioned special 
education teachers, and that is an area where I think that it 
is much more challenging to staff classrooms than it is to 
staff, for instance, elementary education classrooms.

    It is tougher to staff classrooms in schools that are 
serving disproportionately disadvantaged or historically 
marginalized students. So my view, and this is perhaps not 
surprising as I am a labor economist, is that we ought to be 
focusing resources in the areas where there is more acute need.

    That would be, again, the places where staffing challenges 
are more extreme. I do think that additional pay and retention 
incentives do make a difference in terms of the likelihood that 
we are going to attract people----

    Senator Kaine. Excellent. Could I ask Commissioner Russell-
Tucker? I just I would love to hear from everybody before my 
time expires.

    Commissioner Russell-Tucker.

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Thank you, Senator. Certainly it was an 
area of extreme focus for us, as you can well imagine, with 
schools open, trying to address the staffing needs, helping a 
district address the staffing needs.

    Some of the things we have done with our state board that 
we have looked at flexibilities around certifications and I 
think those are the things we continue--we need to continue to 
look at and long term--so there is a short term, but long term, 
how do we continue to encourage folks to come into the 
profession, which is so important.

    That is the work that we have to continue to do together 
and not without hearing from the teachers themselves. What is 
those things that make the environment much more attractive to 
come into, starting with students as well?

    Senator Kaine. Mr. Russell, what are those things that make 
the environment more attractive? So you are well positioned to 
answer that question.

    Mr. Russell. Yes, thank you so much. Number 1, the value 
placed upon teachers has been lost, that respect. Once upon a 
time, teachers used to be the pillar of a community. Now that 
is no longer there. The respect of teachers in regards to their 
expertise is not taken--is taken for granted.

    Therefore, there is many things that we can do in order to 
increase. Number 1, as I mentioned in my testimony earlier, is 
pay. We have to be compensated. It is not an attractive 
profession because of that. I think No. 2, as I said earlier, 
that teachers must be a voice in regards to policies and 
legislation.

    Senator Kaine. Chair, could I ask if Ms. Wall could respond 
briefly?

    The Chair. Yes. Absolutely.

    Ms. Wall. Thank you, Senator. I spoke to a lot of Carter's 
special education teachers leading up to today. Sadly, two of 
them are leaving Carter's school. I think it is because, as Mr. 
Russell touched on, pay is obviously a huge concern of theirs. 
And also they are just stretched too thin.

    I mean, special education teachers have to educate the 
children, but yet they also have to handle the case management, 
which is a lot of paperwork and meetings, and that eats up a 
lot of their time. And they are not able to work with the 
children, which is their passion.

    That should be the Number 1 thing that they are working on 
is the children and their education and there is just not 
enough time for them to be able to do that.

    Senator Kaine. Great. Thank you so much.

    Thanks, Chair Murray.

    The Chair. Thank you.

    Senator Tuberville.

    Senator Tuberville. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for 
being here today. That was excellent questioning there. Senator 
Kaine, I have spent 40 years teaching and coaching and you hit 
it right on the head, respect, environment, and pay. Mostly 
women are teachers, a high percentage of them.

    I think all three of those should be accountable if we are 
going to get our education back to where it should be. So thank 
you all for being here today. Mr. Russell, Congress 
appropriated three waves of Federal K-through-12 pandemic 
relief funding.

    In the third wave of funding that came with the passage of 
the American Rescue Plan in March 2021, Congress required 
school districts to set aside 20 percent of the funds to 
address student learning loss through evidence based 
interventions. What evidence based interventions would you 
prioritize if you were running your school district? What would 
you do with that 20 percent?

    Mr. Russell. Thank you so much, Senator. Thank you so much, 
Senator, for that question. There is a couple of things I would 
do. I think, Number 1, I would have a more robust inclusion 
program with our students, making sure that all of our students 
are able to be included within the curriculum.

    What I mean by that is making sure that teachers are 
equipped to teach all of our students, making sure that 
students receive that quality of education that they deserve. I 
think Number 2, as we have done at Oberlin High School, is that 
we hire specialists, and we hire instructional coaches to 
really focus on students who are struggling and also to really 
focus on teacher instructional pedagogy. So those are the two 
things I will really focus on.

    Senator Tuberville. Anybody else got anything I want to add 
to that?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Just a point on that. Not all our 
schools are resourced similarly. And so within our districts we 
have districts that received $40,000 and districts that 
received $200 million. What you can do between there is really 
very different. So allowing districts to assess their need and 
determine what they--what needs to occur for them locally, I 
think is really important.

    Senator Tuberville. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Ms. 
Wall, extensive research has shown that students achieve more 
in school when their parents are involved in their education. I 
think we will all agree with that. And as a former educator and 
coach, I couldn't agree more. I have seen it firsthand.

    Children are empowered to reach new heights when their 
parents or guardians are engaged. In your testimony, you 
highlighted that as the parent of a child with learning 
disability, you supplemented your son's virtual learning with a 
tutor who provided in-person instruction.

    While not every parent is fortunate enough to do that, your 
decisive action ensured your son would not fall further behind 
the classroom, which I have seen that time and time again. In 
your opinion, what are the primary barriers to parent 
involvement in school programs? What do you think keeps parents 
out of involvement now?

    Ms. Wall. Thank you, Senator, for your question. I think 
one of the struggles with the virtual learning was just the 
time of day. I mean, it took place in the middle of the school 
day.

    Parents were at work, and they weren't able to sit there 
with their children at home and be a part of their school day. 
I think that is the biggest issue.

    I think that is why it is important for teachers to work 
with the parents to help identify what those learning gaps may 
be so then the parents can be more involved with their 
children, whether that is at the end of the school day helping 
them with their homework or providing tutoring services, 
whatever that may be, but just finding the right time so that 
parents can be involved in that educational process with their 
kids.

    Senator Tuberville. Thank you. Mr. Russell-Tucker, recent 
data indicates that charter schools experienced undeniable 
success despite COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, nearly every state 
saw charter school enrollment increase in 2019 school year to 
2021.

    In Alabama, there was a 65 percent increase in charter 
school enrollment and a 1.4 decrease in public school 
enrollment. In your State of Connecticut, charter schools saw a 
1.2 percent increase in enrollment and a nearly 3 percent 
decrease in district public school enrollment.

    Without charter schools, overall public school enrollment 
declines might have been far worse, leading to further learning 
losses. Why do you think charter schools experienced record 
growth during the pandemic?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. You know, in some cases, Senator, I 
believe families were looking for smaller learning 
environments. And so that was something that they might have 
gravitated to. I know in Connecticut, we have worked across the 
board for families to be able to have the ability to make 
decisions around what they needed to do for learning.

    But also critically important that our schools are all 
sharing specific information with families so they can make 
decisions to the point sometimes of having families walk 
through a building to have a sense of health and safety that is 
in that building. And so it is really--what is important is to 
make sure that all our families were able to make those 
decisions based on the school types that they were a part of.

    Senator Tuberville. Thank you.

    Thank you, Madam Chair.

    The Chair. Senator Smith.

    Senator Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member. And 
thanks, welcome to our panelists. I really appreciate this 
discussion today. I want to focus in on mental health and the 
importance, the value of providing good mental health services 
in schools.

    This is something that I have heard consistently from 
parents and students and also educators in Minnesota even 
before the pandemic. But of course, the pandemic really 
exacerbated that challenge. In Minnesota, I am sure like a lot 
of districts, we really struggle with finding resources in 
order to provide this.

    Minnesota actually has one of the worst school counselor to 
student ratios in the country. The recommended ratio is 1 to 
250 students. In Minnesota, it is 1 for every 654 students. And 
it is even worse for social workers and mental health 
providers, psychologists, and so forth. So one of the things 
that has happened in Minnesota is that ARP funding has been 
deployed to address this challenge.

    In Albert Lea, Minnesota, they are hiring counselors and a 
social worker. In Dover, Iowa, they are bringing in outside 
mental health professionals to try to fill this gap. Mr. 
Russell, and then I am going to turn to you, Ms. Russell-
Tucker, as an educator, could you talk to us about the value, 
what you see around having mental health professionals in 
schools to be able to provide the--fill that need for students 
and what difference it makes in the work that you are doing?

    Mr. Russell. Thank you so much, Senator, for that question. 
There is a great need for that. In my testimony, I mentioned 
for the first time in my 25 years of teaching, we had a social 
worker. And what I noticed is the emotional and mental growth 
of our students were substantial.

    Our social worker brought in new ways of trying to 
encourage our students. Our social worker was able to really 
tap into not only students trauma, but also faculty trauma as 
well. And from there, it seemed as though there is a healing 
process that is taking place. And so therefore, there is a 
great need, even in my teaching, in my classroom, what I 
noticed is students are more emotional, well, because of the 
social worker that we brought in, and students are more able to 
really focus on the lesson right at the moment.

    Senator Smith. That allows--it is sort of the link. Of 
course, it is just one student. It is not like, oh, here is my 
emotional wellness health and here is my academic wellness 
self. It is one person.

    Everybody, everything that I have read has talked about the 
sort of how there is also delay, social emotional development 
growth, just as there has been academic delay in academic 
growth because of the pandemic. And it sounds like that's what 
you are seeing as well.

    Mr. Russell. Yes, I am.

    Senator Smith. Ms. Russell, would you like to comment on 
this from your perspective and what you are seeing as far as 
the importance of addressing mental health care needs for 
students in their learning environment?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Thank you, Senator. And that is a 
passion of mine. Even before the pandemic, we recognized that 
students had to have their social emotional well-being 
addressed because that is foundational to learning.

    We made that investment priority with the ESSER funds that 
came in, again, not for just ourselves. And we also realize in 
Connecticut, so all our districts, as I have said, have 
invested over $183 million across the state.

    We are also doing it from our state reserve as well. But 
our legislature just passed landmark legislation on mental 
health that is also providing additional resources for schools 
to be able to hire mental health staff and others that they 
need. Assess what they need at the local level.

    It is critical for students to be--to learn, and it is also 
critical for staff when we talk about the environment that they 
are working in, that their needs are also met. But if the 
children, if their needs are met, then they can also focus on 
teaching and learning.

    Senator Smith. Thank you. I couldn't agree more. I think 
this is an area of very important focus for us. I want to just 
note that not only has this Committee has just done--is in the 
midst of doing really important work.

    I am marking up and working on a mental health--broader 
based mental health legislation. But I am in the package that 
we just voted on for last night. We are also looking as we look 
at gun safety issues, also looking at mental health issues and 
what we can do to support that. I think that is a very 
important priority.

    Maybe just quickly, Mr. Russell, before I run out of time 
here. I also believe that strong after school programs are 
incredibly valuable to help to support students and kids. We 
are seeing how Rescue Plan dollars were used to extend 
afterschool programs.

    My colleague on this Committee, Senator Murphy, has worked 
a lot on this and I have been glad to partner with him. Could 
you just have a minute to talk a little bit about how those 
afterschool programs also can be helpful to advancing kid's 
social, emotional, and academic growth?

    Mr. Russell. Thank you so much again, Senator, for that 
question. Yes, it has been a great, great benefit to our school 
district. Because of the ESSER fund, we were able to create and 
to enhance our afterschool enrichment program. Our program goes 
from afterschool to around 6.00 in the p.m., maybe 3 hours per 
day.

    What we bring in are tutors, but at the same time we bring 
in recreational activities just in order for our kids to be 
kids. And what I noticed is that after school program has 
really benefited our school. As I said earlier, in regards to 
bring in the social worker, the after school program has been a 
direct link into our emotional well-being of our students as 
well.

    Senator Smith. Thank you very much.

    Thank you, Madam Chair.

    The Chair. Senator Casey.

    Senator Casey. Chair Murray, thanks very much. And thanks 
for having this hearing. Both, thank you and the Ranking 
Member. I wanted to start with an issue which I don't think 
anyone here or anyone listening would contest, and that is that 
the pandemic has had a devastating impact on students across 
the board.

    There is just no way to calculate that or adequately 
describe it. That devastating impact on children in our schools 
is often worse if that child has a disability. And obviously, 
all of you are critically concerned about these issues that 
relate to children in our schools generally, but in particular 
with regard to the terrible impact of the pandemic.

    I wanted to start with Commissioner Russell-Tucker to ask 
you about that focus on children with disabilities, and in 
particular children with disabilities in our schools who may 
not have access, have had access, I should say, to all of their 
individual education plan services.

    We know the American Rescue Plan provided dollars to 
support reopening schools and about $130 billion, as I recall, 
and dollars to address the academic challenges students face.

    It also included additional funding to support students 
through the ADA, through those grants. What do you think we 
need to do, Commissioner to support the academic renewal of 
students with disabilities to ensure that they can achieve 
their academic potential?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Thank you, Senator, for that question. 
And as I laid out in the testimony, in addition to the IDA 
funds and the additional resources which we are grateful for, 
that we also tapped into the states Reserve funds to even add 
to that because this is so critically important for us to do.

    We need to listen and hear from families what they are 
experiencing so we can provide specific supports. We need to 
hear directly from our school districts about what their 
challenges are as well so we can be again supporting them in 
all their needs.

    Connecticut has 80,000 or so of our students who are 
students with disabilities. And back to your previous question 
about 11,000 of them with dyslexia.

    It is really important for us to be able to lean in on our 
families and hear directly from families what their experiences 
are and how to support the children. Also from my children, 
their voices matter as well as we are doing this work.

    Senator Casey. Could you also expand on the question of how 
states are using those rescue plan dollars to support students 
with disabilities, either through the lens of the State of 
Connecticut or more broadly?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Thank you again. We see in Connecticut 
that districts are using it for supplemental tutoring and 
reading instruction. We have also provide individualized in-
home supports by organizations that are able to do that.

    Certainly doing more special education evaluations and 
ensuring that IEP are indeed implemented as we know that there 
were disruptions to that. So working very closely with our 
districts.

    Those are the things that are emerging. And we are looking 
to also share those as best practices across the system as 
well.

    Senator Casey. Commissioner, thank you. I another question 
for you as well. I don't think anyone would contest as well 
that the pandemic was the ultimate emergency, on so many fronts 
and so many facets of our lives, and in particular for schools 
and for students and for educators.

    I have a piece of legislation called Prep for All Students 
Act, which would make sure that the voices of students and 
families, students with disabilities and their families are 
included in school emergency planning.

    You have engaged in extensive efforts to get that kind of 
stakeholder feedback, including parents and students, on how to 
prioritize the use of elementary and secondary schools' 
emergency relief funds.

    How would, including the voice of students with 
disabilities and their families, help to improve both the 
quality of emergency or preparedness planning, as well as the 
effectiveness of that planning?

    Ms. Russell-Tucker. Senator, I always say it cannot be 
about them without them. And so it is so critically important 
that they are at the table. And this is what we have championed 
in our state here and from our families. A student with 
disabilities engage in, frankly, even with their attorneys that 
are supporting families.

    We know exactly what the issues are. So their voice are 
critically important it is not an afterthought. It must be a 
part of the dialog and conversation. We have got to hear that 
perspective so that we can craft policies that are not in 
search of a solution--in search of a problem, but actually 
addressing a problem that does exist and it is a real solution 
with intended results.

    Senator Casey. Thank you, Commissioner.

    Thanks, Chairman Murray.

    The Chair. Senator Rosen.

    Senator Rosen. Oh, excuse me. Thanks. It is on. Thank you, 
Chair Murray. And thank you, Ranking Member Cassidy. I really 
want to thank the witnesses here today for your thoughtfulness 
and your caring on behalf of the children, the families, 
everybody who works in the school and the community, really 
appreciate that.

    I want to build a little bit on what Senator Smith was 
talking about and student mental health, because we are in the 
midst of a youth mental health crisis. It has only been made 
worse by worse by the pandemic.

    We know how hard distance learning was for everyone, 
particularly difficult for students with mental health 
challenges. They lost access to their friends, to their 
teachers, and to, if they were available, any in-school mental 
health resources they may have previously relied on for 
support.

    Tragically, in Nevada's Clark County School District, the 
number of students who died by suicide in 2020 more than 
doubled from the year before, tragically. And so we have to do 
more to help.

    Along with Senator Cassidy, we are working on bipartisan 
legislation that would reauthorize and enhance a Federal 
program to train teachers, school staff, and other personnel to 
better recognize the symptoms of youth mental illness or mental 
health issues before they escalate, referring students and 
their family members to appropriate community based mental 
health services.

    I have also introduced bipartisan legislation with Senator 
Murkowski to expand SAM grants for comprehensive student mental 
health promotion and suicide prevention to K-12 school 
districts, as money is currently only available to colleges and 
universities. I just wanted to build on that.

    You have answered my questions already. So the next thing I 
want to move to is the learning loss. We had a lot of learning 
loss. It highlighted our educational inequities facing our 
students in low income rural communities, as Senator Casey 
mentions, our student students with disabilities.

    We have to focus on eliminating that educational deficit as 
quickly as possible. I know in Nevada, across the country, 
educators are working to move forward and overcome many of 
those setbacks.

    Dr. Goldhaber, as we prepare for the next school year this 
fall, how do we bridge the gap for those students who face the 
most inequities and challenges, particularly our low income 
minority or rural students? And as Senator Casey highlighted, 
you have responded to our disability community.

    Mr. Goldhaber. Well, again, I think that one of the things 
that is really important is that we do a good job of figuring 
out which students really need which kinds of help and 
tailoring the interventions to really target those students and 
target the kinds of help that they that they need.

    I think that the school systems, at least that we are 
working with, we are seeing that kind of targeting in a lot of 
the kinds of investments that one would expect and hope for. 
Again, tutoring programs, extra support in core academic 
subjects and summer school.

    But I guess I want to take this moment to just sort of 
emphasize something that was said earlier, which is that 
systems received very different amounts of money. And there are 
some estimates out there about whether it is going to be 
enough. And my take is that it is going to be enough.

    The ESSER funds are going to be sufficient to help students 
in lots of school systems, but not all school systems. I think 
that we need to look at this as not a short run.

    We are going to get over the hump in a year, but in some 
cases a longer term endeavor and make sure that we are keeping 
our eye on the ball of student achievement when hopefully the 
pandemic has faded in the rearview mirror, but that it may not 
have fully faded in terms of learning loss for some students.

    That in the out years, we are continuing to provide support 
for those students that really need it.

    Senator Rosen. Well, thank you. I want to build on that in 
the short time we have left, because we can't do all of this 
without addressing the teacher shortage, especially in 
specialized subject areas such as career and technical 
education in Nevada. We are hearing that we have about 1,500 
CTE educator positions currently unfilled due to insufficient 
resources.

    Again, Dr. Goldhaber, what does the initial data tell us 
regarding which subjects are most at risk in terms of teacher 
recruitment and retention? And we can buildup mental health 
services and other wraparound services, but we need educators 
in the classroom. So what do you think we need to do to help 
thee?

    Mr. Goldhaber. I think that just very quickly, there are 
three--four areas. So you mentioned CTE, special education, 
STEM areas, and ELL areas where the staffing challenge seems 
much more acute relative to teachers at the elementary 
education level. And what is important is that it is acute for 
different reasons.

    In the case of special education, there is higher than 
average attrition of special education teachers. But for 
instance, in the case of STEM teachers, it looks like there is 
an issue with the number of people who are being trained and 
entering the workforce.

    I guess I would just sort of push us toward tailored 
solutions that really get at the nature of the problem. And 
ultimately, I think that we need to have a school system send 
stronger signals to the teacher labor market and prospective 
teachers about the areas where there are real shortages and 
challenges in getting classrooms staffed.

    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Madam Chair.

    The Chair. Senator Cassidy.

    Senator Cassidy. Thank you again, Madam Chair. You know, in 
my opening remarks, I mentioned how unions and politicians 
enabling the unions have really done a disservice to our 
students. I mention that because as a physician I know that 
brain development intertwines or, if you will, interacts with 
the instruction a child receives.

    If a child misses out a year of education, when her brain 
is at that critical point of development, it may not be 
recoverable. That is what we have to acknowledge. And at the 
outset, in the Chair's testimony, she had mentioned some 
differences between the two parties. I will mention those as 
well.

    In these packages that we passed to give financial aid to 
the school, it was a battle for Republicans to get resources 
for parochial and private schools. And once we allocated it, 
some Democratic Governors refused to give it. It was incredibly 
frustrating, but that probably points to a difference in 
perspective from this.

    From the Republican standpoint, we take it from the 
perspective of the student and her or his family, not from the 
teachers--or excuse me, not from the school itself.

    That is distinctly a different perspective because, Ms. 
Wall, you spoke about taking your children into the private 
setting and you implied, you were very delicate, that they cost 
you a fair amount of money, but your family could afford. There 
are a lot of families out there who cannot afford. Any comment 
on that, Ms. Wall?

    Ms. Wall. Thank you, Senator. We had every intention to 
send all three of our children to public school. I went to 
public school. My husband went to public school. However, when 
it was clear the public school was not going to provide in-
person instruction for our children, we chose to send our 
middle son to private school.

    Now, had they had in-person instruction, he would have been 
at public school. So we made that decision for him because we 
knew it was best for him and he had more or less a normal year. 
And we were grateful that. But as you mentioned, most 
families----

    Senator Cassidy. Stop for a second. He had essentially a 
normal year.

    Ms. Wall. Yes.

    Senator Cassidy. You are about to say most families could 
not afford such an arrangement.

    Ms. Wall. Correct.

    Senator Cassidy. I suspect if you had to send all three, it 
would have been difficult for your family.

    Ms. Wall. Yes.

    Senator Cassidy. Mr. Goldhaber--Dr. Goldhaber, I am sorry.

    Mr. Goldhaber. Thank you, Senator Cassidy. I guess I just 
wanted to strike a little bit of an optimistic note, because I 
actually think that recovery is possible----

    Senator Cassidy. Can I stop you in that because I need to 
develop another point? In your data, did you differentiate 
between students who attended a public school and students who 
attended an alternative setting?

    Mr. Goldhaber. These were all students that were in public 
schools.

    Senator Cassidy. What about those who are in charter versus 
those who are in traditional public?

    Mr. Goldhaber. We did not separately analyze. We were 
looking at data from test scores administered by NWA and we 
didn't separately look at students that were in charter 
schools.

    Senator Cassidy. Sounds good, or I understand that. Let me 
put it that way. Let me make the point that I do know that 
there were religious schools and private schools and charter 
schools that made the decision to remain open and, or to open 
earlier and, or to put in these enriched possibilities.

    But not--well public schools were closed. Now what we have 
heard today, we don't need Dr. Goldhaber to have analyzed that, 
because what we have heard today is that the determinant 
variable in how students did was whether or not the school was 
open from the point of view of the teacher and from the point 
of view of statistical analysis.

    Really, our focus should be how do we give the parent the 
right to choose the school where her child can get the best 
instruction for that child no matter the moment? If one school 
is shut down, then another school would be open, and the parent 
should have that choice.

    We have also heard that there can be financial barriers in 
order to achieve that option. I have introduced legislation 
that would allow, encourage the ability for a family of limited 
means to still be able to attend the school that is best for 
their child because another school might be closed or for other 
reasons.

    I hope that in the future both parties, it can be 
bipartisan, that we take the perspective of the student and her 
family as opposed to the school itself, agnostic as the school, 
so that the school--so that the child will actually have the 
greatest opportunity for herself or himself. I thank you all 
for being here. I yield.

    The Chair. Thank you. Commissioner Russell-Tucker, I wanted 
to ask you, given the very real threat of the fall surge and 
emergence of new variants, we need to be supporting our schools 
right now as they prepare for back to school in a few short 
months and more disruption for students and families just 
cannot be an option.

    That is really why I am so focused on passing supplemental 
COVID funding to make sure you have tests, vaccines, treatments 
so that schools and districts and parents are prepared for 
whatever comes next in this pandemic. I also want to make sure 
that HHS, the Department of Education, are giving very clear 
direction to our states and school districts so they are 
preparing now for fall and winter.

    Congress, by the way, also needs to pass an extension of 
the school meal waiver to help make sure our schools are 
feeding our kids. But. Commissioner Russell-Tucker, can you lay 
out what steps you in Connecticut are taking to make sure 
schools and school districts are ready for the fall and winter, 
especially if we face another surge?

    Mr. Goldhaber. Thank you, Senator. In my testimony, you 
have heard me talk about our Health and Safety Tuesdays in the 
collaboration with our communities. The last meeting we had 
with this team, we asked them, so we asked everyone that was on 
that call, please tell us what it is that you need for this 
coming for the fall. We are meeting in a few weeks.

    We are having our own summit with Public Health and the 
Department of Education to start thinking about what are those 
things that we need for support--with our history, what we have 
learned in the past to where we need to go. The resources you 
have talked about, making test available, all of that was a 
part of our package that we were using to support and that we 
are looking forward to.

    But it really is going to be important for us to think 
about, if there is a new variant, what do we do to make sure 
that learning is not as interrupted or disrupted as it was in 
the past, because of what we have learned and that we are 
pivoting to based on that.

    All of the supports from the Federal Government is 
certainly important as we go back to our states and continue to 
think about planning for this upcoming fall based on lessons 
learned.

    The Chair. Thank you very much. Thank you to all of our 
witnesses today. That will end our hearing.

    I want to thank all of our colleagues. I want to thank Dr. 
Goldhaber, Commissioner Russell-Tucker, Mr. Russell, Ms. Wall, 
for a really thoughtful conversation about the challenges that 
our students are facing from this pandemic and what we can do 
to help them recover and to thrive after such a few very hard 
years.

    For any Senators who wish to ask additional questions, 
questions for the record will be due in 10 business days, July 
7th at 5.00 p.m.

    With that, the Committee stands adjourned.
                                ------                                


    [Whereupon, at 11:36 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]


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