Biden-Harris Administration Announces Additional Actions to Drive Academic Success for all Students
As part of our ongoing commitment to support student success, today we are announcing the following Administration actions:
Awarding $149 million to support states in implementing evidence-based reading interventions, including efforts to ensure every child is reading fluently by third grade. The U.S. Department of Education’s Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant program supports states in creating comprehensive literacy programs and providing professional development to advance literacy skills, including pre-literacy skills, reading, and writing, for children and youth, focusing on underserved students, including students from low-income backgrounds, English learners, and children with disabilities. For example, Ohio will partner with state colleges and universities to better prepare educators to deliver evidence-based literacy instruction, and Montana will use funds to expand reading instructional skills for educators in rural communities.
Awarding $30 million to support comprehensive assessment systems that inform teaching and support learning. The U.S. Department of Education’s Competitive Grants for State Assessments program supports high-quality state assessment systems that measure student achievement and progress using multiple measures and gives insight into student learning, helping to inform instruction and support student achievement. For example, Nebraska will use funds to support English Learners by making assessment data more usable and actionable for educators as they design instruction.
Issuing new school improvement guidance focused on evidence-based practices to support students and educators and accelerate academic achievement. To further support states and districts in their efforts to increase student success, the U.S. Department of Education is issuing school improvement guidance to support effective implementation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The guidance provides examples of evidence-based approaches to support teaching and learning and drive student achievement. This includes addressing chronic absenteeism (for example, through early warning systems and improved family engagement, like home visits and effective parent communication such as texting), and providing high-quality tutoring (in small groups, 2-3 times per week by a well-prepared tutor, during the school day, and aligned with classroom instruction), and afterschool, expanded, and summer learning programs. This draft guidance is open for public comment until October 4, 2024. The Department will consider this community input and issue updated guidance by the end of the year.
Releasing a new resource for educators on evidence-based strategies for increasing student literacy and math achievement. The Institute of Education Sciences is releasing a resource for educators on instructional strategies for increasing student success in literacy and math. Each resource includes concrete practices that can be used by teachers from early grades to high school, and provides links to additional resources that can support learning at home.
To support states, districts, schools, and families in addressing chronic absenteeism and increase student engagement, the Administration is:
Calling on Governors and state education leaders to create statewide student data systems that provide chronic absenteeism-related data for all schools that are actionable, help target interventions, and drive improvement. The Administration encourages all state leaders to ensure that every school district in their state has the real-time data they need to identify and reduce chronic absenteeism and improve student success. States including Alabama, Connecticut, Indiana, and Rhode Island have developed innovative statewide student information systems to help increase student attendance. At a minimum, state systems are encouraged to provide:
to the public, up-to-date rates of chronic absenteeism and whether rates are declining or increasing;
to educators, real-time, school-level data that enables them to identify the root causes of chronic absenteeism, select the appropriate interventions, target resources, and measure effectiveness; and
to parents and families, real-time information on their child’s attendance.
Calling on industry vendors that provide student information systems to improve the availability and utility of student attendance data. This includes making attendance data available to states and districts at no additional cost; not charging districts to access, securely export, or display their own data; and adopting industry aligned data standards or practices for student attendance data that allows for interoperability between the modules that states and districts use, between vendors, and between districts that may use different data systems.
To support these efforts, this year, the Department of Education will issue a resource for state leaders highlighting different state approaches to creating and implementing data systems to address chronic absenteeism along with recommendations for states and local leaders. The guide will also include information on how federal funding can be used to support these efforts.
Founding the Student Attendance and Engagement Solutions Network, part of the National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS), a partnership among the U.S. Department of Education, AmeriCorps, and the Johns Hopkins University Everyone Graduates Center. The Network supports school districts and states in their efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism, increase student engagement, and enhance prevention strategies for the 2024-25 academic year and beyond. To date, almost 200 school districts across 43 states and eight state education agencies, in total representing more than 11,000 schools and 7.2 million students, have joined the network to learn from each other about how to improve attendance and engagement. The Network is open for districts and states to join. More information on the network and how to join can be found here.
Releasing a joint resource by the U.S. Departments of Education and Transportation highlighting ways to provide safe, reliable transit options to get young people to and from school and support everyday student attendance. Many students miss school because of transportation issues, especially in vulnerable communities. To address this issue, transit agencies, school districts, and local and state government leaders can work together to improve transit options for families, including through offering free or reduced transit fares, expanding safe routes to school, and creating a “walking or bike bus”. This resource includes strategies to support students and families in getting to and from school at low or no cost, and federal funding available to support these efforts through the Departments of Education and Transportation.
Releasing, this month, a joint resource for parents by the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture on how healthy school meals support regular attendance. This resource provides information that schools can use in engaging parents and caregivers on how school meals bolster everyday student attendance and support healthy growth and development and how to access programs.
Launching the “Attendance Champions Challenge” to hear directly from young people on creative solutions to address chronic absenteeism. The Challenge, hosted on challenge.gov, will encourage state and local leaders to directly engage young people (ages 13-19) in sharing barriers to regular school attendance and proposing viable, creative solutions to support their attendance and engagement. The Challenge is open until November 29th and more information can be found at this website.
Providing parents with resources on navigating whether to send kids to school when they are experiencing health symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and external organizations are releasing resources on how to support consistent school attendance, while also preventing spread of illness.