States and districts face unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 crisis. As they continue to consider and implement solutions, one thing is clear: successful recovery depends on data. These resources are designed to help leaders determine the best path forward by identifying the short- and long-term steps that leaders should take to promote recovery in their states and districts and to ensure that students succeed.
Promoting Transparency and Maintaining Public Trust: Report Cards and the COVID-19 Crisis: Report cards are states’ most public-facing documents. To support COVID-19 recovery, states and districts must fulfill their responsibility to the public and demonstrate their commitment to transparency by sharing this information in clear, actionable report cards. This resource shares short- and long-term action steps for state leaders to release updated report cards this year to inform local decisionmaking and recovery efforts, and consider how they can use their state’s report card to share updates on recovery efforts and ensure transparency moving forward.
Using Data to Understand What Works: Research and the COVID-19 Crisis: State and district budgets are spread thin as a result of the pandemic, leaving state and district leaders to make tough decisions about what to prioritize and where to invest resources during the COVID-19 crisis and recovery. Actionable research provides state and district leaders with insights into the policies and programs that best serve their communities. This resource discusses short- and long-term action steps that state and district leaders should take to ensure that research supports recovery, including adapting their state’s research agenda to answer the most pressing questions, mobilizing research partnerships and investing in building an effective research infrastructure.
Supporting Students While Learning at Home: Individual Student Data and the COVID-19 Crisis: School closures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have left educators and families with the responsibility of rapidly learning how to support students while they are at home. This fundamental shift in the way most students receive instruction makes it critical for educators and families to be able to use data to meet students where they are and tailor instruction to their needs. This brief highlights short- and long-term actions education leaders must take to prioritize access to individual student data and empower those closest to students to use it to inform instruction and meet learners where they are.
Maintaining Trust as Data Use Changes: Student Data Privacy and the COVID-19 Crisis: Over the past several years, policymakers across the country have enacted and updated policies designed to address safe data use in modern and evolving classrooms; now, changes in teaching practice are happening on an unprecedented scale and pace following the rapid transition to online learning. States will need to move quickly to provide student data privacy and security support so that educators and other stakeholders can trust data and ensure safe use. This brief highlights short- and long-term actions state leaders can take to empower educators to use and safeguard data responsibly as they navigate online learning.
