How To Sell To Schools And Elevate The Education Marketplace
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON FORBES
Managing Principal Consultant at RYE Consulting, overseeing company growth and Pre-K–20 education policy engagement.
Learning loss has touched the lives of families everywhere. Parents are worried about their child’s progress or lack thereof. Educators are working to craft lesson plans that will cover missed instruction without key data to understand learning gaps. Now policymakers are working to support districts nationwide to address learning targets and necessary infrastructure needs after having been closed and with declining enrollment numbers.
With the president’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, states are required to spend at least 5% (approximately $6.5 billion) to address the learning losses that have stemmed from the Covid-19 pandemic. Thankfully, education leaders have been working to pinpoint what efforts schools and districts can take to catch students up this summer and beyond. Georgetown University’s FutureEd think tank’s recent Covid Relief Playbook outlines several key areas to focus on, such as:
Expanded learning time.
Family and community engagement.
Teachers and teaching.
School climate.
When it comes to it, though, there are many different models and programs to consider when executing any one of these relief initiatives successfully. With an unclear definition of “learning loss” — what it is, let alone how to actually solve for it — district leaders are becoming increasingly responsible for understanding how to spend these allocated funds effectively. Teaching and learning have, arguably, taken a back seat to understanding and navigating the education marketplace.