Governance

Essential actions that will foster a shared understanding of goals, responsibilities, and accountability.

State LeadersDistrict LeadersSchool Leaders
Large brick High School Building
Photo by Gautam Krishnan on Unsplash
  • Articulate a vision for recovery and renewal driven by the values of equity, transparency, and trust with measurable goals for the 2021-2022 school year and associated scenarios for the out years with actions to be determined based on final conditions. 
  • Establish a state-wide recovery and renewal committee responsible for creating guidance for districts and schools, focused on unfinished learning and health and wellness (mental and physical). The Committee should be reflective of the geographic, cultural, racial and socioeconomic diversity of the state. 
    • The Committee should include parent representatives.
    • The Committee should include teacher representatives.
    • The Committee should include student representatives.
    • The Committee should include representatives of out-of-school providers and community-based organizations.
  • Name a department/agency leader responsible for overseeing the work of the Committee.
  • Define and assign roles and responsibilities across the department focused on recovery and renewal. 
  • Institute a regular public meeting schedule. 
  • Meet with key stakeholders to understand their expectations for recovery and renewal across health and academics (e.g., labor organizations, parents, district and school leaders, higher education, workforce development, local public health departments, and teachers).
  • Provide districts and schools with the flexibility to innovate on the 2021-2022 school calendar, including the daily schedule.
  • Create a “recovery and renewal budget” focused on stabilization in 2021-2022, and that optimizes one-time spending. Consider incentives and flexibility for districts to address unfinished learning, health and wellness issues, and exacerbated inequities. 
  • Where necessary, implement a budgetary enrollment stabilization measure for the 2021-2022 school year.  
  • Link critical data sources at state and local levels and build dashboards to provide district and school leaders and the public with a more robust picture of progress towards recovery and renewal and to target interventions to the most vulnerable students.
  • Set new, ambitious graduation rates, college- and career-ready rates, for all students, based on pre-COVID-19 data & COVID-19 impacts.
  • Use one-time funding to better integrate education and health. For example, by dramatically increasing the number of school-based health centers and community schools and upgrading infrastructure to support the expansion of telemedicine in schools. 
  • Set expectations for policy on federal and state testing and associated accountability requirements and provide a detailed explanation of how your position aligns with your recovery and renewal agenda.
  • Rebuild teacher pipelines pipelines, explore interim measures, and provide flexibility for districts and schools to address staff shortages.