Sec. 3. Findings
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/bill/116/s/4831/is/section-3A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds the following: Children in every State were affected by school closures during the 2019–2020 school year, which resulted in fewer instructional days for the Nation’s 56,400,000 students in Kindergarten through grade 12, and caused instructional loss for these students. Instructional loss for certain students, including Black and Hispanic students, low-income students, children with disabilities, English learners, Native students, migratory students, students experiencing homelessness, children and youth in foster care, and others, could be especially severe, compounding existing opportunity and achievement gaps.
Instructional loss for students who lack access to broadband connectivity and mobile devices, or who otherwise lack access to high-quality remote learning, remote instruction, and conducive learning environments, could also be severe. Before the coronavirus pandemic, opportunity and achievement gaps between Black and Hispanic students and White students deprived the economy of the United States of between $310,000,000,000 and $525,000,000,000 per year in productivity, equivalent to 2 percent to 4 percent of gross domestic product.
Furthermore, achievement gaps between low-income students and high-income students deprived the United States economy of between $400,000,000,000 and $670,000,000,000 per year in productivity, equivalent to 3 percent to 5 percent of gross domestic product. Preliminary estimates indicate students will return for the 2020–2021 school year with roughly 70 percent of learning gains in reading relative to a typical school year, and, in some grades, with less than 50 percent of learning gains in mathematics, nearly a full year behind where they would have been under normal circumstances.
The average instructional loss due to recent school closures could be 7 months for all students, 10.3 months for Black students, 9.2 months for Hispanic students, and more than a year for low-income students. Students in Kindergarten through grade 12 in the United States could lose between $61,000 and $82,000 in lifetime earnings solely due to coronavirus-related instructional loss. Coronavirus-related instructional loss could result in reduced annual earnings for White students ($1,348 per year), but even further reduced earnings for Black students ($2,186 per year) and Hispanic students ($1,809 per year), resulting in $98,800,000,000 in reduced earnings per year.
Instructional loss caused by school closures and disruptions in learning could further compound learning, achievement, and opportunity gaps, reduce lifetime earnings, and harm competitiveness between the United States and other countries that mitigated the pandemic. The pandemic has created new challenges for education, but educators have performed admirably and adjusted accordingly to educate students. However, more resources are needed to make sure the Nation’s 3,700,000 educators have the necessary tools to address instructional loss in students, especially at-risk or marginalized students.
Specifically, more resources are needed to support evidence-based approaches to professional development that will help educators in their efforts to more effectively use technology, address equity gaps in learning, and provide personalized instruction within continually changing learning environments. Research has shown that, among other things, effective professional development for educators should be collaborative, job-embedded, content-based, and sustained. Research has also shown that effective professional development for educators should be intensive, provide opportunities for coaching and expert support, and offer opportunities for feedback.