K-12 Core Instruction & Information Services
COVID-19 continues to impact the K-12 educational landscape, challenging school enrollments and performance.
Technology adoption and innovation are rapidly transforming traditional instruction and content delivery models.
Pre-K through Grade 12 public school enrollments have dropped by 3%, erasing a decade of steady growth, and up to 3.3 million middle and high school students are at risk of dropping out because of the pandemic.1
Student achievement also is lagging, with students falling four months behind in mathematics and three months behind in reading. These trends are exacerbated along racial lines: as of Fall 2021, students in majority Black schools were six months behind in mathematics and reading versus two months behind in majority White schools.2
Reading frequency is a strong indicator of lifelong learning and achievement, and among 9- and 13-year olds is now at the lowest levels since the 1980s.3 Reversing these trends and opportunity gaps is critical to ensuring we are developing the next generation of citizens and employees. Further, the “Great Resignation” has accelerated educator shortages, hindering student access to quality instruction and opportunity.
Students with high-value teachers are more likely to attend college, attend higher-ranked colleges, earn higher salaries, live in higher income neighborhoods, and save more for retirement.4 There are currently 567,000 fewer educators in America’s public schools today than there were before the pandemic and 55% of educators have indicated they are ready to leave their profession earlier than they had originally planned.5
CUMULATIVE MONTHS OF MATH UNFINISHED LEARNING, GRADES 1 THROUGH 6*
The gap between students in majority black schools and students in majority white schools is now three months wider than it was before the pandemic.
Vistria’s investments focus on literacy, curriculum and assessments tools, expanded pathways, and high quality
instruction and educator support, to address current challenges to uplift students and teachers.
Library management, collection development, and literacy solutions for K-12 schools and public libraries focused on print and digital collection development services to advance student literacy.
A leading provider of K-12 digital curriculum, assessments, and virtual learning solutions committed to helping educators advance learning for every student through simple technology, high-quality content, and actionable data.
A leading provider of K-12 staffing and management solutions, placing qualified staff in daily, long-term, and permanent K-12 school district positions.
A leading intent-based media platform in the health and wellness verticals.
- https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2022144
- https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/how-covid-19-caused-a-global-learning-crisis
- https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/11/12/among-many-u-s-children-reading-for-fun-has-become-less-common-federal-data-shows/
- https://www.nber.org/papers/w17699
- https://www.nea.org/about-nea/media-center/press-releases/nea-survey-massive-staff-shortages-schools-leading-educator
- Graphic Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/how-covid-19-caused-a-global-learning-crisis
FACES OF IMPACT
The biggest thing is we’re meeting kids and families where they are at academically and emotionally. And we are finding pathways for them to graduate with something more than a diploma in their hand. We are really trying to reinvent the portrait of a graduate. What does it look like to graduate from here and what are the opportunities that you walk away with that are unheard of? We’ve been given the opportunity in our district to try new things and that is leading to success for our kids.
KEVIN ZECK, DIRECTOR OF ALTERNATIVE AND VIRTUAL EDUCATION,
DUNELAND SCHOOL CORPORATION, IN, EDMENTUM PARTNER
I try to give voice to the voiceless, and I try to use the technology to gather back time that’s otherwise lost for my teachers. I feel like
thatʼs one of the most precious commodities and resources that a teacher can have—is time. And so, technology has a way to do that and to speed up the process and to help provide equity to students in a school district, regardless of their socioeconomic background, whether theyʼre rural, urban, [or] whatever the case may be. […] Whenever I talk about why I think Edmentum is such a great tool, […] itʼs because it individualizes instruction.
DR. SHANE ROBBINS, SUPERINDENDENT, KERSHAW COUNTY
SCHOOL DISTRICT, EDMENTUM PARTNER
Nicely done, JLG!!! I joined for the quality and you prove every year how great your selections are. I could not be happier with your choices!
DEBRA GANTZ, WALLED LAKE CONSOLIDATED
SCHOOLS, ON MSI’S LITERARY SERVICES
The ESS team demonstrates quality in every aspect of the recruiting, training, and hiring of substitutes for St. Clair County Schools. We have had the opportunity to work with the ESS team for the past 6 years. They have been a pleasure to work with and are very responsive to our needs.
DEBRA ALLRED, HUMAN RESOURCES COORDINATOR,
ST. CLAIR COUNTY SCHOOLS
Our partnership with ESS has allowed us to maintain a high level of instruction and a high percentage fill rate during a global pandemic. I can testify that, although we struggled to fill classrooms with teachers like most other school districts, our ability to manage the great number of teacher absences was alleviated immensely through our partnership with ESS and the fantastic team that we work with daily. During the pandemic, I spoke to numerous school districts about the problems they were facing filling classrooms with capable substitute teachers. Many districts were forced to close their schools for several days because they had such a shortage of substitutes. In most cases, we were able to fill our classes at a much higher percentage than neighbouring districts that did not partner with ESS, and we never closed our doors.
