Council of Chief State School Officers

Ccsso worked with urgency throughout 2021-22 to support states as they worked to accelerate learning for students and focus on their wellbeing and mental health. We connected State education leaders to share promising practices and helped as they cast visions for the long road to recovery ahead. Ccsso launched the covid relief data project in summer 2022 to analyze how states are using federal funding appropriated to State education agencies through the elementary and secondary School emergency relief (esser) fund. We shared the findings of this analysis on a public website with dashboards, graphics and State examples and we led or supported 29 briefings and presentations since may 2022 to inform the field. We compiled videos of State chiefs describing the impact they are seeing from the investments. This year, the coalition to advance future student success, a group of 12 leading education organizations working together to ensure the effective and equitable use of covid relief funds, ramped up telling the stories of how their members are working toward this goal. The coalition in action newsletter, launched in the spring 2022, highlights the impact covid relief funds are making in schools. In august, the coalition launched a website featuring a resource library of best practices and exemplary work across its memberships. The website also houses the coalition perspectives blog, which offers context into initiatives and features content such as a three-part series to acknowledge how states and districts have obligated esser i funds. Ccsso's advocacy work focused on providing sustained, intensive supports to states on administering esser and other federal education funds, on issues including allowable uses of funds, federal reporting and oversight, and program evaluation. In congress, the team supported commissioners from Nebraska and Tennessee with testimony at a september 2022 u.s. house education and labor subcommittee hearing. The chiefs discussed how their states were using federal relief dollars toward pandemic recovery. Ccsso also supported Connecticut education commissioner charlene russell-tucker and 2022 national teacher of the year kurt russell when they testified on the health, education, labor, and pensions committee in june on supporting students in recovering from the pandemic. We were proud to see a 2021 survey by the rand corporation find that in states in ccsso's high quality instructional materials and professional development (impd) network, a greater proportion of teachers use at least one fully aligned curriculum, compared to the national average. The network in 2022 continued to highlight the progress states are making in supporting districts to ensure teachers have the resources they need to provide high-quality instruction, and we released a brief on how states are leveraging esser funding to promote the use of high-quality instructional materials and aligned professional development.states had an opportunity to think differently about summer programming with esser funding and ccsso this year continued its support of the nine-state State summer learning network. This network, a partnership between ccsso and the national summer learning association with support from the wallace foundation, this year released three State spotlights to share how the states approached their work. Kurt russell, a veteran high School history teacher from Ohio, is the 2022 national teacher of the year. In his year of service, russell is sharing his message that classrooms should better reflect the students in them, highlighting members of the State teacher of the year cohort through a live conversation series, and attending numerous events, including a white house State dinner. State teachers of the year in 2022 shared the lessons that are the biggest hit with their students in this podcast series and offered tips for teachers in a series for first lady jill biden's pinterest board. Ccsso's collaboratives, offering premier learning with purpose for State education agency leaders, served more than 1,155 members in 2021-22. We are proud that a recent survey showed 91% of collaborative members said they were satisfied with their membership's relevance to their job. Ccsso's team produced 16 publications between july 2021-june 2022, ranging from addressing State accountability systems: measuring and reporting academic growth for students with significant cognitive disabilities to advancing comprehensive mental health systems. We also recently released (december 2022) the supporting leas to use esser and other ed funds to improve student outcomes: a State system workbook and five templates covering key topics such as student wellbeing and teacher recruitment. Ccsso's work to enhance State leadership supporting technology and data revolved around four primary initiatives during the fy 21-22 year including its work around a community of innovation to support the acceleration of modernizing p20w statewide longitudinal data systems. The community of innovation is creating artifacts that can be used by any State.