On Jan. 17, 2024, the White House released its Improving Student Achievement Agenda, which highlights proven strategies for reversing pandemic-era learning loss and commits to reducing chronic absenteeism, expanding high-dosage tutoring, and providing extended learning opportunities for K-12 students. In response, Accelerate CEO Kevin Huffman issued the following statement:
“Secretary Cardona’s point was well made: ‘We fought Covid, now it’s time to fight complacency.’
“With the average eighth grader still an entire school year behind, we are at an inflection point in the race to reverse pandemic learning loss. We can and must meet this challenge. High-dosage tutoring is crucial to our success.
“Building on last week’s important guidance allowing the extension of Covid recovery funds, today’s announcement includes a much-needed call for states to lead on learning recovery, set clear goals, and measure progress. In addition to the metrics specifically mentioned in the White House agenda, we must also track dosage — the number of tutoring sessions delivered — at the student level. This is highly predictive of success, and we must measure and report on the most important metrics so that we can learn from each other and build a roadmap to full learning recovery.
“As a country, we have a massive—and massively important—task ahead. I hope we’ll see continued leadership at the federal, state, and local levels to do what we know works.”
