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Since the pandemic began, parents have been less satisfied with existing school systems, and they want to see greater transparency and education customization that meets students where they are. Nearing the final deadline to obligate remaining Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding, state and local policymakers can take additional steps over the next two years to maximize their return on investment. This report serves as an update to the 2021 report, "The COVID Constituency: Emerging Priorities for Education Leaders" (ED622895). The report synthesizes public survey results and contains practical steps for moving forward. With a looming deadline, it is more important now than ever to move quickly and thoughtfully to improve education systems for all students. [For "Across the Aisle: What Voters and Parents Want in Education. The Hunt Institute's 2022 Nationwide Voter & Parent Education Survey Results," see ED626552.]

Many have called for greater alignment between education systems and the workforce, more equitable access to career-oriented experiences, and new policy approaches that will enable all individuals to successfully enter and thrive in the evolving labor market. Overall, education leaders at all levels must commit to new policy solutions that offer early exposure and access to career-oriented experiences for students and adults, encourage localized partnerships between education systems and industries, and address retention challenges in high-demand fields. This report looks to the future of the workforce, recent efforts to improve workforce development, and policy considerations.

As the country continues to transition into a new normal because of the the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that schools and educators adopt a "whole child" approach to education, incorporating teaching methods that account for the ways that children grow and learn in their relationships, identity, emotional understanding, and overall wellbeing. Whole child education helps students prepare for the challenges and opportunities of today and the future by addressing students' comprehensive needs through the shared responsibility of students, families, schools, and communities. This report lays out the tenets of whole child education, the current state of whole child education, and policy considerations.

For many Americans across racial groups, income tiers, and geographic regions, differences in access to internet connectivity and technology resources -- also known as the "digital divide" -- remains a critical barrier for many students and families, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenges with digital access has translated into students missing lessons, being unable to access materials, and struggling to complete assignments. Even as students have returned to the classroom, school curricula will continue to become increasingly digital, and it will be critical for policymakers at all levels to leverage the momentum surrounding the digital divide to ensure that no student is left offline. This report provides a background on the digital divide, reports on how states are using federal relief dollars to address the digital divide, and offers recommendations and policy considerations.

The COVID Constituency, comprising a growing movement of parents, teachers, students, education leaders, and organizations, desires systemic changes in education, rather than a reversion back to the pre-pandemic system. As state and district policymakers consider how they want to use their federal dollars for education transformation, it is imperative that they tap into the experiences and priorities of the communities that have the most at stake. The COVID Constituency seeks to collect firsthand experiences, perceptions, and priorities from students, parents, and teachers, and then translate them into actionable policies that will fundamentally change education for the better. This report anchors this work, providing an initial landscape of existing education opinion surveys conducted since the start of the pandemic and identifying clear and significant public support for bold education initiatives. The report introduces the COVID Constituency and discusses the inadequacies and widening chasms of the pre-pandemic education system; the concerns and priorities of the new movement; and planning and funding considerations for bold change.

Over the next two years, public education faces a critical moment created by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act requiring states and school districts to identify underperforming schools and create evidence-based plans to improve learning experiences and academic performance of all students. This report recommends key strategies for ensuring that science of adolescent learning principles move from established research findings to actual implementation in these schools through coordinated efforts among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. In addition to examining why now is a moment of significant opportunity and challenge in education, the report, "Synapses, Students, and Synergies: Applying the Science of Adolescent Learning to Policy and Practice," reviews why adolescence is a critical period of development. It also highlights how organizations, including All4Ed, are making connections between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to ensure that research on the science of adolescent learning (SAL) informs practice and policy.

The field of learning analytics is being discussed in many circles as an emerging concept in education. In many districts and states, the core philosophy behind learning analytics is not entirely new; for more than a decade, discussions of data-driven decision making and the use of data to drive instruction have been common. Still, the U.S. education system has not yet come close to reaching the potential of learning analytics. The learning analytics initiatives described in this paper are helping states and districts move from being data collectors to being data analyzers, able to use the vast amount of information being collected in a secure, practical, customized, and predictive system. Ultimately, many of the examples provide a glimpse into how districts are preparing to take advantage of learning analytics to meet the needs of each student. This transition is not just about implementing new or better data or assessment systems, or even improving the analysis of data. Education systems must consider capacity in infrastructure and human capital, data use culture in schools and communities, and policies that enable the meaningful use of data to effectively apply and use learning analytics. [Contains endnotes. The following is appended: Table of Committee-Recommended Levels of IRB Review and Oversight.]

The current process and infrastructure for educating students in this country cannot sustain itself any longer. In just about every other facet of society, at work and at home, technology has transformed the way Americans go about their lives. Yet schools have been slow to embrace the transformative power of technology. Although computers are pervasive in schools, they tend to be used more like electronic textbooks--high-tech tools in a nineteenth-century system. The time for merely rethinking and upgrading the role of technology in education has passed; policy decisions today must embrace a dramatic transformation of teaching and learning. Technology can no longer be thought of simply as an "add-on" tool in education but rather an integral part of the total educational environment. This paper offers solutions to the following crises in education: (1) Global Skill Demands Grow While U.S. College Graduation Rates Fall Behind; (2) The Funding Cliff--Declining Local, State, and Federal Revenues Mean Changing the Education Content-Delivery Model; and (3) The Looming Teacher Shortage: The Growing Challenge to Bring Quality Content and Effective Teaching to Every Classroom. (Contains 29 endnotes.) [This paper was written with the assistance from Robert Rothman.]