Education Week - March 17, 2021 - 7

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for the time being.
To a certain extent, this may reflect
that the pandemic's financial toll on
states might not be as dire as some predicted. A New York Times report found
that while some states like Florida, Nevada, and Texas experienced major
declines in state revenue last year com-

pared to the same period in 2019, the
decline in many other states is much
smaller. And a significant share of
states actually saw their tax revenues
increase, the Times reported.
Separately, some GOP lawmakers
and others have questioned whether
schools should be getting another
round of relief, as criticism persists
about the pace at which some schools
are resuming in-person classes.
As we noted previously, those officials who told ASBO they've gotten
enough federal help for the time being
didn't all say they were totally at peace
with the situation.
Roughly 31 percent of those who
called that support from Washington
" sufficient " for this school year and
the last one said they still had concerns about their budgets for the upcoming school year and beyond. The
ASBO summary of the survey results
said this demonstrated major concerns
about " significant unsustainable costs "
in the future related to the pandemic.
Elements of the survey mean that
the results should be treated with
some caution.
1. The survey includes responses
from 578 school business officials
from 40 states. The states with the
highest response rate were Illinois,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and Texas.

2. We don't know exactly how much
of a priority districts have put on different spending areas in the survey. In
other words, if a district official spent
$10,000 on PPE and $100,000 on
learning recovery, the survey responses don't reflect that difference.
3. The survey provided responses
and asked officials to select all that applied, but didn't ask them to prioritize
them when it comes to plans for using
the money as opposed to actual uses.
4. A relatively large share of school
leaders said they were using the
money to support " activities to maintain K-12 services. " That matches language in the federal relief legislation,
but it's not clearly defined either there
or (naturally enough) in the ASBO survey. In open-ended feedback received
by the group, K-12 business officials
did discuss using the aid to avoid furloughs, pay salaries, and keep staff
on the payroll-each of which may or
may not involve those " activities. "

5. The ASBO survey does not provide a response rate.
In a statement about the survey,
David Lewis, ASBO's executive director, said that " more federal aid is still
needed to help schools reopen and
recover from the pandemic. "
Here are a few notable survey findings when it comes to how districts
have used the March 2020 CARES
Act money for the 2019-20 and 202021 school years:
Sixty-six percent of respondents
reported spending or obligating the
money on PPE, supplies, and training
for 2019-20, and 73 percent of respondents reported this use for 2020-21.
Sixty-two percent of respondents
reported spending the money on technology and broadband for 2019-20,
and 72 percent reported this use for
2020-21.
There was a big jump between
those two years for the share of respondents using the money on learn-

*
*

ing loss (23 percent to 45 percent),
foreshadowing trends for the second
round of relief.
More than half the respondents, 64
percent, said that fewer than half their
districts' students qualified as disadvantaged students under the federal
Title I program.
The rate at which schools have been
using federal relief money has gotten
a fair bit of scrutiny in the last several
months.
There are a few other interesting
points of data from the survey, including the demographic profile of
the districts surveyed. And 83 percent reported an enrollment decline
from 2019-20 to 2020-21; the remaining 17 percent reported an increase.
ASBO conducted the survey from
Feb. 8-19.
MULTIMEDIA: Read the
full ASBO survey results.
www.edweek.org

Hybrid Scheduling Options
A.M. Group

HALF DAYS

Lunch
Break

P.M. Group

SHIFT SCHEDULING

Alternate
days

One day
a week

Group
A

Group
B

Group
A

Group
B

Teacher
Planning
Day

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Group
A

Group
B

Group
C

Group
D

Teacher
Planning
Day

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

CORE SUBJECTS ARE FOCUS FOR IN-PERSON INSTRUCTION

Students remain in one room for the day, as core teachers shift rooms.
Electives are left for remote learning.

Science
Teacher

Math

English/
Language Arts

Social
Studies

Note: Foreign languages may be considered core subjects in some states.
SOURCE: Education Week reporting

ementary schools found that adults were more likely to infect each
other or children than children were to infect adults.
Bottom line, the study noted, districts must provide significantly
more training and support for staff to implement social distancing
and other protocols needed for new schedules and hybrid models.
As more districts return to in-person instruction, states and the
federal government have started to take a closer look at how different kinds of hybrid scheduling models could safeguard against transmission and improve learning. In response to an executive order
from President Joe Biden in January, the Education Department's
research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences, is launching a
detailed nationwide survey on the use and frequency of different
in-person, hybrid, and remote instructional models across different
schools and students.

Examining the Evidence:
Assessing Student Learning and
Social-Emotional Well-Being
Disruptions to students' mental
and emotional health, social
systems of support, and learning
environments require a new focus
on social and emotional well-being.
At the same time, pandemicrelated school disruptions have put
a heightened focus on the need to
understand student learning. How
can educators monitor student
learning and social-emotional wellbeing during school disruptions
associated with COVID-19?

GUESTS
ٚHEATHER HOUGH, Executive
Director, Policy Analysis for
California Education (PACE)
ٚLIBBY PIER, Director of Impact,
Education Analytics
ٚDAVE CALHOUN, Senior
Associate, CORE Districts
ٚEMILY WOLK, Executive Director,
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ٚKERRY BRAUN, Principal, Santa
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MODERATOR
ٚARIANNA PROTHERO, Staff
Writer, Education Week
Sponsored by

Friday, March 19, 2021

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Education Week - March 17, 2021

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