More than 80 educators, students and other stakeholders will be part of the AccelerateCT Education Task Force, part of Connecticut”™s effort to address learning shortcomings during the pandemic and develop a framework for the future.
Created by the Connecticut State Department of Education, the task force is charged with developing programming for students across the state beginning with enhanced learning and enrichment opportunities for this spring and summer.
According to an Education Department statement, the expertise of the group”™s members “will contribute to a bold redesigned educational response to learning that will promote renewal, reduce opportunity gaps, accelerate learning and advance equity during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Co-chaired by the Education Department and the Office of the Governor, the task force will meet weekly to identify best practices and offer guidance on how to implement strategies, programs and practices culminating in the development of the AccelerateCT Framework for Learning Recovery and Education Post-Pandemic.
Task force subgroups were formed to reflect the five priorities in which the AccelerateCT framework is anchored:
Ӣ Academic Supports and Learning Acceleration;
Ӣ Family and Community Connections;
Ӣ Safety and Social-Emotional Well-being;
Ӣ Digital Divide; and
Ӣ Summer Enrichment.
“While we acknowledge the pandemic”™s substantial disruption to learning, profession and life, it is critical to our children”™s education that we not go back to ”˜how it was before,”™” acting Commissioner of Education Charlene Russell-Tucker said.
“Now more than ever,” she continued, “it is time to convene and leverage our collective knowledge and expertise and tackle the challenges that exist for our students now and in the future. We appreciate the commitment of our task force members and have high expectations as we roll up our sleeves to advance opportunities with a focus on equity.”
Russell-Tucker went on to say that the state Education Department is committed to learning from the nontraditional approaches that were successful during the pandemic, while also using established resources and practices to accelerate learning by enhancing an ecosystem of layered supports, programs and resources that guide the present as well as forecast the needs and outcomes for the future.
Meanwhile, speaking at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association”™s annual “Business Day” event on March 16, Gov. Ned Lamont identified schools as his “No. 1 priority,” saying that even with hybrid models and other safety measures in place, there are still 155,000 students who have been reluctant to physically return to class.
He again floated the idea of starting the next school year in July ”” not necessarily to study the three R”™s, he said, but as a means of socializing students to help “get them back into the game.”
Lamont also repeated his calls for business owners to offer internships and workforce training for older students during the summer.
The governor also expressed hope that the $270 million that the American Rescue Plan will provide to the state”™s child care system will be sufficient to “make an enormous difference” to working parents.
The state will waive the fees parents pay for child care subsidies from April 1 to Sept. 30.
