National Summer Learning and Enrichment Collaborative Launched; Helps Students Most Impacted by the Pandemic

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) recently launched the Summer Learning & Enrichment Collaborative, an innovative initiative bringing together an array of education stakeholders across the country to devise new ways to support students and families, and especially those disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The Collaborative supports states, districts, and their community partners to strategically plan how to use the funds provided to states by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to design and implement evidence-based enriching and educational programs to address lost instructional and extracurricular time.

The National Comprehensive Center, which leads the Collaborative in partnership with ED, hosted a National Convening on April 26-27, 2021. The Convening featured the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, the Governors and State Chiefs of Arkansas and Illinois, and many other partners. Westat leads the National Comprehensive Center.

Dean Nafziger, a Westat Vice President for Education Studies and Director of the National Comprehensive Center, noted that the energy and excitement at the convening demonstrated the focus on partnership and collaboration of all the stakeholders to rethink what education looks like and will look like, helping children across the country to overcome the challenges of the past year.

Additional Collaborative virtual sessions are scheduled throughout the summer. Recordings and summaries of all sessions—along with resources to support learning and enrichment—can be found on the Collaborative website.