Washington, D.C. (July 26, 2023) – North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt today testified on the state’s approach to COVID-19 pandemic recovery at a hearing of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education.
Superintendent Truitt described North Carolina’s Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration (OLR), which the state education agency set up to support local school districts and charter schools in the work of research and recovery, with its work anchored in research and data.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has pursued a series of agency and district-led initiatives to address lost instructional time. Chief among them were the comprehensive reports produced by The Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration which detail the impact of learning loss, with analysis based on student-level data and provided directly to districts. The state education agency also led a joint $6.73 million effort to launch the NC Research Recovery Network, which funded 20 academic research teams across the state to better understand the effectiveness of state and local programs and policies supported through ESSER funding. To build collaboration among districts and to elevate best practices, the agency also hosts annual summer convenings with district leaders to examine data alongside experts and craft plans for recovery using their available COVID-19 funding.
“While our state has more to do, North Carolina was unique and intentional in its approach to recovery and acceleration. …We have been transparent, data-driven and research-based every step of the way. We remain committed to working alongside our school districts – providing them with access to tools, data and one-on-one sessions so they can make informed decisions about how to best serve their students,” Superintendent Truitt said in prepared testimony.
Read Superintendent Truitt’s prepared testimony here, and read research reports produced by the Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration produced in 2022 and 2023.
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The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nonpartisan, nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in the states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity, Bureau of Indian Education, and five U.S. extra-state jurisdictions. CCSSO provides leadership, advocacy, and technical assistance on major educational issues. The Council seeks member consensus on major educational issues and expresses their views to civic and professional organizations, federal agencies, Congress, and the public.
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