Blog

Your Education Road Map

Politics K-12®

ESSA. Congress. State chiefs. School spending. Elections. Education Week reporters keep watch on education policy and politics in the nation’s capital and in the states. Read more from this blog.

Federal

Miguel Cardona: Schools Must Work to Win Trust of Families of Color as They Reopen

By Evie Blad — April 09, 2021 4 min read
Education Secretary nominee Miguel Cardona testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee during his confirmation hearing Feb. 3, 2021.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Schools need to work to win the trust of families of color who are reluctant to return their children to in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, even as educators work to provide strong remote learning options for those who chose to remain at home, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said Friday.

The most recent federal data show that students of color are less likely to return to full-time in-person instruction than their white peers, even when their schools offer the option.

“I do think it’s our responsibility to not only improve remote learning but to better engage with these families,” Cardona said on a call with reporters held to announce the second installment of a U.S. Department of Education guidebook of recommendations on how schools should reopen and recover from the pandemic.

In the brief call, he also addressed reporters’ questions about testing waivers, summer learning, and teacher burnout.

The 52-page guidebook was created after focus groups with educators and feedback from organizations around the country, Cardona said. It includes recommendations about issues like social-emotional learning, addressing lost instructional time, and supporting educators. Many of those recommendations touch on equity concerns; the guidebook encourages schools to monitor issues like gaps in access to technology and how students perceive their learning environments.

The recommendations are part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to encourage a majority of kindergarten through 8th grade schools to open within the first 100 days of his administration, a deadline he will reach on April 30. That strategy also includes new resources provided through the American Rescue Plan, prioritizing teachers for COVID-19 vaccines, and releasing new guidance for schools from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But, even as nearly 46 percent of public schools offered five days a week of in-person instruction to all students in February, just 34 percent of students were learning full-time in the classroom, according to the most recent federal data, collected through a representative sample of schools around the country.

And many large school districts have reported that families of color are less likely to select in-person options that are offered to them.

Cardona called that “concerning” but “not surprising.”

“Prior to the pandemic, we had a system that served some students better than others, and we have to be bold and unapologetic in addressing that,” he said.

Funds provided through the COVID relief bill can help schools address the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on students of color, homeless students, English-language learners, students in foster care, and students with disabilities, Cardona said. He encouraged family engagement efforts as schools chart their course in spending the $130 billion in new K-12 aid.

While the guidebook’s recommendations largely draw from strategies that were promoted in schools before the pandemic, Cardona said he hopes educators will find links to best practices and specific examples included in the document to be particularly helpful. The department has also announced plans for a clearinghouse of best practices to help educators learn from existing efforts around the country.

Cardona on state-testing waivers

Education Week asked Cardona on the call about the Education Department’s recent decision to allow the District of Columbia to cancel its year-end state tests on the same day it told Michigan it would not provide similar flexibility.

Officials have stressed that they wants states to make every effort to collect consistent data across districts to monitor student learning, even as the agency provides some flexibility from federal accountability requirements.

In granting the waiver for the District, which is considered a statewide school system, the agency noted it may be difficult for the city’s schools to collect statistically reliable data while most students are still learning remotely. Some testing wonks saw inconsistency in the department’s approach when it didn’t allow Michigan to substitute local assessments for its year-end, summative exam, despite surging rates of the virus there.

The agency has acknowledged to some states that it might not be “viable” for some districts to conduct testing. And it has said states can modify tests or delay their administration until the fall to address logistical concerns.

In his response to Education Week’s question, Cardona did not address the circumstances in Michigan and D.C. specifically.

“Each case is reviewed carefully, case by case,” he said. “And just like reopening schools really required a local context ... the same application of the context that the students are in was taken into account by our team in the Department of Education.”

Cardona on teacher supports, summer learning

Cardona acknowledged concerns about educator burnout as they finish a second year of unprecedented interruption and prepare for the 2021-22 school year, when they will continue to address the aftermath.

Federal aid can be used on strategies that help address educators’ concerns by providing extra support for students, federal officials said. Those strategies can include providing targeted professional development and hiring paraprofessionals and student support staff like school counselors to help address children’s needs.

In response to a reporter’s question about the need for states and districts to design “robust, evidence-based” summer learning programs in a short time frame, Cardona said he thinks such efforts are possible with the help of community partnerships with organizations like Boys and Girls Clubs.

“I will acknowledge the fact that educators, we’re exhausted,” he said. “We’ve been working nonstop since [March 2020] in addressing how to support our students best in a pandemic … But I do think with creative partnerships and that shared sense of urgency that we have in education, it can be done.”

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Low-Performing Schools Are Left to Languish by Districts and States, Watchdog Finds
Fewer than half of district plans for improving struggling schools meet bare minimum requirements.
11 min read
A group of silhouettes looks across a grid with a public school on the other side.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
Federal Biden Admin. Says New K-12 Agenda Tackles Absenteeism, Tutoring, Extended Learning
The White House unveiled a set of K-12 priorities at the start of an election year.
4 min read
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
Steven Senne/AP
Federal Lawmakers Want to Reauthorize a Major Education Research Law. What Stands in the Way?
Lawmakers have tried and failed to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act over the past nearly two decades.
7 min read
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., left, joins Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, as Starbucks founder Howard Schultz answers questions about the company's actions during an ongoing employee unionizing campaign, at the Capitol in Washington, on March 29, 2023.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., left, joins Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, at the Capitol in Washington, on March 29, 2023. The two lawmakers sponsored a bill to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Federal Will the Government Actually Shut Down This Time? What Educators Should Know
The federal government is once again on the verge of shutting down. Here's why educators should care, but shouldn't necessarily worry.
1 min read
Photo illustration of Capitol building and closed sign.
iStock