EdCircuit Staff 
It’s time to discuss the wealth of opportunities increased federal funding has presented districts across the nation.
For those unaware, ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds were appropriated to schools by the federal government in three pieces of legislation. So far, there have been three rounds of funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic Security Act (3/2020), Coronavirus Response & Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (12/2020), and most recently from the American Rescue Plan (3/2021). In total, these funds have provided $193 billion to state education agencies, with an additional $9.7 billion provided to governors to use at their discretion for private school support. With these expanded resources and schools beginning their 2022-2023 planning, this is the question on every administrator’s mind:
What do we do with federal funding?
ESSER funds have been approved for several types of education intervention programs, including remediating equity issues, educating diverse student populations–including online learners, and addressing learning loss and administrative setbacks presented by the pandemic. Many districts have taken ESSER and Title 1 funding as an opportunity to expand current programming. From edtech to professional development, schools have been flushed with resources to explore, implement, and expand programs over the past two years. One district that invested in developing existing programming is the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System in Savannah, GA.
The 10th largest district in their state, the Savannah-Chatham District, wanted to bring in a tool that would allow them to engage their students, collect data through diagnostics, and look at how each school within the district was truly performing over time.
After discussions with decision-makers, principals, and other district stakeholders, the district decided to pilot i-Ready by Curriculum Associates using their workbook solutions to support academic growth. The district implemented i-Ready in 2018 with the school transformation team, slowly bringing in digital resources throughout the district with the help of federal funding with a full district approach rolling out in all K-8 schools in January of 2021.
“I purchased [digital resources] with my Title 1 funds and continued to purchase until the district decided they were going to do a [district-wide] purchase a few years ago,” Said Renee Bryant-Evans, Interim Senior Officer. “I believed in the program so much, and the results that I saw from the program looked so good that it was worth the purchase using my Title 1 funds every year. Now, it is being used all over the district, K-8, elementary, transformation, all sides.”
Using Title 1 funding, the district was able to look at its short-term growth, particularly in its transformative schools. However, as the pandemic caused struggles in the district, the administration looked to recover after a return to in-person lessons.
“It sort of grew organically when we started having some of these discussions, and then over time, I think it just began to grow,” said Julian Childers, Interim Associate Superintendent of School Transformation & Innovation. “And then having funding at this point. COVID has created a lot of challenges for us, but in some cases, it also has created some opportunities. And so, having that additional funding created opportunities for us to get this tool for all of our schools and create equity among all of our teams.”
With their comfortability due to extended funding and early success, administrators felt confident and encouraged to extend programming. The district found massive success from individual student growth, school performance, and district initiative alignment. “The team, having identified i-Ready as a viable tool that we’ve seen in schools, especially schools which have historically struggled, have had success.”
In terms of success, the district’s data proves growth across all schools. By halfway through the 2021–2022 school year, students at all placement levels made gains in math and reading, celebrating that at least 50% of students improved their i-Ready placement levels. Additionally, the administration saw substantial cultural shifts, including growth in goal setting, peer-to-peer learning, and teacher buy-in.
Due to the overall programming success, the district has begun making its strategic plans around its i-Ready programming. Andrea Burkiett, Director of Elementary Curriculum, discussed how this federal funding had given them a strong foundation to build future programming. “In our new strategic plan, one of our performance objectives is to improve the integrity and fidelity of systematic district-wide curriculum instruction, frameworks, and assessments. And so, this system ties directly to that particular objective,” she said. “That is one of the reasons why this system is so important to us is because if we’re going to monitor, I mean improving the integrity and fidelity of implementation of something that’s cohesive and district-wide when you’re the 10th largest system in your state, you’ve got to have an effective tool in order to be able to do that.”
With funds to implement new tools, a time of crisis that brought education to think creatively about programming, and finally, resources to rebuild even stronger, the Savannah-Chatham School District expertly provided a shining example of administrative excellence. Yet, despite the amount of growth we’ve seen in districts across the country, the question that remains, particularly around extended funding, is the continuation of investment in education. Perhaps once the federal government and Department of Education sees the brilliant expansion of programs and the success they create, as we’ve seen in communities like Savannah, GA, we will see extended governmental investment for long-term growth.
About the Author
JT Godfrey is a writer and author based out of Cleveland, OH. JT writes on a variety of subjects across education but has a particular interest in stories concerning equity. An Oberlin College alum, JT found his passion for writing while working as a news writer for The Oberlin Review. In addition to writing for edCircuit, JT is also a published short story author. Outside of his work, JT enjoys reading, performing live comedy, and olympic weightlifting.
