 | KEY MESSAGE: COVID-19 has taken a toll on educators in Colorado and across the country. Excellent educators are vital to student success, but workforce and staffing needs are major concerns in many communities. |
 | Connect educator support to student success. Having a stable, well-supported educator workforce is essential to the success and well-being of our students. Communication strategy should emphasize this important in order to explain why pandemic recovery funds are being prioritized for this purpose. |
 | Be prepared to talk about sustainability. Some investments in educator and staff stability and well-being may be one-time expenditures and other may require ongoing resources – some of which may even extend beyond the availability of ESSER funds. Talking about sustainability reinforces the district’s strong accountability and transparency. |
 | Know who the services where available to AND who received services. |
| How were students identified for support, especially those who were disproportionately impacted by COVID? |
| If funds were passed onto schools, how were school funds determined? |
A theory of action, or logic model, is a tool to help you explain and talk about the reasons why resources were deployed as they were. The following graphic illustration of the relationship between a program’s resources, activities, and its intended effects is meant to help you speak about this investment priority. Logic models clearly and concisely show how interventions affect behavior and achieve a goal.
Download the graphic as a template you can edit.
Resource links related to research on this investment priority:
- Department of Education, (2021), ED COVID-19 HANDBOOK Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting All Students’ Needs, Volume 2, https://www2.ed.gov/documents/coronavirus/reopening-2.pdf page 38
- Opper, I., (2019). Teachers Matter: Understanding Teachers’ Impact on Student Achievement. RAND https://www.rand.org/education-and-labor/projects/measuring-teacher-effectiveness/teachers-matter.html
- Ronfeldt M., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff J., (2012) How Teacher Turnover Harms Student Achievement M CALDER Working Paper No. 70. Available at: https://caldercenter.org/sites/default/files/Ronfeldt-et-al.pdf
This section contains templates to support messaging of ESSER investments related to supporting the educator workforce.
