On Tuesday, October 19th, JerseyCAN, a nonprofit advocating for high-quality schools for all New Jersey students, launched a new webinar to provide New Jersey’s parents, school leaders, and educators a series of best practices, strategies, and valuable information to address students’ and families’ needs in the wake of learning disruptions caused by COVID.

The webinar, entitled Accelerating Back to School and part of JerseyCAN’s “NJ Kids Can’t Wait” initiative includes commentary and perspective from education leaders across the state, including Dr. Kimberley Harrington Markus, Former NJ Commissioner of Education and Chief Education Officer at Education Research and Development Institute; Dr. Gemar Mills, Chief Academic Officer College Achieve Public Schools; Jennifer Johnson Floyd, District Leader, and Educator, Collingswood School District; Chiffon Rushford, Chief Tutor Corps Officer, Great Oaks Legacy Charter School; and Jamilah Muhammad, CEO of Parent Impact and NJ Delegate National Parents Union, who shared new evidence-based strategies to address challenges created by the pandemic and best practices they have implemented to accelerate learning for students this year.  In addition, the webinar outlines a series of studies on these topics located on the JerseyCAN website.

The release of the webinar continues JerseyCAN’s “NJ Kids Can’t Wait” statewide initiative (NJ Ed Report coverage here), which launched at the opening of the new school year with an extensive media campaign, a one-stop-shopping microsite, and digital engagement throughout the state to assist all New Jersey families in getting their children back on track academically while maintaining the highest expectations.   

“We have been thrilled with the statewide reaction to JerseyCAN’s “NJ Kids Can’t Wait” initiative,” stated Janellen Duffy, Senior Advisor, JerseyCAN. “We designed this effort to provide a centralized location that provides resources for parents, showcases teacher voices, and in sum supports parents and educators as they work intensively and urgently to address students’ needs.   Since our launch last month, we have seen thousands engaging in this campaign and learning more about innovations developed during the pandemic. This new webinar is an easy way to learn and access the available information at the JerseyCAN hub.  Over the course of this past year, the JerseyCAN team got to learn directly from leaders in the field about their efforts to accelerate students’ learning, and we wanted to share their insight with a broader audience via the webinar.”

Since the pandemic first struck eighteen months ago JerseyCAN has made a series of significant investments to a variety of studies and research projects.  In Fall of 2020, JerseyCAN conducted the first poll of New Jersey parents showcasing the stark racial and income disparities in addressing the challenges of COVID-19.  This poll found parents had concerns not only about their children’s health and safety but also about students staying on track academically. 

Last Winter, JerseyCAN released the first of its kind study defining the impact of COVID-19 on New Jersey students. This research projected that approximately 393,000 students in ELA and 430,000 students in Math in grades 3-8 would not be on grade level by the end of this school year.  

And earlier this summer, as school districts began creating plans to utilize the billions of federal dollars coming into New Jersey through COVID relief funding, JerseyCAN launched a centralized multimedia platform to assist local districts and charter schools in advancing new strategies and programs to accelerate learning.   This platform features case studies of New Jersey districts and schools who are actively using evidence-based strategies to accelerate student learning.

To access the new webinar, please click here.