Engaging the Community

PCG collaborated with Broward County Public Schools, the sixth largest and most diverse district in the country, on the creation of an Education Recovery Center of Operations to coordinate the response to more than 55,000 students across the district who weren’t meeting adequate academic progress.

In September, Broward experienced an unprecedented drop in enrollment and attendance just weeks into the 2021 school year due to the continuing impact of the pandemic. As many as 11,400 students were either unaccounted for or had a record of excessive absences.

PCG staffed a team of 16 phone canvassers charged with contacting families of students who were at-risk of falling behind and/or dropping out of school. More than 30,000 phone calls were placed to families in an effort to re-engage students.  A set of data dashboards were used to measure impact of the Ready for You campaign and target outreach accordingly.

PCG employees joined over 400 local educators from the Broward Teachers Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the Broward County Public Schools Interim Superintendent, Dr. Vickie Cartwright, and members of her leadership team in a door-to-door campaign to engage with families and encourage them to return their children to school. The Weekend of Action commenced on Saturday, September 25th, and by the end of Sunday, September 26th, volunteers had knocked on more than 8,100 doors and had engaged in almost 3,000 conversations with families – making the case for their children to return to school.

Media Coverage of the Weekend of Action

Various local media outlets covered Broward’s Weekend of Action, including (but not limited to):

• Local 10 News: Enrollment numbers in Broward public schools down by thousands
• WSVN 7 News Miami: Volunteers try to reach thousands of BCPS students who haven’t returned to campus to let them know it is safe
• CBS Miami: Broward School Officials Go Looking For Unenrolled Students
• Miami Herald: Broward schools looking to get about 10,000 students back into the classroom

What’s next for Broward’s education recovery effort?

As students return to classrooms, data dashboards are being used to support students with research proven, high intensity tutoring provided by PCG’s University Instructors, Saga Education, and a rich mix of local partners. Data from each tutoring session will be captured and integrated with gradebook data into a comprehensive learner record tied to a customized learning pathway. In this way, Broward is using the crisis of the pandemic as a jumping off point to begin the transition towards mastery-based learning.

Download the case study!

A new case study published this week shares key results to date of the education recovery work underway in Broward. “Broward’s Journey to Equitable Recovery” is available for download here.

Interested in learning more about PCG’s equity and education recovery services? Additional information is available here.