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Choose investments that will support students through recovery from the pandemic and leave the district in a stronger position after ESSER funds expire.

We describe the big resource shifts required to realize an ambitious post-ESSER vision as “Power Strategies.” These five Power Strategies are grounded in research, address students’ critical academic and social-emotional needs, tackle underlying cost structures in ways that make them sustainable to implement over time, and help leaders create a stronger and more effective system of schools that benefits all students.

As you play, you’ll identify investment opportunities in these five areas that increase coherence and impact on student learning—and change underlying cost structures for financial sustainability.

Using ESSER Hold'em, you can focus on the important questions such as:

  • How can we sustain the real change and innovation we’ve created?
  • How best can my district spend an influx of dollars while also balancing that with the impending revenue cliff we’ll see in 2 years?
  • How do we cut through the noise to focus on most important changes we need to make?