COVID-19 Policy Update #144
COVID-19 Policy Update
FRIDAY 11/6
WHAT TO EXPECT...NEVER MIND
I'm going to send out a separate update this weekend with some links to various reflections of the 2020 cycle - mostly just some OpEds and posts that have prompted some reflection on my part. We're obviously still in the middle of much of this and are also still trying to understand the messages voters are trying to send.
In the meantime:
Just to give you a different map, here is one of the legality of owning a Kangaroo by state.
TOP THREE
Reopening Schools: Washington State Health Official released a new report by Institute of Disease Metrics (with support from the BMGF) which explored the feasibility of returning more students to the classroom using various screening measures and safety precautions.
The analysis found that full in-person learning is not wise in places where COVID-19 transmission levels remain high. However, the findings of this modeling indicate that it is possible to carefully resume some in-person learning for some students, especially younger students, while keeping the risk of transmission in our schools relatively low if strong health and safety measures are in place. Consistent with previous analyses, transmission in schools is greatly reduced through a combination of school-based countermeasures and hybrid or phased-in scheduling The report also reaffirms the importance of reducing community transmission prior to reopening K-12 schools for in-person learning and implementing school-based countermeasures.
This is IDM’s third report to provide modeling that can help inform decision-making around school policy and practice. The first report, “Schools are Not Islands,” emphasized the importance of looking at schools in the context of community transmission rates. If community transmission is low, then school-based countermeasures (e.g. masking, cohorting students, daily symptom screening, follow-up diagnostic testing, contact tracing, physical distancing, hand hygiene, and ventilation) are effective in preventing epidemic growth; but if community spread is too high, then no amount of countermeasures will prevent epidemic growth.
Their second report, “Maximizing Education while Minimizing COVID risk,” found that risks could be mitigated through hybrid scheduling and treating grade levels differently, prioritizing K-5 first. This third report models various strategies for using COVID-19 testing to further mitigate risk, and reaffirms the earlier findings.
Texas Learning Loss: The pandemic has caused deep, “horrifying” learning losses for Dallas children, and underscored the disparities among Black students, according to new DISD results. In math, the percentages of Black students reaching the “meets grade level” projections ranged from 7.5% (in fourth grade) to 17.9% (in eighth grade) compared with a range of 41.8% to 61.2% for white students in the district.
The Mystery of How Many Mothers Have Left Work Because of School Closings: Perhaps the most important story given it's implications for both the economy and education:
There are 1.2 million parents out of the labor force since February.
"An alternative is to look at parents who say they aren’t in the labor force because of home or family concerns. Parents who passed on job searches because of school closings might list that as a reason in labor force surveys. Because this is just a subset of all people out of the labor force, the numbers are smaller: Home/family nonparticipation rose by 2.5 percentage points (700,000 people) for mothers of school-age children, and 0.6 percentage points (150,000) for fathers, between February and September."
"Analyzing the [Census Household Pulse Survey] data this way suggests that a 10 percent rise in the school closing rate in September was associated with summer labor force growth that was 1.5 percentage points lower for mothers than for childless women. Nationally, that’s the equivalent of 1.6 million fewer mothers in the labor force in September."
Also - this NYT visualization of schools that are open by state is powerful.
STATE
Florida: E-learning is many parents' school choice. Will Florida leave it in place?
Idaho: A low-performing virtual school has seen the state’s most explosive enrollment growth — for the fourth straight year.
Illinois: Chicago Sun Times editorial board: "Kids belong in school — the real thing — and Chicago can make it work"
"Educators across the country are warning about a ‘lost year’ for public school education because of the coronavirus pandemic, and let’s consider for a minute what a disaster that would be."
"The Archdiocese of Chicago: Catholic schools in the city of Chicago reopened in September, with 34,000 students and over 2,000 teachers returning for in-person learning. Just 18% of parents opted to continue with remote learning — an option that CPS parents, and teachers with underlying health conditions, should continue to have when the public schools reopen."
"To date, there have been exactly two cases of in-school transmission among teachers. And there have been only 10 reported instances in which two children in the same cohort — children are assigned to small learning groups of 15 to 22 students — have been infected by the coronavirus."
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Jobs Report: Exceeded expectations with 638,000 jobs added and the unemployment rate falling to 6.9%. Payrolls for August and September were revised up 15,000 combined. One area of concern is the number of permanent job losses.
Fuse Corp: Is recruiting for a number of fellowships - some examples:
Ensuring Equitable Access to Excellent Learning Opportunities in East Palo Alto
Long-Term Strategies to Build Intergenerational Wealth Among Black New Orleanians
Small Business Supports to Build Wealth in Atlanta’s Black and Brown Communities
Ensuring a Thriving Birmingham Civil Rights Institute for Justice and Peace
Closing the Digital Divide to Ensure Equitable Access to Education and Workforce Opportunities in Oakland.
Dismantling Digital Deserts to Increase Educational and Health Outcomes in Houston
Instituting a New Approach to Housing Data for Equitable Disaster Recovery in Houston.
Markets Are Bigger Than Politics: Great post from Barry Ritholtz.
LEARNING PODS
Shelby County Schools: Is considering learning pods are part of their options for parents.
RESOURCES
Tracking K–12 Student Needs During COVID-19: Michael Horn analyzes DonorsChoose data.
Schools Are Doing COVID-19 Temperature Checks: Do They Really Help? "Ashish K. Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, told Education Week that temperature checks are “useless” and that schools should instead be provided with the resources to conduct random on-site COVID-19 testing in buildings."
The Colleges With No Coronavirus Cases: Via NatGeo:
It's Been A Long Week: Enjoy some baby Pandas.