COVID-19 Policy Update #151
COVID-19 Policy Update
TUESDAY 11/17
TOP THREE
Three Ways K-12 Schools Can Evolve Post-Pandemic: Entire article, but highlights include:
Flexibility in learning formats
Rethinking school schedules. "Lengthening the school day through community schools models, which can provide health, education and other wrap-around services, may also be a post-pandemic possibility, said Miriam Rollin, director of the Education Civil Rights Alliance."
Creating stronger partnerships. "In many ways, [we’re asking] how can post-pandemic look better than pre-COVID, especially when we’re looking at these equity issues, because we know the system pre-COVID hitting needed revision."
K-12 Parents Support Canceling Standardized Testing this Spring: Daniel Silver and Morgan Polikoff:
"Since April, the study has been asking parents how favorably they would view cancellation of standardized testing for the 2020-21 school year, and the proportion who “support” or “strongly support” such a move has risen steadily from 43 percent in mid-April to 49 percent in late May to 59 percent in mid-July to 64 percent in mid-October."
"To the extent possible, then, states should strive to administer a round of standardized tests this spring, even if in abbreviated form, even if only to a representative subset of students and even if the data are used only for monitoring, not accountability (which could be an easier sell to a weary public)."
Children COVID Cases: AAP released their most recent collection of state data. Top findings:
More than 1 million children have been diagnosed with COVID.
Over two weeks, 10/29-11/12, there was a 22% increase in child COVID-19 cases
Children were 1.2%-3.3% of total reported hospitalizations
Children were 0.00%-0.21% of all COVID-19 deaths, and 16 states reported zero child deaths
FEDERAL
CDC:
Quietly removed a statement from its website that stressed "the importance of reopening America's schools."
Released guidance for school nurses and healthcare professionals working in schools and childcare settings.
Transition:
President-elect Biden announced several new White House appointments:
Jen O’Malley Dillon, his campaign manager, will become deputy chief of staff.
Mike Donilon will serve as a Senior Advisor to the President.
Dana Remus will serve as White House counsel
Steve Ricchetti, a longtime Biden aide and chairman of his presidential campaign, will serve as a counselor.
Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) will be a senior adviser to the President and director of the Office of Public Engagement.
Julie Rodriguez, Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
Annie Tomasini, Director of Oval Office Operations
Anthony Bernal will serve as a Sr. Advisor to Dr. Jill Biden.
Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon will serve as Chief of Staff to Dr. Jill Biden.
AAP released a transition memo: Advancing Child Health in the Biden-Harris Administration which includes several COVID items:
Ensure that children are included in COVID-19 vaccine trials
Enhance efforts to reduce vaccine hesitancy
Appropriately value vaccine administration
Allow Vaccines for Children (VFC) payment for multi-component vaccine
Reduce regulatory burden in the VFC program
COVID-19 RESEARCH
One Year Ago: China reported the first case of COVID.
COVID Cases: 58% of counties have seen the peak of their coronavirus infections this month, and 76% of counties have peaked at some point in the fall. Powerful visualization from Axios showing when the peaks occurred in various regions.
Vaccine...Optimism? After repeated surveys showing American hesitancy to take an initially approved vaccine, a new Gallup survey found 58% now would - up from a low of 50% in July.
State Resource Gets Even Better: The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center state pages now allow comparison of county-level COVID-19 case and testing data against key demographic information, including race and poverty level.
STATE
Tracking COVID-19 in the United States: Resolve to Save Lives released a new report and interactive map assessing state reporting on critical COVID indicators. Key findings:
Dashboards from Minnesota, Oregon, Utah and Washington, D.C. received the highest scores.
Arkansas, New Mexico, Washington, D.C., Washington, Hawaii, Minnesota, Oregon, and South Carolina improved by 20 or more percentage points since the July assessment.
Essential indicators, such as cases, tests, hospitalizations and deaths are not stratified by subgroup or over time in many states.
Most (58%) state dashboards do not differentiate between faster, less accurate antigen tests, and molecular (PCR) tests.
The report provides three recommendations:
Reporting data the same day it is collected to inform timely risk assessment and action. Also included:
Data on COVID-19 in schools should be transparently reported, from as many schools as possible.
Data should be reported at the school level if possible, stratified by student versus staff, and with precise case and outbreak numbers.
Reporting criteria should be clearly defined. Standard definitions of school-associated cases and outbreaks should be utilized.
Linking to county data dashboards so the public can easily see what is happening in their county and neighboring counties, ideally with zip-code look-up
Enabling download of data.
Illinois: The state teachers union is calling on Gov. Pritzker to close school buildings.
Michigan: Rural-area students have to travel for Internet access. "The sisters aren’t left with any other option but to make the 30- to 40-minute trip to their mom’s house for school."
New York:
David Zweig on "3%: the unusual measure that governs the fate of the New York City schools." "These may be savvy political moves, and one that a mayor or governor feels he needs to make. But neither is following the science."
Via Alexander Russo: "NY chapter of the ACLU calls on NYC to do more/better: 'New York City cannot abandon children and families to the failures and inequities that have already been so devastating. Our children cannot afford to lose a year of education and growth."
Utah: Teachers stage a sickout to demand COVID-19 testing and return to online instruction.
INTERNATIONAL
Afghanistan: Long piece in The Diplomat covering the education challenges facing the country.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Retail Sales: Increased 0.3% in October, below expectations and well below a 1.6% increase in September. It was the smallest monthly rise in retail sales since May, adding another worrisome sign that the economy might be slowing. The August to September report was revised from up 1.9% to up 1.6 percent. More at the WSJ and CNBC
Middle-Skill Jobs in Rural California: IES published an REL analysis of four rural California regions and the demand in “middle-skill” jobs that require more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree from 2017-2020. The report found that 83,756 middle-skill workers annually are needed to fill available jobs in the four rural regions, but education institutions granted credentials to meet only 24% of the employer demand.
MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future: Released their final report. Read the whole paper but here are six findings:
Technological change is simultaneously replacing existing work and creating new work. It is not eliminating work altogether.
"Technology has polarized the economy. White-collar workers — in medicine, marketing, design, research, and more — have become more productive and richer, while middle-tier workers have lost out. Meanwhile, there has been growth in lower-paying service-industry jobs where digitization has little impact — such as food services, janitors, and drivers."
Momentous impacts of technological change are unfolding gradually.
Rising labor productivity has not translated into broad increases in incomes because societal institutions and labor market policies have fallen into disrepair.
"We’ve had real institutional failure, and it’s within our hands to change it. … That includes worker voice, minimum wages, portable benefits, and incentives that cause companies to invest in workers.”
Improving the quality of jobs requires innovation in labor market institutions.
Fostering opportunity and economic mobility necessitates cultivating and refreshing worker skills.
"U.S. workers need more opportunities to add new skills — whether through the community college system, online education, company-based retraining, or other means."
Investing in innovation will drive new job creation, speed growth, and meet rising competitive challenges.
Making Sense of Credentials: A State Roadmap and Action Guide forTransparency developed with Credentials Matter, CCSSO, DQC, ECS, NCSL, NGA, SHEEO, Education Strategy Group, Education Quality Outcomes Standards Board, and the
National Skills Coalition. Great list of ten actions states can take.
Director of Remote Work: More companies are hiring a ‘director of remote work’
One Possible Positive Economic Indicator: Via Bloomberg:
"Eight months into the pandemic, Americans’ household finances are in the best shape in decades."
"Record-low mortgage rates, reflecting the ultra-easy Fed policy, have prompted a steady wave of refinancing and allowed homeowners to reduce monthly payments or tap equity. Americans are also holding more cash, helped in part by stimulus from the government."
"While the pandemic has financially been harder on working-class families than the wealthy ones who have been stockpiling much of the cash, data shows that they too have more money in the bank now. That’s important because they are much more likely to spend that money -- and give the economy an added jolt -- than the rich are."
RESOURCES
Polls with COVID19-Education Questions: Grateful for EdChoice's Paul DiPerna keeping this list of surveys and polls.
Baby Yoda: Joined the astronauts on board SpaceX’s Crew-1 flight. This has nothing to do with COVID or education, but I thought it was interesting. This Is The Way.
As Unions and Public Officials Push to Keep Schools Closed, Parents Fight Back: Piece in EdNext:
"In the summer, parents of special-education students filed a nationwide class-action lawsuit in federal court demanding that school districts reopen in fall 2020 or provide “pendency vouchers” so parents could secure services on their own. They are also demanding compensatory damages for the out-of-pocket expenses they incurred in the spring after schools went remote."
"If state education clauses require states to provide an adequate education, then they must require schools to provide in-person instruction, since remote instruction is manifestly insufficient for many students. These Oklahoma parents contend that their children are experiencing irreversible harm as a result of the school board’s imposition of an entirely remote delivery model. Citing the Oklahoma Constitution’s education clause, they argue that remote instruction not only “falls short of meeting Oklahoma’s minimum education standards” but also, citing precedents from the U.S. Supreme Court and the state supreme court, that it violates the fundamental right of parents to determine the education of their children."
How Massive K-12 Bond Issues During COVID-19 Are Shaping School Technology Plans: Via EdWeek.
A $1.3 billion initiative from the San Antonio, Texas, school district, the largest school bond in the city's history, that includes $90 million to help pay for high-speed internet, student computers, interactive smartboards, and new audio systems for public school classrooms.
The largest school bond initiative in Texas history, from the Dallas Independent School District, whose voters approved $3.2 billion for school construction and $270 million in technology upgrades, but rejected proposals to issue new debt to renovate athletic stadiums and performing arts facilities.
A mammoth $7 billion bond issue by the Los Angeles Unified School District, including $405 million to "furnish and equip schools with 21st century learning technologies and upgrade/install technology infrastructure, information systems, hardware, and software."
COVID Upending Plans to Return Students to School: USA Today article. Includes this blurb about Texas which seems like a promising practice:
"Texas updated its state guidance to allow more districts to recall struggling students to in-person classes. Now, if a student has an average grade of 70% or below or has three or more unexcused absences in a grading period, Texas districts can call them back to in-person learning."
When Schools Closed, Americans Turned to Their Usual Backup Plan: Mothers: Via NYT.
"There are about 1.6 million fewer mothers in the labor force this fall than would be expected without school closures, an analysis of employment data shows."
"When schools and child care centers closed, mothers immediately took on the fallback role. A survey last spring, by Morning Consult for The New York Times, found that eight in 10 mothers are managing remote schooling, and seven in 10 are doing the bulk of child care."
“Other countries have social safety nets; the U.S. has women,” Jessica Calarco, a sociologist at Indiana University."
Are We Seriously Talking About Closing Schools Again? Aaron Carrol opinion piece in the NYT. "There may come a time when the pandemic has become so unmanageable that we need to close everything, including schools. (This was the case when I argued that closures were necessary back in March.) But schools are essential, and should be treated as such. When we prioritize, they should be among the last things to close. Almost everything else should be put on pause first. This is what Europe is doing. No one can explain why, once again, the United States is choosing its own path."
Understanding Why Students Aren’t Getting to School: Great piece from DQC's Alexandra Ball.
American Educator Panels: RAND surveyed 1,082 teachers and 1,147 school leaders in October:
School models according to principals:
22% fully in-person
33% fully remote
47% in hybrid
The highest-poverty schools and schools serving high percentages of minority students were less likely to offer in-person instruction.
Principals in small school districts (fewer than 3,000 students) and in towns and rural areas were more likely to report providing in-person instruction.
Two-thirds of teachers said that the majority of their students were less prepared for grade-level work than they were at this time last year
56 percent of teachers said that they had covered only half, or less than half, of the curriculum content that they would have gotten to by this time last year.
Principals in the highest-poverty schools reported that, on average, only 80% of their students had adequate internet access at home.
The One Thing You Need Today: This Maori baby learning the Haka Dance.