COVID-19 Policy Update #164
COVID-19 Policy Update
WEDNESDAY 12/9
TOP THREE
Updated McKinsey Report on Learning Loss: New report released today:
Analyzed assessment data from the Curriculum Associates i-Ready platform and found that students in their sample learned only 67 percent of the math and 87 percent of the reading that grade-level peers would typically have learned by the fall.
On average, that means students lost the equivalent of three months of learning in mathematics and one-and-a-half months of learning in reading. The learning loss was especially acute in schools that predominantly serve students of color, where scores were 59 percent of the historical average in math and 77 percent in reading.
IES: Mark Schneider, Director of IES and Kumar Garg, Managing Director of Schmidt Futures on Operation Reverse the Loss:
Establish a COVID Data “Learning Pulse” Program
Stand up an Education Data Science Center of Excellence
Establish an Advanced Research Projects Activity at ED
Establish a tiered evidence program on tutoring to mitigate learning loss
Modernize the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
Restore Funding to Special Education Research
Reopening Research: New study that found outbreaks were low in schools and nurseries in England that reopened after the first lockdown. Outbreaks in schools correlated strongly with local infection rates, highlighting a need to reduce community transmission in order to protect educational settings. "There are very few reports of widespread SARS-CoV-2 infection in early years settings and primary schools, especially when compared with other institutions such as hospitals, care homes, and prisons, and other workplace settings."
FEDERAL
Economic Relief Package:
Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leaders Schumer rejected a Trump-backed $916 billion counter proposal that was offered by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin.
The Bipartisan Framework was released with more details today (Document). Some highlights:
$82 billion for education using CARES Act distribution methodology.
$10 billion for broadband which is split with some funds going to E-rate and some going to Governors. A small program for libraries to purchase and loan devices too.
$10 billion for childcare.
More funding for minority businesses through earmarked PPP funds and CDFI investments.
P-EBT is extended to children in childcare settings.
$3.15 billion for mental health block grants.
Sticking points in the negotiations continue to be levels of state and local government aid, liability protections for businesses, unemployment benefits, and direct payments.
CR: The House passed a short-term extension with a vote of 343 to 67. It heads to the Senate where it is expected to pass this week.
Transition: Reports indicate the transition team to nominate:
Rep. Marcia Fudge as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Tom Vilsack as Secretary for USDA
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Children and COVID-19: State-Level Data Report: AAP's report for the week of Dec 3.
1,460,905 COVID cases in children representing 12% of all cases.
Over two weeks, 11/19-12/3, there was a 23% increase in child COVID-19 cases.
Children were 1.1%-3.0% of total reported hospitalizations
Children were 0.00%-0.23% of all COVID-19 deaths, and 15 states reported zero child deaths
ICU Crisis: More than a third of Americans live in areas where hospitals are running critically short of intensive care beds. NYT's Interactive map.
Vaccine Warning: Britain’s medicine regulator has advised that people with a history of significant allergic reactions do not get Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine after two people reported adverse effects on the first day of rollout.
Reported Reactions to Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine: Less than 5% of patients reported “severe” reactions. The most common solicited adverse reactions were injection site reactions (84.1%), fatigue (62.9%), headache (55.1%), muscle pain (38.3%), chills (31.9%), joint pain (23.6%), fever (14.2%); severe adverse reactions occurred in 0.0% to 4.6% of participants, were more frequent after Dose 2 than after Dose 1.
How States Plan to Allocate the Vaccine: USA Today surveyed the 50 states.
Social Inequities Explain Racial Gaps in Pandemic: Via the NYT:
"The new studies do suggest that there is no innate vulnerability to the virus among Black and Hispanic Americans, Dr. Ogedegbe and other experts said. Instead, these groups are more often exposed because of social and environmental factors."
“We hear this all the time — ‘Blacks are more susceptible,’” Dr. Ogedegbe said. “It is all about the exposure. It is all about where people live. It has nothing to do with genes.”
“The larger issue is the role of social determinants of health,” Dr. Price-Haywood said. “Race is a social construct, not biological.”
The study discussed in the article can be found on the JAMA Open Network.
Supporting An Equitable Distribution Of COVID-19 Vaccines: Great report from the COVID Collaborative, NGA, and Duke-Margolis which analyzed 48 state plans and also provided detailed recommendations, including:
Meaningfully engage local health departments, representatives from high-risk populations, health systems, providers, community leaders, and organizations serving at-risk populations in planning activities;
Ensure that critical coordination structures are in place to flexibly shift strategies to respond to changing dynamics in vaccine availability, demand, and emerging challenges;
Assess capacity for vaccine administration, increase provider enrollment efforts, and examine strategies to expand surge capacity through non-traditional providers such as paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs), dentists, veterinarians, and health professional school students;
Assess capacity for vaccine transport, logistics, and distribution, including using the National Guard for such purposes if needed;
Deploy and test data management and reporting systems to ensure accountability for results, ability to adjust, and transparency to the public;
Train key public health personnel, health systems, and partners on the elements of the vaccination plans and subject the plans to Tabletop and Functional exercises as time permits;
Invest in education campaigns to build public confidence in vaccines, including campaigns with trusted local messengers, especially for historically marginalized communities; and
Partner with community leaders and organizations serving high-risk communities to conduct targeted outreach and address potential barriers to access, which could include making vaccines available in non-traditional sites such as churches, workplaces, mobile clinics, and other convenient and familiar community locations.
A Call to Action to Defeat COVID-19 and Promote National Recovery and Renewal: Embargoed until Thursday. The COVID Collaborative is releasing a Call to Action to Defeat COVID-19, with strong statements of support from Governors across the United States representing one in three Americans. This will be the first time that Governors have come together on a bipartisan basis to support a common, comprehensive approach to defeating COVID-19
STATE
Colorado: The Colorado Education Initiative released their updated School District Needs Inventory. Clear concerns around learning loss, teacher burnout and a closing but still present digital divide.
Illinois: 7-year-old's fundraising effort generates nearly $20K to buy protective gear for Chicago hospital
Massachusetts:
1,700 high-needs students are going back for in-person learning across 28 Boston schools. Students with disabilities and those with limited or interrupted formal education will be eligible to get back into the classroom on Monday.
Study shows Everett has second slowest Internet speeds in greater Boston. Everett registered an average of 38.91 Megabits per second, which was only slightly higher than Chelsea’s 35.56. It was far below neighbors like Revere (50.38) and Malden (54.82), and exponentially slower than Wellesley (141.08) and Weston (234.46).
Michigan: A group of Ann Arbor physicians is calling for in-person schooling for the district’s younger students. (Article / Twitter Thread).
Oregon: Teacher suspended for ranting at anti-lockdown protesters
Tennessee: Vanderbilt study finds:
57% of parents believe that masks protect themselves and most parents believe that wearing a mask is important for children (68%), easy (66%), and protects others (66%).
53% of parents reported that they were likely to get the COVID-19 vaccine for their child.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor: Released a report on the future of work and policy options. Consider this a must read if you want to better understand how the House Democrats think about these challenges and the respective solutions.
Bridge Builders: New report from Strada and Lumina exploring how intermediaries can connect education and work in a post pandemic world.
RESOURCES
The Case for a National Student Tutoring System: EdNext article discussing a working paper A Blueprint for Scaling Tutoring Across Public Schools.
"Our estimates suggest that a range of targeted approaches to scaling school-wide tutoring nationally, such as focusing on K-8 Title I schools, would cost between $5 and $15 billion annually. These costs are comparable to existing federal programs such as Title I, the National School Lunch Program, and Head Start and equate to roughly 1% to 2% of total expenditures on U.S. public education."
America Succeeds: Released Agility Thriving: Education Adapting in a Time of Disruption which leverages CRPE's database to analyze school district responses to the pandemic through a business agility framework.
After School: The Afterschool Alliance released national and state level data on unmet demand and parent satisfaction with afterschool programs. This year’s study includes responses from more than 30,000 U.S. families and builds upon the surveys conducted previously in 2004, 2009, and 2014. Presentation Slides
Teacher Layoffs: Via Reuters:
State and local governments have laid off nearly 700,000 workers this year, equal to 8.4% of the workforce.
Declining tax revenues and additional costs due to the pandemic, such as buying laptops for students who need them to work from home, will amount to a nationwide educational shortfall of up to $246 billion, or 18% of projected spending, over the next two years, according to Michael Griffith, a senior researcher at the Learning Policy Institute.
Pledge 2020: FPF announced an updated version of the Student Privacy Pledge —the result of a year and a half of multistakeholder conversations and feedback. Key changes to the Pledge include two new substantive provisions, an updated definition of the data covered by the Pledge, and a series of guidelines to help readers understand Pledge provisions. (Updated text of Pledge 2020 and guidelines).
Will COVID-19 Vaccines Require Parental Approval? Let’s say you are a teen and your parent is an anti-vaxxer. Can you get a COVID-19 vaccine without parental approval? It's a real debate right now in Washington DC where groups of parents, advocates and activists are urging D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to veto a bill passed by the D.C. Council last month that would allow kids as young as 11 to seek vaccines without a parent’s consent.
2020: The Musical: Jimmy Fallon and Andrew Rannells recap the year with Broadway songs.