COVID-19 Policy Update #166
COVID-19 Policy Update
FRIDAY 12/11
TOP THREE
5 Things We've Learned About Virtual School During the Pandemic: Good piece from Anya Kamenetz:
The digital divide is still big and complex.
Relationships are everything when it comes to keeping kids engaged remotely.
Digital teaching can be good, even great with the right support for teachers. But that's far from the norm.
Hybrid models are extremely challenging.
Some kids are not learning much online. They'll be playing catch-up in years to come.
New York: NYC presented a roadmap to help address learning loss:
Getting a baseline of what academic ground was lost with low-stakes diagnostic assessments citywide and interim assessments throughout the school year to monitor progress and tailor learning.
Increasing access high-quality digital curriculum at every school in the district;
Launching one-stop digital learning hub. "This will be a new learning management system phased in, and developed and customized for New York City Schools that houses lessons and tools and that can be shared across the city to help students, their teachers and families better understand how a student is progressing," Carranza said;
Deepening professional development for teachers "so our educators have the training and tools to close the gaps,"
Expanding "Parent University to continue supporting parents with the tools they need to support and deepen learning at home in their language";
Confronting the trauma and mental health crisis faced by students through a citywide approach.
California: LA Times Editorial Board: "Kids are hurting. Reopen California schools as soon as COVID rates drop"
"President-elect Joe Biden wants to help most of the country’s schools reopen by April 30, but that’s not ambitious enough. By that point, nearly a whole academic year would be lost."
"Teachers and other school workers don’t appear to have been catching the virus at school any more frequently than they would have in the community — although the infection rate has been higher for them than for students. Safety measures such as masks, hand-washing and better ventilation and air filtration make a crucial difference."
"No longer should the foremost questions be, “Why should we do this, and when will it be completely safe?” Instead, they should be, “Why not reopen, and what’s the best way to reduce risk?”
"Teachers’ unions have been the most powerful political force preventing reopenings. While their concerns have been understandable, they are largely not based on the reality in schools. Reopening must be based on the data and science rather than on the concerns of the most fearful group."
"More centralized decision-making is needed. School districts are often hamstrung when unions are adamant, which is why a statewide approach geared toward reopening would be more effective. (In Europe, there is far more federal control over schools.) Gov. Gavin Newsom has set limits on when schools can reopen, but no mandates for when they must."
FEDERAL
Spending Bills:
The Senate passed a $741 billion defense authorization bill, sending it to President Trump with veto-proof majorities in both chambers of Congress.
The Senate passed the continuing resolution to fund the government until Dec. 18.
Economic Relief Package:
Despite momentum with the talks, both sides are still at an impasse over liability protections and state/local aid.
Committee leaders in both chambers have begun negotiating noncontroversial aspects of the relief package, including PPP.
Speaker Pelosi has said lawmakers "cannot go home" until a deal is reached, suggesting that Congress could stay in session until Dec. 26.
More than 140 organizations, including the AFL-CIO, the Communications Workers of America, the American Federation of Teachers Washington, the NAACP and the Service Employees International Union, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader McConnell urging him not to include the “Safe to Work” Act, which would provide liability protections for businesses.
FDA: Is anticipated to approve the EUA tonight instead of tomorrow. Apparently the White House ordered the FDA chief to authorize the vaccine Friday or submit his resignation.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Ethical Considerations: Good essay from Arthur Caplan and colleagues arguing that the FDA and vaccine companies should keep moving forward with their trial studies. They suggest that the speed of the COVID-19 vaccine trials by necessity makes those trials shorter than normal, so long-term effects of the vaccines, if there are any, might not show up for some time. They also recommends:
FDA should limit recipients of EUA-bearing vaccines only to a defined group of high-risk people — and include clear, meaningful, and attainable reporting requirements.
Hospitals, pharmacies, and clinicians responsible for vaccine administration must commit to rigorous adherence to EUA provisions.
We need a plan for handling these data.
Vaccine Research:
Johnson & Johnson reduced the size of its vaccine study from 60,000 to 40,000 due to high prevalence of disease in the US.
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline announced their vaccine would be delayed until the end of 2021 after clinical trials showed it created an insufficient immune response.
Good time to checkin on the vaccine tracker.
Trials on Children and Pregnant Women: Dr. Fauci says COVID vaccine trials with pregnant women and young kids could begin in January.
Vaccine Hesitancy: McKinsey survey found individuals fall within three segments:
“Interested adopters”: 37% say they are willing to participate in a trial, receive a vaccine after an EUA (emergency use authorization), or after clinical trials are completed. These are consumers who have relatively firm personal conviction in their decision to get vaccinated and may well be “first in line” when a vaccine is available to them—assuming continued positive safety and efficacy evidence.
“Cautious adopters”: 45% want to wait until the vaccine has been on the market for between three and 12 months or until they feel confident in it. They are much more focused on the health implications of the vaccine (for example, side effects, ingredients, speed of the vaccine development process)—they want to know it is safe and they want to see that others are safe after receiving the vaccine. Importantly, they want to receive information from trusted sources, namely physicians.
“Unlikely adopters”: 18% say they are unlikely to receive the vaccine, regardless of timing. This segment could comprise people who are both disinterested in vaccination because they do not think they need it (for example, healthy young adults who may perceive low personal risks) or because they have developed negative sentiments about vaccination (for example, general distrust, beliefs about harmful effects).
Black Americans are Justifiably Wary of Vaccines: Michele Norris writes in the Washington Post: “Trust is earned. We all know that. But if a national vaccine campaign is to succeed, we must quickly figure out how to earn the confidence and cooperation of African Americans who are justifiably wary of a coronavirus vaccine. The world is at war with COVID-19, but a successful distribution of a vaccine in the United States will be won and lost on a battlefield with a long history of medical racism. Government-approved medical experiments from the past have undermined Black America’s trust in this moment. ‘Vaccine hesitancy’ from Black Americans is different from an ‘anti-vaxxer’ stance. It’s not that Black Americans don’t believe in vaccines. They don’t trust a public health system that has in too many cases engaged in grievous harm by experimenting on Black bodies without consent or ignoring the specific needs of Black people.”
STATE
Texas: TEA announced that the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test will still proceed as planned. But there will be no A-F ratings for schools this year because of COVID-19 disruptions.
Virginia: New Poll:
More than half of parents in the survey said their children are receiving online instruction only, a quarter are in a hybrid mode, 12% are receiving in-person instruction only and 3% are being homeschooled.
40% of parents are somewhat satisfied, 24% are very satisfied with the way their children’s school has been handling instruction during the fall semester, while the rest are not too satisfied (14%) or not at all satisfied (19%).
INTERNATIONAL
Ireland: University College Dublin’s school of education followed the lives of 4,000 children across 200 schools the findings released in a new report.
Most children reportedly spend only 10-30 minutes a day on remote learning at home
The most common barriers to remote learning, rated by parents, were children choosing not to do the work, children getting through the work faster than expected, and parents not being able to make time for children to do the work. Parents recounted experiences of working long hours themselves and struggling to get into a routine for home learning
Most children (71.5%) reported having more than two computers/laptops at home, with 16.8% having two and 10.1% having one computer/laptop.
66% of children stated that their parent or another adult at home read books to them “never” or “not much”. 21% were read to at home “some days” and 11.7% were read to at home every day
Wales: All secondary schools and colleges are moving to online learning.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Child Tax Credit: New research finds the Child Tax Credit promotes work.
Amazon Wants to Train 29 Million People to Work in the Cloud: Via the WSJ:
The company announced $700 million last year to reskill 100,000 of its own workers
"Amazon’s latest initiative is geared toward those who aren’t already employed at the company. The idea, it says, is to equip people with the education needed to work in cloud-computing at a number of employers seeking to fill high-tech positions. While some participants might find jobs at Amazon, it is more likely they would get hired at other companies, including many that use Amazon Web Services, the online retailer’s cloud division."
COVID Accelerated Disruption: A week ago Warner Bros announced they would stream all of their 2021 movies. Yesterday, Disney announced that it had 86.8 million Disney+ subscribers in just 13 months. They also announced a bunch of new content including:
10 Marvel series
10 Star Wars series
30 series or features under Disney Animation and Pixar
Eviction: CNBC story on the wave of evictions that could come if Congress doesn't pass a relief package. This map is pretty stunning:
Did the Paycheck Protection Program Shut Out Distressed Communities? New analysis from EIG:
RESOURCES
Webinar: On Monday 12/14 at 11am ET: Is It Time to Reopen Schools? Conversation with Janice K. Jackson, EdD, Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Public Schools; Emily Oster, Professor of Economics, Brown University; Andy Rotherham, Co-Founder & Partner, Bellwether Education Partners.
Early Childhood Wins: CAP takes a look at early childhood victories in the 2020 election cycle.
Girls in STEM: Great article discussing how Girls Who Code, AnitaB.org, and the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) are adjusting their strategies during remote learning.
Cyber Vulnerabilities in Schools: The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned this week that malicious hackers are targeting the nation’s K-12 classes that have moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic. More here.
Hamildolph: A Hamilton parody - An American Christmas Story