COVID-19 Policy Update #181
COVID-19 Policy Update
FRIDAY 1/15
TOP THREE
Tennessee: Governor Lee announced a special session legislation addressing K-12 student learning loss and the adverse effects on students’ proficiency in reading and math after extended time away from the classroom due to COVID-19. Among the proposals under consideration:
Require interventions for struggling students including after-school learning mini-camps, learning loss bridge camps and summer learning camps, beginning summer 2021
Create the Tennessee Accelerated Literacy and Learning Corps to provide ongoing tutoring for students throughout the entire school year
Establish a reading screener for parents and teachers to identify when students need help, well before third grade
Extend hold harmless provisions from the 2019-20 school year to the 2020-21 school year so that students, teachers, schools and districts do not face any negative consequences associated with student assessments
Provide parents and educators with assessment data including TCAP testing to provide an accurate picture of where Tennessee students are and what supports are needed to offset any learning loss
What Does a More Contagious Virus Mean for Schools? Via the NYT
"Based on detailed contact-tracing of about 20,000 people infected with the new variant — including nearly 3,000 children under 10 — the report showed that young children were about half as likely as adults to transmit the variant to others."
"That was true of the previous iteration of the virus, as well."“There was a lot of speculation at the beginning suggesting that children spread this variant more,” said Muge Cevik, an infectious disease expert at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and a scientific adviser to the British government. “That’s really not the case.”
“I still say exactly what many people have said for the past few months — that schools should be the last thing to close,” said Helen Jenkins, an infectious disease expert at Boston University. Keeping schools open carries some risk, but “I think it can be reduced substantially with all the mitigations in place.”
Learning Loss: Via The 74:
"Getting students to where they’d be academically if the pandemic hadn’t occurred could cost schools an average of $12,000 to $13,500 per student over the next five years, according to a new estimate from Education Resource Strategies."
"In the Ravenswood City School District, in California’s Bay Area, assessment data “suggests that our students may come out of the pandemic roughly a year behind where they typically would be,” said Lara Burenin, director of curriculum and instruction."
"The district has redirected 10 percent of its budget — about $45 million — toward additional academic support, and expects it will cost an extra $5,000 to $8,000 per pupil over the next five years to bring students back to grade level."
FEDERAL
NEC Director Deese: In making the case for the new stimulus package said, “We need to get the schools open, so that parents, and particularly women who are being disproportionately hurt in this economy, can get back to work.”
Transition: Additional White House staff announced today:
Shalanda Young, Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget
Jason Miller, Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget
Amy Chang, Policy Advisor on COVID
David Kessler, Chief Science Officer of COVID Response
Andy Slavitt, Senior Advisor to the COVID Response Coordinator
Vidur Sharma, Policy Advisor for Testing
Ben Wakana, Deputy Director of Strategic Communications & Engagement
B. Cameron Webb, Senior Policy Advisor for COVID-19 Equity
Dr. Eric Lander will be nominated as Director of the OSTP and serve as the Presidential Science Advisor.
Dr. Alondra Nelson will serve as OSTP Deputy Director for Science and Society
COVID-19 RESEARCH
CDC Models: Show the US reaching nearly half million deaths sometime in February. It's not just one model showing this, it's nearly all of them.
New Variant: CDC believes the new variant could become the dominant strain in March.
Why Our Minds Can't Make Sense of COVID-19's Enormous Death Toll: Worth revisiting this NatGeo article from September.
"In a 2014 study that looked at charitable giving, Slovic found that people’s concern for those in distress didn’t increase as the number of needy cases did. “Our feelings are very strong for one person in danger, but they don’t scale up very well,” he says. “If there are two people, you don’t feel twice as bad. Your attention gets divided, and you don’t have as strong an emotional connection.”
"Slovic suggests our brains evolved this way as a coping mechanism. Millions of years ago, humans weren’t even aware of distant people’s plagues, conflicts, or disasters, so we naturally focused on protecting ourselves, our families, and our small communities."
"Some brains have gotten used to hearing about COVID-19 deaths to the point where higher numbers no longer register emotionally."
"By contrast, the coronavirus is everywhere, and people don’t have a way to process their amorphous, long-haul grief. No single iconic photo that conveys the gravity of the pandemic has emerged and prompted mass indignation. Due to restrictions on social gatherings, many family members of victims cannot even attend funerals, let alone visit memorials that haven’t been built."
Trust in Vaccines Put at Risk by European Regulator Hack: Via Reuters. Why does this matter?
"Some of the correspondence has been manipulated by the perpetrators prior to publication in a way which could undermine trust in vaccines," said the European Medicines Agency
Vaccine FAQ: Helpful FAQ on COVID vaccines from NEJM.
Vaccine Hesitancy: New University of South Florida School of Public Affairs survey findings:
38% said that they “will definitely get vaccinated”
59% said they would either “definitely” or “probably get vaccinated
23% said they will “probably not” or “definitely not get vaccinated”
33% said that they are either “not very confident” or “not at all confident” that the recently approved vaccines are safe.
Only 21% of Americans have talked to their primary care doctor about whether a COVID-19 vaccine is appropriate for them.
The most commonly cited sources of information that respondents have used to learn about the COVID-19 vaccine include television news (57%); friends, family and coworkers (40%); and social media (32%).
Less than a third of respondents reported using government webpages such as the CDC (30%); a medical professional (28%); or medical webpages such as WebMD (25%) to learn about the COVID-19 vaccine.
STATE
Arizona:
ASU plans to offer COVID testing K-12 teachers and the Phoenix Union High School District began vaccinating teachers.
California:
New crowdsourced effort tracking vaccine availability at distribution sites.
Bay area doctors sign letter calling for California schools to reopen
"Following the lead of many European and Asian countries, we believe that California schools should be the first sector of our economy to reopen and the very last to close"
"As pediatricians, internists, infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists, emergency physicians, and other healthcare professionals, we believe these strategies need immediate support and implementation, so that all schools can reopen for in-person learning by February 1st or as soon as permitted by the state."
Florida: Some teachers are frustrated over lack of COVID-19 vaccination.
Georgia: Gov. Kemp said he would set aside $10 million to reimburse expenses parents & guardians of special needs children have incurred while providing a education to their children during COVID.
Missouri: A Columbia Public Schools (CPS) parent calls for formation of parent advisory committee to help with decision making
Virginia: VDE’s updated Interim Guidance to K-12 Reopening provides guidelines for schools to use to assess the risk of introduction and transmission of COVID-19.
Self Assessment of Implementation of Mitigation Strategies
Determine the Level of Community Transmission
Determine the Level of School Impact (if school has been open to in-person instruction)
Understanding Community Needs
Decide which groups to include for in-person learning and the timeline for phasing in additional groups
West Virginia: The American Federation of Teachers in West Virginia said it will seek an injunction against the WV Department of Education on reopening schools.
INTERNATIONAL
UK: Experts remain divided over merits of mass COVID tests in schools
"Mass testing relies on lateral flow tests, or LFTs, which contain antibodies that bind to the virus."
"The downside of LFTs is their performance. In a pilot trial in Liverpool, mass testing failed to spot more than half the people who were infected but had no symptoms. The tests missed nearly a third of asymptomatic people who had high viral loads and were at highest risk of spreading the disease."
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Retail Sales: Holiday season retail sales were up 8.3% in 2020 compared to 2019, according to the NRF. Forecasts had estimated an increase of between 3.6% and 5.2%.
City Leaders Lay Out a Roadmap for Building a Lifelong Learning System: Post from the Aspen Institute Future of Work Task Force.
2021 Rise of the Rest Playbook: How cities are supporting startups.
Breakthrough Innovation: Via AEI "What the pandemic should be teaching us about breakthrough innovation and the dangers of the ‘precautionary principle’"
LEARNING PODS
Serving Truant Students: Learning pods serve as last effort to save truancy students from the court system for missed school and work.
RESOURCES
Khan Tutoring Launch: Khan and Schoolhouse.world launch free online tutoring for students in Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
Kim Smith on Creating Schools, Companies and the Pahara Institute: Great interview over at Getting Smart.
How Many Schools Are Open? CRPE's latest report of a statistically representative sample of 477 school districts showed that
31% were operating fully in remote learning—a larger percentage than at any other point during the fall semester.
Less than half of districts mention the use of assessments to help tailor instruction and resources to student needs.
Less than a third of districts offer childcare or learning hubs for students while not in person.
Sea Shanty TikTok:
For all the Boomers not on TikTok, there's been a viral sensation over the last two weeks with this Sea Shanty song. Catchy, right?
It's sparked a bunch of others to sing it, like this one, this one, and this one with Kermit the Frog.
This being 2021, someone kicked it up a notch and turned All Star by Smash Mouth into a sea shanty.
The NYT has more
Soon may the Wellerman come, To bring us sugar and tea and rum