COVID-19 Policy Update #198
COVID-19 Policy Update
THURSDAY 2/11
TOP THREE
Fauci: Vaccines for kids as young as first graders could be authorized by September
Biden’s Goal to Reopen Schools Meets High-Stakes Political Test: Via Washington Post,
“I think unions are a very powerful constituency for Biden, and I think that there’s a desire to listen to and coordinate on messaging on reopening schools,” said Sasha Pudelski, advocacy director for AASA, the School Superintendents Association. As for Biden’s 100-day pledge, she said: “He’s definitely had to walk it back a little bit.”
"Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, who is close to the president, said he believes the Biden team is feeling discomfort over pushing teachers to go back into buildings. Challenging an ally, he said, is always difficult. “I think there’s always angst when you do it the first time,” Rendell said. “But it gets easier.”
"He added that it’s important for Biden to show some independence from even key constituencies. “Tell your friends: ‘Look, I’ll listen to you. I’ll try to abate your concerns. But once I’ve done all that, I’m going to go forward,’ ” Rendell said. “You’ve got to tell your friends that — or else you shouldn’t run for office in the first place.”
"But the CDC guidelines will not be significantly different from the bottom-line message delivered by the agency under the Trump administration, a person familiar with the planning said."
“President Biden knows in his bones that children start dropping out of college in third grade,” said Rahm Emanuel, who clashed with the Chicago Teachers Union when he was mayor. “If they are not in school, the rest of their lives are fundamentally altered.”
175 Pediatric Disease Experts: It’s Safe to Open Elementary Schools Now: NYT Survey:
“There is no situation in which schools can’t be open unless they have evidence of in-school transmission,” said Dr. David Rosen, an assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Washington University in St. Louis."
"The mental health crisis caused by school closing will be a worse pandemic than Covid,” said Dr. Uzma Hasan, division chief of pediatric infectious diseases at RWJBarnabas Health in New Jersey."
"About 85 percent of those in communities where schools were open full time said their district had made the right call, while just one-third of those in places where schools were still closed said that had been the right choice."
"With universal masking, “school transmissions will remain close to zero and cohorts are unnecessary,” said Dr. Jeanne Ann Noble, an emergency medicine doctor and the director of Covid response at the University of California, San Francisco."
FEDERAL
White House: Press Secretary Jen Psaki on schools in today's briefing:
"The President wants schools to open safely and in accord with science, and we are going to listen to science and medical experts. The CDC guidelines, we expect them to come out tomorrow. And we are eager to hear more about the clear, science-based guidelines for opening schools and how we can do that safely and how we can keep them open. The President will not rest until every school is open five days a week. That is our goal."
"So I can assure any parent listening that his objective, his commitment is to ensuring schools are open five days a week."
"Q You know, we’re expecting these new guidelines tomorrow, but we know that a majority of schools are open in some form already, even if it’s just for a day or two. So is the President or the White House concerned that some of those schools right now are open but not safe?"
"MS. PSAKI: Well, one of the challenges we have is that the data is not great, as it relates to schools that are open or not open, how hybrid learning is impacting kids."
"One of the things the President asked the Department of Education to do is to do a survey and get a better assessment of what that data looks like and how the learning of the last year has impacted kids."
CDC: To Issue New COVID-19 Guidelines for Schools on Friday.
My guess: It will look very similar to previous guidance: wear masks, socially distance students, improve ventilation, and stick with a strict hygiene regimen. They may upgrade the mask requirements (). Vaccines for teachers will be encouraged but not required. The wild card is where they'll fall with COVID testing. The other wildcard that a lot of Governors are watching is if the CDC will change their Sept. guidance on the thresholds of community spread and what it triggers for school openings. This came way too late last time (Sept 15?!?!? after schools already opened?) but changing it up now would create its own set of chaos with Governors, State Chiefs, and Superintendents.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine: WHO says it can be given to adults of all ages.
Lancet Commission on Public Policy and Health in the Trump Era: Released their report finding:
"About 40% of the country's COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented if the US' average death rate matched other industrialized nations."
"Public health measures such as mask wearing and physical distancing could have saved lives, Woolhandler said, but Trump failed to create a national response, instead leaving crucial decisions to states. His actions "caused a lot of citizens to fail to take it seriously and interfered with the kind of coordinated response they have been able to use in a lot of countries that are more successful than the U.S. in controlling the epidemic."
More from USA Today and another Lancet essay.
J&J CEO: Annual COVID-19 vaccine shots may be necessary for a few years.
Solving the COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Crisis: The Role of Behavioral Health Providers: Blog post. Study.
Vaccine Distribution: Pharmacy retailers are aggressively courting pharmacists with five-figure bonuses and signing up students and staffers for training programs to ramp up COVID-19 vaccination efforts as the federal government makes more vaccines available. CVS added 15,000 employees starting last fall and is still recruiting, and Walgreens is working toward hiring 9,000 pharmacists and support staff.
Vaccine Wealth Gaps: Via Stat. COVID-19 vaccination rates follow the money in states with the biggest wealth gaps.
STATE
Georgia: Hidden Heroes: Bibb Schools' IT support keeps everyone connected during remote learning:
20 person tech team have more than 20,000 students, up to 4,000 staff and more than 30,000 devices they have to keep connected.
New Jersey: Paterson schools extends all-remote instruction until May
Ohio: Washington Local Schools offers 6-week summer camp to address learning gaps
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
The Biden Team Wants to Transform the Economy. Really: Good must read piece to understand the Biden Econ Team.
Four Priorities To Watch From President Biden’s $750 Billion College Proposal: Alison Griffin recapping a call with Carmel Martin, deputy director for economic mobility on the White House Domestic Policy Council
(Free) Community Colleges
Federal Student Financial Aid
Job Training Programs & Credentials
Restrictions on For-Profit Education
A Mighty Mouse: The Disney+ streaming service reached 94.9 million subscribers as of Jan. 2, up from 86.8 million in early December. Including Hulu and ESPN+, Disney’s paid streaming membership topped 146 million.
Anatomy of a Flop: Why Trump's US-China Phase One Trade Deal Fell Short: Good analysis from the Peterson Institute.
Neighborhood Investment Trusts: A promising wealth-building models for residents in revitalizing communities.
In 2017, the Portland-based Community Investment Trust (CIT) purchased a $1.2 million strip mall and sold shares to residents with low incomes in increments of $10 to $100. Shares were sold to 140 families, each of whom have received an average dividend of 9.3%. Of these families, the majority are people of color, more than half are immigrants, 53% are renters, and 68% are first-time investors. Additionally, 65% report being more civically engaged, and 33% have an improved credit score, and 95% re-subscribe to the CIT annually.
Working-age Americans Dying at Higher Rates: Especially in economically hard-hit states. A new VCU study identifies “a distinctly American phenomenon” as mortality among 25 to 64 year-olds increases and U.S. life expectancy continues to fall.
LEARNING PODS
It Takes a Village: The Pandemic Learning Pod Movement, One Year In: New must read report from CRPE
"The vast majority of the nearly 330 learning pods in our database are not managed by school systems. Nearly half—44 percent—are coordinated or operated by nonprofit organizations, about 17 percent by for-profit businesses, 7 percent by faith-based organizations, and 10 percent by cities or counties."
Children of essential workers and students from low-income households are most commonly prioritized by learning pods
RESOURCES
Rhode Island Kept Its Schools Open. This Is What Happened: Long piece at the NYT:
"Raimondo, who has two children in private school, has said that she sees school openings as a matter of equity."
"When Rhode Island’s school-opening plan had fully rolled out by late September, only one public-school district, Pawtucket, was primarily remote."
"To those of you who are throwing in the towel on our kids and going virtual,” she said, “I think it’s a shame. I really do. You’re letting the children down, and I don’t see any reason for it.” Raimondo cited widespread reports about the mental health of students who were remote learners — the apparent increases in suicidal ideation, the upticks in visits to pediatric emergency rooms, the widespread feelings of isolation. Then her face went from pained to pointed. “To the superintendents out there who’ve just decided to go virtual — I want you to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if you can try a little harder,” she said. “Because I think the kids deserve better.”
"The state started working on ventilation in June, consulting with experts who assured the health department that, at least as long as it was warm enough, a box fan and an open window would suffice for many classrooms in older schools that did not have modern ventilation systems. Eventually, the state used its collective purchasing power to order thousands of filtration systems that had suddenly become scarce
Biden's 100-day Plan to Reopen Schools Meets With a Messy Reality: CNN
Will Biden Follow the Science or the Teachers Unions?: OpEd by Marc Thiessen
President Biden Is Keeping Schools Closed: OpEd by Rory Cooper
Have Teachers Unions Finally Overplayed Their Hand? Jason Riley in WSJ
What Does COVID-19 Learning Loss Actually Mean?: EdWeek
Will There Be Standardized Tests This Year? 8 Questions Answered: EdWeek
To Bridge the Digital Divide, Cities Tap Their Own Infrastructure: Bloomberg
"One approach that’s gained traction is for local communities to play a direct role in providing internet service — in many cases by building their own or relying on their own infrastructure."
"As of 2020, 22 states have laws that deter or even prohibit local governments and communities from establishing their own networks."
"San Antonio, Texas, where more than 38% of households lack in-home internet access, also relied on pre-existing infrastructure. The municipally owned utility had years ago built an extensive network of fiber-optic cables that delivered internet to government buildings and community centers like schools and libraries, and when those centers closed — leaving underserved students in the lurch — the city decided to use $27 million in CARES Act funds to expand that network to the homes of some 20,000 students across the city’s 50 most vulnerable neighborhoods."
"One such initiative is the Every1online program in the Pittsburgh metro area, a 12-month pilot project aiming to connect at least 450 families and low-income school children to high-quality internet, for free. Spearheaded by the nonprofit internet provider Meta Mesh Wireless Communities, with partners like Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, the program uses antennas mounted on top of tall structures to beam internet signals to the homes of residents in Homewood — one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods — and of low-income school children in the nearby New Kensington and Coraopolis school districts."
Overview Of Survey Results On Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Efforts: NGA report.
Trump Was Sicker Than Acknowledged With COVID-19: VIa NYT “His prognosis became so worrisome before he was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that officials believed he would need to be put on a ventilator.”
To Move from Pandemic to Progress, the U.S. Should Establish an Institute for Education Improvement: Allison Crean Davis over at The 74.
"As a center of gravity for continuous improvement, an Institute for Education Improvement, modeled after the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, could facilitate collaboration among researchers and practitioners, drive improvement efforts around vexing (but solvable) educational challenges and ground its work in the science of improvement."
"If the U.S. education sector is to dramatically improve outcomes for students, it needs large-scale, consistent and sustained organizational support for continuous improvement."
Side Note: Really interesting idea and one that ties into IES's recent suggestion of a DARPA for Ed and EM Math.
Launching Reach Capital III, $165M Early Stage Education Technology Fund: Announcement
Vanderbilt Launches "Project on Unity & American Democracy": The project — co-chaired by historian Jon Meacham, former GOP governor Bill Haslam and former Obama White House fellow Samar Ali — will conduct case studies, host conversations, and engage with business leaders, faith leaders, and urban and rural voices to elevate reason in an age of passion.
Virtual Learning Is Not Child’s Play for K–12 Students: Good piece by Anthony Carnevale:
"Students’ access to computers and the internet is associated with their household income. In late fall, most households with incomes over $200,000 reported that computers (92%) and the internet (90%) were always available to children for educational purposes. By contrast, among households with incomes below $25,000, over half reported that computers (61%) and the internet (55%) were always available."
"In the late fall, 21% of households with incomes under $25,000 reported that their children had no live contact with teachers within the previous seven days, compared to 11% of households with incomes over $200,000. Comparatively, 66% of households with incomes over $200,000 reported that their children had four or more days of live contact with teachers within the prior week, compared to 51% of households with incomes under $25,000"
Will Shift to Online Classes Speed Progress Toward Student-Centered Learning?: More must read from Thomas Arnett
Outschool CEO on How to Engage Half a Million Virtual Learners: Rick Hess interviews Amir Nathoo.
Toddler Trying to Find Her Chair: Is a metaphor for how I feel with writing. Takes longer than it should. But feels good when you get there.