COVID-19 Policy Update #220
COVID-19 Policy Update
TUESDAY 3/16
TOP THREE
Early Data from Public Health Institute’s “Safely Opening Schools” Pilot Indicate Utility of Rapid COVID-19 Testing: Results here.
"SOS is an on-site, rapid COVID-19 screening pilot that began in January in 11 California school districts with more than 209 elementary schools and over 95,000 students."
"Data from the first eight districts where testing has started shows that out of the first 3256 tests conducted, there have been only 7 positive tests, a positive test rate of just 0.21 percent, or one in every 465 staff and students tested."
Order Blocking CA Reopening Efforts: A San Diego County judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking California from enforcing a wide swath of rules that limit and regulate school openings, saying that the state has denied children their right to an education by forcing many to stay in online learning.
"The state’s January framework prohibited middle and high schools from reopening while their county is in the most-restrictive purple tier. It also required schools that reopened to have at least 4 feet between students in classrooms."
"Parents argued the tier rule unfairly prevents schools from reopening at a time when many children are suffering from depression, learning loss and other harms they say are being worsened by school closures."
"Judge Freeland agreed with parents that the January framework was “selective in its applicability, vague in its terms, and arbitrary in its prescriptions."
The State will get a chance to defend its policies during a March 30th hearing.
Governors’ Education Priorities: Great new resource from NGA and ECS. In the 42 addresses delivered so far this year ECS and NGA identified six high-level trends related to education:
Funding (at least 32 Governors)
Remote Learning (at least 29 Governors)
Workforce Development (at least 24 Governors)
Reopening Schools (at least 22 Governors)
Student Achievement and Learning Loss (at least 21 Governors)
Physical and Mental Health (at least 18 Governors)
FEDERAL
White House: Gene Sperling to oversee $1.9 trillion stimulus. Great person for this role. Gene has worked on a wide variety of policy areas, including education.
Gene wrote an article in 2019 (which later became a book) that outlines how he thinks about policy. Useful place to start to understand how he'll think about policy outcomes from the stimulus packages.
Trivia fact: Gene was a consultant for the West Wing television show.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
AstraZeneca/Oxford:
The European Medicines Agency said that while a full review is ongoing, there is currently "no indication" that the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is responsible for the small number of blood clots reported in patients in Europe.
We are still firmly convinced that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19 with its associated risk of hospitalisation and death outweigh the risk of these side effects. At present there is no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions. They have not come up in the clinical trials and they are not listed as known or expected side effects." EMA chief Emer Cooke told an online press conference.
Good piece by Derek Lowe in Science Translational Medicine that helps to break down what we know and don't know.
And Stat News has this concern: "But experts are also now worried that the decisions by multiple countries to suspend the vaccine’s use could make it harder to convince people to receive it should the concerns turn out, as they expect, to be a false alarm." This CNBC segment raises the same concern.
Apple Maps: Updated with COVID-19 vaccine locations. Siri can also be queried.
Side Note: This is why it's so important for Governor's to make their vaccine site data available in an open format to help feed other services.
How Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Dashboard Came to Be: Interesting story from CNET.
State and Local Testing Strategies for Responding to Covid-19 Outbreaks in Communities: Considerations for Equitable Distribution: New guidance from the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy with support from The Rockefeller Foundation. States and localities must prioritize equity in their supply, personnel, and capacity in the following ways:
Use risk assessments, data, and qualitative information from communities to identify neighborhoods and communities of people who are at highest risk for infection, transmission, and consequences of transmission, including communities of color, areas of low income, and rural areas;
Strategically increase community-based testing at permanent diagnostic testing centers and through mobile, pop-up, and surge testing to address acute outbreaks;
Identify and allocate resources needed to expand testing to sites that serve communities and reduce social barriers to testing;
Remove barriers to testing, increasing trust and accessibility, and co-locating additional needed services;
Engage communities by listening to and understanding their specific testing barriers, and facilitating true coordination and collaboration around decision-making, planning and implementation of testing plans.
STATE
Alabama: STREAM Innovations is hosting Zoom "listening tours" with parents to help inform the design of summer activities and programming.
California: EdSource has a database of how much districts will receive under the ARP.
Mississippi: Governor Reeves made all adults 16 and older eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, making it the second state, behind Alaska, to do so.
Tennessee: A statewide COVID-19 Child Wellbeing Task Force bill was passed that aims to support the holistic needs of children and youth who have been impacted by COVID-19.
Wyoming: Sheridan County School District 2 approved a virtual learning pilot for high school students for next year.
INTERNATIONAL
UK: "Schools Covid catch-up programme not reaching disadvantaged pupils"
"National Audit Office says less than half on scheme are from low-income homes"
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
What Works Cities and Opportunity Insights: Is launch a sprint to help state policymakers learn how to use the Opportunity Atlas for economic mobility initiatives.
Here's an example of how Tulsa is using the tool.
Life Expectancy: Is falling for those without a BA degree, but as educational gaps have widened, racial gaps have narrowed. New study here.
RESOURCES
Academic Recovery: New CRPE report (and article in The 74):
"Our most recent review of 100 urban and large districts finds that a small number have reported details this winter about how they intend to diagnose and respond to students’ academic needs during the transition back to in-person classes."
"Some connect this to data from fall assessments. But we remain largely in the dark about what exactly students can expect to learn and what academic support they will receive for the rest of this challenging school year."
"23% of districts in our analysis have reported they are either providing guidance or professional development for teachers pertaining to remote learning and intervention for acceleration"
Only 10% of districts discuss amending curriculum this year.
"Just Reopen the Schools Now": Via Jonathan Chait:
"It is entirely possible that when we look back at the coronavirus pandemic decades from now, we may see the gravest catastrophe as a generation of schoolchildren whose formative years were irrevocably stunted."
"As the pandemic recedes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand why school closings continue to grind on. The answer at this point is simply to open up schools, everywhere, right away."
"Schools have remained shuttered not for any rational calculation but because they’re easy to close and difficult to open. Closing can be done with an order by a governor or public official. Opening requires negotiating a gamut of government guidelines, negotiation with often recalcitrant teachers unions, and persuading parents who have (in some cases) come to see in-person schooling as a serious risk."
"But that requirement, chosen hastily last year, turns out to be useless. The most important scientific advance is the recent conclusion that the guideline that students must maintain six feet of distance in schools has no value."
"Students “are learning more about their families and their cultures, spending more time with each other,” San Francisco school-board president Gabriela López suggested hopefully. “They’re just having different learning experiences than the ones we currently measure.”
"It would be ideal to vaccinate every teacher and equip every classroom with advanced filtration systems. But masks, three feet of space, and cracked windows (winter is over) will do well enough. Remote education has outlived any purpose it might have had. There is nothing left to do but end it."
Kumon In: The Recent, Rapid Rise of Private Tutoring Centers: New EdWorking Paper.
Education Lessons From the Pandemic: Via Thomas Toch and Lynn Olson
Schools Weigh Whether to Seat Students Closer Together: Via the AP.
"Kids Don’t Need to Keep Six Feet Apart in Schools. Three Feet is Just as Safe": OpEd from researchers in the Washington Post.
"Previously available data on the “right” distance was based on out-of-date research, rather than real-world evidence on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools."
"We examined the 16-week period after schools reopened this fall across Massachusetts, where there is a universal masking mandate, among various other mitigation requirements, including hand-hygiene programs, symptom screens, stay-home-when sick policies and opening windows."
"Our statewide study found that case rates were similar among students and staff in both types of districts; the extra three feet made no difference in terms of reported cases of viral infections."
How to Expand Home Internet Connectivity for K-12 Students Over the Long Haul: Via EdWeek, an interview with Palm Beach's tech director.
"The district’s tech team used geographic information system (GIS) mapping to guide its planning for the project, and then partnered with mayors and local government officials and workers to carry out the massive broadband expansion effort which has been underway for months. The county is spending $16 million from last year’s allotment of CARES Act stimulus funds to fuel the effort, which aims to get 50,000 students connected at home by this May."
"This "heat map" generated by GIS technology uses progressively darker colors to illustrate the areas of Palm Beach County with the highest concentrations of families who lack home internet access."
‘Big Burden’ for Schools Trying to Give Kids Internet Access: Via AP
As America's Schools Reopen, Here's How to Rebuild Trust Among Parents, Educators: Oped from Rick Hess and Pedro Noguera
"Trust must be earned; it can’t be imposed. Not all families or staff feel comfortable returning in-person this spring. Mandates based on “the science” won’t make the distrust go away. Like it or not, different individuals and communities may view the same facts differently."
"Schools will need to devise extensive tutoring strategies — employing both digital resources and local recruits — and high quality summer learning opportunities to help students thrive."
"If we focus less on sweeping declarations and more on practical solutions, we may find that the particulars and the politics aren’t as intractable as they can seem"
Two Upcoming Events:
A transformative schools package or business as usual? Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 2 pm ET
Hosted by Bellwether Education Partners. The discussion will feature former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen and former state chiefs Deb Gist, Lillian Lowery, and Ken Wagner who collectively had led SEAs. What are the opportunities and risks with the new stimulus? What would these leaders do differently if they had the 2009 ARRA experience to do over again? And how can we ensure these dollars meet the moment in our sprawling and decentralized system?
CAA Foundation Town Hall. Thursday. March 18 12:00pm PST:
Will feature U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona; Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; Former U.S. Secretary of Education and Education Trust CEO Dr. John B. King, Jr.; DonorsChoose Founder and CEO Charles Best, Communities in Schools CEO Rey Saldaña; Former Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools Kaya Henderson; Chiefs for Change Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Julia Rafal-Baer; Save the Children’s Mark Shriver and Ambassador and Actress Jennifer Garner
Yo-Yo Ma: After receiving his vaccination, he performed for people waiting to receive theirs. Video here (click on the third frame for the video)