COVID-19 Policy Update #224
COVID-19 Policy Update
MONDAY 3/22
I seem to have caught a bug of some sort and am feeling a bit under the weather. So tonight's update will be somewhat shorter than usual and pairs well with Hot Honey, Lemon & Ginger.
TOP THREE
Homeschooling Surge: Census report estimating there was a doubling of U.S. households that were homeschooling at the start of the 2020-2021 school year compared to the prior year.
"In households where respondents identified as Black or African American, the proportion of homeschooling increased by five times, from 3.3% (April 23-May 5) to 16.1% in the fall (Sept. 30-Oct. 12)."
AstraZeneca:
Was found to be 79% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID — and 100% effective against severe disease and hospitalization — in Phase III U.S. trial results.
A poll has revealed that confidence in AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine is falling sharply in many European countries.
COVID Testing in Schools: Great long piece by Erin Richards at USA Today.
Schools already testing students and staff for coronavirus say it's crucial to in-person class: It's worth it
“I’m not saying we should give up any of the other (in-school safety) protocols, but the antigen testing gives us an immediate response,” Mendiola said in a recent webinar."
"The San Antonio Independent School District conducts both PCR and rapid tests. Since January, the district has offered weekly PCR tests for asymptomatic staff working in-person. About 70% participate. A local nonprofit health organization, Community Labs, oversees the self-administered screenings."
"On-campus transmission has been negligible.. At the end of February the positivity rate in the schools was .8%, she added."
FEDERAL
Infrastructure Package:
Multiple outlets are reporting that President Biden is considering a $3 trillion infrastructure package.
The package is expected to have two parts: Infrastructure & clean energy and "Care economy" (Pre-k; childcare funding, free community college). Among the items are:
$400 billion in spending to combat climate change, including $60 billion for infrastructure related to green transit and $46 billion for climate-related research and development.
$200 billion for housing infrastructure, including $100 billion to expand the supply of affordable housing.
$100 billion for schools and education infrastructure.
ED: National Reopening Schools Summit. Registration page is live for the March 24 event.
IES: Compete to win the XPRIZE Digital Learning Challenge
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Teacher Vaccinations: NEA reports that half of their members got at least one COVID-19 shot.
DoorDash: Will provide on-demand delivery of at-home COVID test collection kits
STATE
California: CDPH updates school guidance to have desks 3 ft. apart
Connecticut: State creates education task force to help with pandemic-caused learning loss
Georgia: 60 Mins segment on Marietta City Schools
Massachusetts: President of MA. Teachers Association urges the state to delay return to in-person learning, questions CDC changes.
New York: Yang lays blame on teachers union for sluggish pace of school reopenings
Washington: Schools unlikely to switch plans despite new CDC recommendations
INTERNATIONAL
Italy: Parents and children protest against COVID school closures
LEARNING PODS
Cleveland Educators Share The Unexpected Benefits of Learning Pods: Learning pods helped Cleveland's schools adapt to COVID-19. But they could be a path toward a better education future.
RESOURCES
Our Kids Are Not Broken: Ron Berger at The Atlantic:
"If districts focus too much on remediating “learning loss”—holding kids back a grade, categorizing students according to their deficits, and centering lesson plans on catch-up work—the students who have experienced the most trauma and disconnection during the pandemic may be assigned to the lowest level and most stigmatized groups. They will be viewed as deficient, and the inequities in place before and during the pandemic will be further amplified. Children, having been told that they are behind, will internalize the story of their loss."
Some Schools Have Been Open for Months. Here’s What They Learned: Via WSJ:
"Researchers have found that schools implementing measures like Montgomery’s—with mask mandates, physical distancing and increased ventilation—have lower Covid-19 transmission than in the wider community."
"The district also obtained carbon-dioxide monitors to gauge how well-ventilated a given room is, something aerosol scientists have recommended schools do if possible. People exhale carbon dioxide when they breathe, and if a room isn’t well ventilated, it will build up in the air, a signal that the space may require more ventilation. School employees go to classrooms every month to sample the carbon-dioxide levels to make sure they aren’t above 700 parts per million. If they are, the school might consider opening more windows in the classroom or upgrading the HVAC system."
The Missing Students of the Pandemic: Good long piece piece via the Washington Post:
"It had been a year since the pandemic closed Indio High School and its 2,100 students began to disappear, first from the hallways and then from virtual classes as attendance dropped from 94 percent down to as low as 70 percent."
A Year After COVID Shut Schools: Students and teachers share what shook them — and what strengthened them. Great long piece over at USA Today.
Schools Squandered Virtual Learning: Reflections from Michael Horn.
Putting Students Behind Plexiglass Isn’t Making Them Any Safer: Via David Zweig
"“My interpretation of the worldwide body of evidence is that barriers are not necessary,” said Westyn Branch-Elliman, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and an infectiousness specialist at the VA. Branch-Elliman is a co-author of the recent schools study that found six feet of distance didn’t provide a greater safety benefit than three feet, though, she noted, the study did not specifically address barriers."
"One study currently in preprint, however, has found that desktop shields are in fact associated with an increased risk of infection, likely because of “saturation effects,” as they are typically employed with other measures."
Our Next National Priority Should be to Reopen All America's Schools for Full Time In-Person Learning: OpEd from a group of epidemiologists and doctors.
"To put the mortality risk in perspective, in California, there were 14 deaths among children ages 5-17 from COVID-19 in 2020, lower than the number of children who die of influenza in a typical year. COVID-19 also poses a much lower risk of death than suicides in youth: There have been 213 deaths among 5-17 year olds in the U.S. from COVID-19 in the past 12 months; in 2018, there were nearly three times as many deaths by suicide — 596 deaths — in the smaller cohort of children between the ages of 10 and 14. This suggests that suicide and mental health disorders continue to remain a much larger threat to children’s health than either COVID-19 or influenza."
Fagradalsfjall Volcano: This drone footage is incredible.