COVID-19 Policy Update #261
COVID-19 Policy Update
MONDAY 5/24
TOP THREE
Tennessee: The TNDOE released their spending plan for $4.2 billion in federal funding.
$120.7M for the Tennessee Literacy Success Act and Reading 360
$170.5M for the Tennessee Learning Loss and Student Acceleration Act including the statewide TN ALL Corps tutoring initiative as well as summer learning camps and bridge camps
$35M to support the statewide 2022-23 math textbook adoption process
$32M for teaching and learning online resources and improvements for school districts
$32.6M for Innovative High Schools and Advanced Courses
$17.8M for mental health supports
$56.5M for K-12 open-source readiness coursework and statewide professional development
$21M in programs to support the educator pipeline, including the department’s, Grow Your Own program
COVID-19 School Closures: Long-run Macroeconomic Effects: Via U. of Penn
"Students currently in grades K-5 from disadvantaged backgrounds will have on average 10.9 percent lower labor income in 2050 than was expected before the closures, while those in grades 6-12 from disadvantaged backgrounds will have 8.2 percent less labor income."
"Economically disadvantaged students’ losses are higher than those of non-disadvantaged students, due to less exposure to in-person schooling—a student currently in grades K-5 not from a disadvantaged background will have 10.7 percent less labor income in 2050."
Accelerate, Don't Remediate: New TNTP study using data from Zearn Math. Findings include:
Students who experienced learning acceleration struggled less and learned more than students who started at the same level but experienced remediation instead.
Students of color and those from low-income backgrounds were more likely than their white, wealthier peers to experience remediation—even when they had already demonstrated success on grade-level content.
Learning acceleration was particularly effective for students of color and those from low-income families.
"If they are coached on missing skills required, students complete 27 percent more grade-level work than if teachers try to back up and fit in unfinished material from prior years, the researchers found."
FEDERAL
ED: Sec. Cardona on masks: “I’m going to lean on the updated CDC guidance, and right now it said we should be wearing protective gear and for the staff."
COVID-19 RESEARCH
CDC Investigation Possible Condition With Young Adults/Adolescents and the Vaccine: A CDC advisory panel is investigating a few reports of heart inflammation in young adults following their vaccinations.
COVID-19 Testing Enables In-Person Instruction and Extracurricular Activities in High School: A CDC study found Utah’s Test-to-Play program allowed high schools to hold 95% of their scheduled winter sports competitions.
"Modeled on the extracurriculars testing but focused on who gets to attend in-person classes during the regular school day, helped prevent nearly 110,000 student-days of lost in-person instruction due to pandemic quarantines or closures."
Parent Hesitancy: Faced with anti-vaccination parents, teens are helping one another get the vaccine.
50% of States Have Vaccinated 50% of Their Adults: Via CNN:
Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Distributional Impacts of Retail Vaccine Availability: NBER paper:
"We show that using retail pharmacies as vaccination sites, as has been done in the U.S., disburses vaccines such that the vast majority of Americans are within 5 miles of a vaccine site."
"We show that using Dollar General stores as vaccination sites would offer considerable proximity benefits, particularly for low-income households, Black Americans, and Hispanic Americans in several regions of the continental U.S."
"Adding DG to the federal program plus state sites would improve the share of low-income households within a mile of a vaccine site by more than 14 percentage points in all of the states with initially low proximity except Maine"
2021 State Mandated School Mask Policies: Useful map from Burbio:
STATE
Mississippi: Can new funds transform Mississippi’s digital desert into a broadband mecca?
New Jersey: AFT President commends Newark Public Schools Reopening Strategy
New York: NYC will eliminate remote learning for the fall.
Oklahoma: How rural school counselors confront life in a "Mental Health Desert"
"Oklahoma students are some of the most traumatized in the nation, according to several national health rankings including a recent survey conducted by a group based at Johns Hopkins University"
"Fifth through 12th grade students at all six districts completed mental health assessments, which helps educators identify students who are distracted, unhappy, scared, lonely or are prone to acting out."
INTERNATIONAL
Reopened Schools: Via the Telegraph: How other countries have handled coronavirus surges and kept classrooms open
Canada: Fort McMurray’s Catholic and public school divisions will continue offering online learning next year, after school leaders in both boards declared their programs a success.
UK Advisor: "Schools do not fuel the spread of coronavirus despite a spike in the Indian variant, said Prof Russell Viner, an expert in adolescent health at University College London and Sage Government adviser." More data here.
RESOURCES
What’s Safe for Kids Now? Via Emily Oster in the Atlantic: Parents need to hear from the CDC.
"The general questions parents need answered are: Should we apply CDC guidance, presumably intended for unvaccinated adults, to our unvaccinated children? Or do children belong in a different category? And what about very young children who cannot or will not wear masks? Can they participate in society, or must we keep them locked inside?"
"Here’s one specific question: If you see your extended family this summer, and all the adults are vaccinated but the kids are not, do the kids need to mask the whole time? And here’s another, very basic: Can an 18-month-old go to a playground, given that health authorities do not recommend wearing a mask at such a young age?"
"The CDC should shift to child-centric advice, and it should help parents understand the risk of COVID-19 to children by comparing it to other, more familiar dangers. For example, how should parents think about the current situation relative to going out with their child during a typical flu season?"
Broadband Federal Funding Programs: New resource from NGA - most comprehensive listing I've seen yet.
New Battle Over Kids' Screen Time: Via Axios
Also - kids who have a lot of screen time when they are younger are less likely to read print books later, according to new research.
Health Firms Get Into School Reopening Business: Via Axios
"Education nonprofits like the Rockefeller Foundation and Chiefs for Change have each launched initiatives to help schools find information about COVID-19 health tech and surveillance companies."
If Only There Were a Viral Video of Our Jim Crow Education System: The NYT is running a series this week on George Floyd and America, a year after his death. This essay is from Nicholas Kristof.