TOP THREE
NEA President Predicts COVID Vaccine Requirement Coming For Students: During a Madison visit, Becky Pringle said:
“We’ve always supported vaccinating students and educators, all of those folks in the school community, because we know the more people who are vaccinated, the safer that community is... That’s where we’re going. I know that’s where we’re going. Eventually we’ll get there, but we need to remember that this is not new. Requiring vaccinations goes back.”
Vaccine for Children:
CDC Director Walensky, during a Today Show town hall with Secretary Cardona, said the timeline for approval was "by end of the year."
Also backed mandating the vaccines for students: "I do support their effort. Those are local decisions, but I do believe, yes, if we're seeing that the vaccines work and they're our best tool, they should (be mandated)."
But...Pfzier's CFO laid out this timeline - which includes for the first time, younger children:
Results in children 5-11 by end of Sept, filing for EUA early Oct
Filing for EUA for kids 6 months - 5 years about a month later, early Nov
Fauci says "fall."
Overall Poverty Fell In 2020 Due to Relief Package: “U.S. poverty fell overall in 2020, a surprising decline that is largely a result of the swift and large federal aid that Congress enacted at the start of the pandemic to try to prevent widespread financial hardship as the nation experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” the Washington Post reports.
“The U.S. Census reported that the official poverty rate rose slightly in 2020 to 11.4 percent, up from a record low 10.5 percent in 2019, but that figure leaves out much of the government aid. After accounting for all the federal relief payments, the so-called supplemental poverty measure declined to 9.1 percent in 2020 — the lowest on record and a significant decline from 11.8 percent in 2019.”
Powerful chart shows the declines in every category.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Vaccine Mandates:
Axios-Ipsos poll: 60% of voters back vaccine mandates
“Republicans’ sweeping denunciations of President Biden’s plan to force more people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus are raising concerns among public health experts that this heated criticism could help fuel a broader rejection of other vaccine requirements, including those put in place by schools and the military, as the issue of inoculations becomes increasingly political,” the Washington Post reports.
U.S. judge blocks N.Y. vaccine mandate for healthcare workers
White House encouraging state, local COVID-19 vaccine mandates
Will Biden’s Vaccine Mandates Hold Up? asks William Galston and offers the most concise take of the issue:
"In other words, President Biden’s proposal raises a real controversy. But it isn’t a moral controversy: Liberty is limited when the exercise of my liberty affects others."
"Nor is it a constitutional controversy, because the American system divides authority to promote health and safety between the states’ police powers and the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce."
"The controversy is over the interpretation of a federal law whose constitutionality is unchallenged. The courts will determine the proper application. Everything else is political theater."
Our Most Reliable Pandemic Number Is Losing Meaning: David Zweig in The Atlantic: A new study suggests that almost half of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases.
"Doctors in California read through several hundred charts of pediatric patients, one by one, to figure out why, exactly, each COVID-positive child had been admitted to the hospital. Did they need treatment for COVID, or was there some other reason for admission, like cancer treatment or a psychiatric episode, and the COVID diagnosis was merely incidental?"
"According to the researchers, 40 to 45 percent of the hospitalizations that they examined were for patients in the latter group."
Another paper "analyzed the electronic records for nearly 50,000 COVID hospital admissions at the more than 100 VA hospitals across the country. Then they checked to see whether each patient required supplemental oxygen or had a blood oxygen level below 94 percent. (The latter criterion is based on the National Institutes of Health definition of “severe COVID.”) If either of these conditions was met, the authors classified that patient as having moderate to severe disease; otherwise, the case was considered mild or asymptomatic."
"The study found that from March 2020 through early January 2021—before vaccination was widespread, and before the Delta variant had arrived—the proportion of patients with mild or asymptomatic disease was 36 percent. From mid-January through the end of June 2021, however, that number rose to 48 percent. In other words, the study suggests that roughly half of all the hospitalized patients showing up on COVID-data dashboards in 2021 may have been admitted for another reason entirely, or had only a mild presentation of disease."
Covid-19 Cases in Children Are at an All-Time High: Reports the Economist
Lawmakers Rethink Mask Policies as More Kids Quarantine: Via Pew
STATE
Arizona: A for Arizona announces microgrant awardees
California: "Understanding L.A. Unified’s groundbreaking student vaccine mandate."
Florida: DeSantis announces bill to eliminate Florida Standards Assessment Testing
"DeSantis said he wants to replace the current testing with what he called “progress monitoring," which he said will be short, individualized check-in assessments in fall, winter and spring that will take hours and not days to administer."
Illinois: Some parents call CPS reopening ‘chaotic,’ demand a remote learning option for everyone
Missouri: Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) results:
45% of students are proficient or advanced in English, 35% in math and 37% in science.
Compared to results from the 2018-19 school year, that represents a drop of four points in English, seven points in math and five points in science.
New York: Students in NYC return to classrooms as health screening site crashes.
Pennsylvania: Cases are 10 times higher than they were last year
"Between Sept. 2 and Sept. 8, nearly 5,400 Pennsylvania children between ages 5 and 18 were positive, compared to 574 children who were infected during the same week in 2020."
Rhode Island: ILO Group secured a state contract of $5 million to help guide Rhode Island’s back-to-school policies.
INTERNATIONAL
Italy and Greece: Schools reopen (with mask requirements).
UK: The head teachers have been "threatened with legal action if they take an active part in the Covid-vaccination programme." "
Health workers - and not school staff - will vaccinate 12- to 15-year-olds."
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
RVs: Not related to education, but a curious stat: RV sales are expected to grow 34% this year, per the RV Industry Association.
New Evidence on Redlining by Federal Housing Programs in the 1930s: NBER paper (also here at the Urban Institute)
"These boundaries largely determine which schools students will attend, and in many parts of the country they're reinforcing segregation and inequality, despite years of strides."
Talent Shortages are the Biggest Barrier to Emerging Technologies Adoption: Gartner Survey
"IT executives see the talent shortage as the most significant adoption barrier to 64% of emerging technologies, compared with just 4% in 2020"
RESOURCES
Nation Could Really Use A Few Days Where It Isn’t Gripped By Something: Reports The Onion
Most Schools Do Not Yet Meet Biden’s Demand for Testing and Vaccines: Via NYT
More on the Top 100 Districts: I mentioned the article/report yesterday but neglected to include the database which is worth your time.
What Are Microschools? 5 questions answered
New Head of Robin Hood: Congrats Richard Buery
Did We Miscalculate the Risk of COVID for Kids?: Via The 74
An Inside Look at the Spy Tech That Followed Kids Home for Remote Learning: Via The 74
"Through artificial intelligence and a team of content moderators, Gaggle tracks the online behaviors of millions of students across the U.S. every day."
"The data, gleaned from those 1,300 incident reports in the first six months of the crisis, highlight how Gaggle’s team of content moderators subject children to relentless digital surveillance long after classes end for the day, including on weekends, holidays, late at night and over the summer. In fact, only about a quarter of incidents were reported to district officials on school days between 8 a.m and 4 p.m., bringing into sharp relief how the service extends schools’ authority far beyond their traditional powers to regulate student speech and behavior, including at home."
Our Homeschooling Odyssey: Reflections from economist Bryan Caplan.
The Other Back to School Story: More from Manno
"But another story is being shortchanged: it’s about how parents sought new options for their children like homeschooling, small learning pods, and micro-schools, with civic entrepreneurs and their partners creating new organizations or expanding existing ones to meet this demand."
First, many parents don’t want “the old normal.” Two of three parents (66 percent) would rethink “how we educate students, coming up with new ways to teach.” Only one-third believe that schools “should get back to the way things were.” More than half (53 percent) support pods, with black and Hispanic parents (60 percent) more supportive than white parents (53 percent). Overall, only 14 percent oppose them."
"Second, parents want K-12 system transparency. Parents are scrutinizing how K-12 federal pandemic dollars totaling nearly $190 billion will be used, holding states and districts accountable."
"Third, online learning and technology innovation will continue."
"Our best hope is that the Covid-19 experience propels us toward a new era in educational excellence – one in which families more directly control their children’s education and one which positions American kids for opportunity and success."
How To Invest Our School-funding Windfall: Shael Polakow-Suransky "New York has a historic opportunity it must not miss"
"As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, a portion of these dollars are needed to help schools address the immediate academic and mental health needs of children. But this once-in-a-generation infusion of funding is also a rare opportunity to think long-term about investments that can help us solve some of the deep inequities within our school system."
"This summer, The Learning Policy Institute and Turnaround for Children released a powerful report that translates the latest research from the fields of developmental and learning science into practical advice for schools about how to rethink what they do to create the optimal environment for learning."
"It’s clear that building a quality child-care system accessible to all infants and toddlers is the most potent investment we can make to support long-term student outcomes."
2021 EdTech Top 40: Via LearnPlatform
Elephants: Loudly and enthusiastically welcome new baby.
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