Top Three
Remote Schooling Led to Catastrophic Learning Loss: NBER paper by Clare Halloran, Rebecca Jack, James C. Okun & Emily Oster analyzing data from the COVID-19 School Data Hub.
"We combine Spring 2021 state standardized test score data with comprehensive data on schooling in the 2020-21 school year across 12 states."
"We find that pass rates declined compared to prior years and that these declines were larger in districts with less in-person instruction."
"Passing rates in math declined by 14.2 percentage points on average; we estimate this decline was 10.1 percentage points smaller for districts fully in-person."
"Changes in English language arts scores were smaller, but were significantly larger in districts with larger populations of students who are Black, Hispanic or eligible for free and reduced price lunch"
"The most obvious concern is that less in-person learning may reflect higher community COVID19 rates, and that the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are directly driving students’ academic outcomes. However, this explanation does not align with the fact that in-person learning shares are actually higher in areas with higher COVID-19 rates."
"Test scores are only one measure of student learning during the 2020-21 school year. This paper cannot capture ways that students learned that were not reflected on such assessments; we also cannot account for pandemic-related changes in students’ lives beyond schooling mode. However, these results can serve as a starting point for education leaders and policymakers as they weigh where to target funding moving forward in order to support student learning."
More via Yahoo News.
Encouraging Pfizer Data on Teens: Follow-up data from Phase 3 trial.
A two-dose series of the vaccine was 100% effective against COVID-19, measured seven days through over four months after the second dose.
"The companies said the new data — a longer-term analysis of a Phase 3 trial conducted in 2,228 participants — will form the basis of an application to the FDA for an extension of their Covid-19 vaccine license to cover youths in the age group," Stat reports.
Rates of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status: CDC tracker has updated data.
An unvaccinated person has 5.8 times the risk of testing positive and 14 times the risk of dying from COVID compared to a vaccinated individual.
Federal
Fed: President Biden taps Jerome Powell for another term at the Federal Reserve.
Reconciliation: Everything in the House Budget Bill.
COVID-19 Research
US COVID-19 Deaths in 2021 Surpass Last Year's Total: Via The Hill and WSJ.
"That means that at least 385,348 COVID-19 deaths — 15 more than the 2020 total —have so far been recorded in 2021, and that number will only rise in the days and weeks to come."
Experts Criticize CDC's Language on COVID Boosters: Via Axios:
"I can tell you that clinicians notice that language and it matters a lot when it comes to what clinicians are recommending to their patients," Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, told Axios."
"My concern is that, with the messaging so muddled, the booster dose has somehow been framed as a luxury, as something that would be nice to have but it doesn't really matter if you get it. That is not the case," Wen said."
"I don't understand the 'should/may' split. That just confuses, everyone over 18 should get the booster, otherwise we won’t get back to normal," tweeted Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher at the Baylor College of Medicine."
More via NBC: "Experts are split on whether the FDA should have signed off earlier, but they agree that the messaging has been confusing — and could lead to some people not getting boosters at all."
When Should You Get a Covid-19 Booster Shot?: Via WSJ.
Should We Be Counting COVID Cases?: Asks Emily Oster.
Discrepancies in School COVID-19 Policies: A JHU analysis of data from a new tracker of state and district policies. Here's an example from CA.
COVID-19 Booster Dose Messaging and Outreach Tools: Great set of resources from Public Health Collaborative including messages, FAQs, and graphics.
When Can the Covid Masks Finally Come Off?: Via the NYT.
Vaccinating Kids May Be the Biggest COVID Debate Yet: Via NY Mag.
"From a public-health perspective, I do think that premature discussion and preparation of legislation for vaccine mandates for schoolchildren could result in a backlash,” said Dr. William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While COVID-19 can pose a threat to children, it doesn’t rise to the level of smallpox, polio, or diphtheria. Further, phase-three trials of Pfizer’s vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds were relatively small and more time might be needed to build trust among wary parents, according to Moss."
The Pandemic’s Toll on Teen Mental Health: Monica Gandhi and Jeanne Noble in the WSJ.
New COVID Test Offers Quick PCR-Quality Results at Home: Reports Axios.
State
Louisiana: New Orleans parents split on mandatory COVID-19 vaccine for students according to a new survey.
Massachusetts: Boston Globe editorial, "As younger children get vaccinated, it’s time to plan for lifting the school mask mandate."
New York: Long Island school district to separate parents by COVID vaccine status for student shows.
"The Rockville Centre School District will have a non-socially distanced section for parents who show vaccination proof upon arrival."
Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh Public School students to learn online the Monday they return from Thanksgiving break.
International
EU: Protesters rallied against COVID restrictions yesterday in Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands.
Hong Kong: Approves Sinovac vaccine for children ages 3-17.
Japan: A survey by a government-linked research institute has found that 55% of elementary schoolchildren in the country hope to get vaccinated against COVID-19 soon.
South Korea: Schools resume full in-person classes.
Economic Recovery
Manage Your Talent Pipeline Like a Supply Chain: Joseph Fuller and Matt Sigelman in HBR.
"Absent a major change in immigration policy, our supply of talent is going to become even tighter than it is today."
"Why does Amazon invest so much in its AWS Training and Certification program? Why does Salesforce.com so heavily promote its Trailhead learning platform? In no small part, because they know companies won’t buy software if they can’t hire enough workers who know how to use it."
"Employers must invest in “growing their own.”
"Employers need to implement fundamental principles of supply-chain management."
Martha Raddatz Reports on the Effects of Inflation from Kansas City: Segment from yesterday.
Resources
Schools Are Raising Pay and Lowering Job Requirements as They Struggle to Hire Substitute Teachers: Via Time.
Learning Recovery & Redesign Guidance: AASA and Education Counsel.
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center: Published new data on higher education enrollment showing undergraduate enrollment has continued to decline 3.5% so far this fall across all sectors.
Other key findings include identifying that enrollment at public four-year institutions declined 2.5%, compared with a 1.6% loss last fall; community college enrollment saw a 6% decline, compared with 9.4% last fall; and there was a 3.1% enrollment drop in international undergraduate students this fall.
TLA’s Virtual and Hybrid Learning Strategy Lab: Announced
"We're building two philanthropically funded cohorts of school systems – one launching this January and another in May 2022 – with the aim of supporting up to 20 school systems in turning their virtual or hybrid schools into exemplars of change while creating open tools, resources, and evidence of improvement for the field along the way."
How Reopening Decisions Affected Public School Disenrollment: Via Fordham
America’s Catholic Schools Are Seeing a Surprising Rise in Enrollment: Via The Economist
"The Brooklyn-Queens diocese in New York, one of the biggest in the country, saw increases for the first time in a decade or more. Nearly 60% of its schools are growing, with many increasing by 10%. Partnership Schools, a network of Catholic schools in New York City and in Cleveland, saw a 16% increase. The diocese of Springfield, in Massachusetts, is up by 13%. Arlington’s diocese, which takes in the suburbs of Washington, DC, increased by 6%. The Archdiocese of Baltimore, the county’s oldest, saw a similar increase. Chicago’s archdiocese, which includes some suburbs, saw a 5% increase. Enrolment increased by nearly 4% in Catholic elementary schools in Philadelphia’s archdiocese."
Every Kid: Deserves to grow up with a good pup…