Top Three
The Changing Political Geography of Covid-19: Via Pew.
The Pandemic Has Had Devastating Impacts on Learning. What Will It Take to Help Students Catch Up?: Brookings post on NWEA research including modeling the impact of different interventions.
Pediatric Vaccine Effectiveness: Via Katelyn Jetelina on the two studies released this week.
"Waning is not surprising. We have known for months that Omicron partially escapes protection and, because of that, effectiveness is reduced. Antibodies also wane with time, regardless of the variant. So reduced VE is expected, especially if we combine time and Omicron."
"Vaccine dosage matters. What was surprising is how quickly VE waned among 5-11 year olds compared to 12+ year olds. This suggests that dosage could matter a lot."
"Boosters are incredibly important. Just like we saw with adults, boosters are essential for preventing infection. Among 16 to 17 year olds, VE jumped from 0% with the two-dose series to 81% with the three dose series"
"Vaccines are still very important. There are many reasons to get your child vaccinated, and the benefits continue to outweigh the risks."
Federal
COVID Supplemental: "The budget crunch is even more severe than the administration has let on. The White House has held off on buying millions of courses of Pfizer’s highly effective antiviral drug that the White House already committed to buy due to budget constraints, according to public contract disclosures and the Department of Defense, which issues the contracts," Stat reports.
ED: Reminds colleges ISAs are private loans, subject to disclosure requirements.
COVID-19 Research
Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 While Keeping Kids in School: A case study from a school district in Swampscott, Massachusetts.
Urban-Rural Divide on Covid Vaccination Widens: CDC
"A shrinking proportion of people living in rural counties have gotten Covid vaccinations compared with people in urban areas, a new CDC analysis reports."
"That gap — 59% rural people vs. 75% urban — has doubled since April 2021, with the biggest difference in children: 15% of 5- to 11-year olds were vaccinated in rural areas but 31% in urban areas, while 39% of rural 12- to 17-year olds were vaccinated but 65% in urban areas."
State
New York: "NYC will drop requirements for people to wear masks in schools and for patrons of restaurants and other businesses to show proof of vaccination."
Tennessee: 5 things to know about Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ decision to make masks optional.
Economic Recovery
Jobs Report: Employers added 678,000 workers to their payrolls in February, the biggest gain in seven months.
Via WSJ, "Wage growth cooled, a sign that a nationwide labor shortage might be easing as employers fill lower-wage positions that had long been dormant."
"The labor-force participation rate—the share of people employed or looking for work—rose to 62.3% from 62.2%. But it remained 1.1 percentage points below its pre-pandemic level. Some economists have doubts about whether the rate will fully recover. Many older workers retired early during the pandemic, and immigration is down sharply."
Post-pandemic, The Glow is Gone From the College Degree: More from Manno.
"First, on the supply side, many current Gen Z high schoolers don’t see college through the same rose-colored glasses as prior generations."
"Second, on the demand side, many employers no longer use a college degree as the gatekeeper credential for jobs."
"Third, supply and demand are disconnected. Employers have inflated the value of college degrees by requiring them for jobs that don’t need them."
Work Rise: Announced a request for proposals for pilot projects that test and evaluate public- and private-sector interventions designed to improve the economic mobility of low-wage workers.
The online application portal to submit a letter of inquiry will open March 1, 2022 and close April 8, 2022.
Women Have Borne an Outsized Social, Economic Burden During Pandemic: Via CIDRAP.
"From March 2020 to September 2021, women were more likely than men to lose their jobs, forego work to care for others, and report increasing violence, and women and girls were more likely than men and boys to drop out of school for reasons other than school closures, according to a study yesterday in The Lancet."
"Women and girls were 1.21 times more likely than men to say they dropped out of school for reasons other than school closures."
Resources
E-Rate: "Zayo Group signed a deal to purchase Education Networks of America (EDN), an education technology firm that provides managed network connectivity and security services to E-Rate-funded school districts and other public sector entities."
Parents Are Getting Access to Student Data, But How Can We Support Them to Use It?: Via DQC.
Their N.C. School District Was Pandemic-Ready. Here’s Why: Really interesting piece from EdWeek.
After-School Programs Are Low on Staff, Leaving Students Unsupervised and Underserved: Via EdWeek.
Sense of Purpose: “My life today is wonderful, I believe that I am needed… That’s the most important sense of life, that you are needed, that you are not just an emptiness that breathes and walks and eats something.” — Pres. Zelenskyy, via translator, when asked about his living conditions in Ukraine
Nebraska Mom Jennifer Dehart Lost Her 14-year-old Son Ely in a Fatal Car Accident: His basketball team found a way to keep his love for her alive.