Top Three
With Aid to Spend, Schools Look for Students Who Need Help: Via The AP
"Understanding completely where students are and what those gaps or challenges might be for them — that is going to be a challenge for us,” said Debbie Durrence, the data officer for Gwinnett County, Georgia."
"Her team, which serves the 180,000-student district, has started tracking a new metric: “missingness.” In regular reports, the team aims to log what is known about each student’s learning progress, but also what is unknown. Schools have been asked to help fill in gaps, and students are being tested more frequently."
"In Fairfax County, tests given this fall found that 68% of Hispanic elementary school students need intervention in math, up from 55% in 2019. Students learning English saw a similar increase. A quarter of white students were flagged for help, up from 19% in 2019."
"Last year, public schools in Houston found that 45% of Black and Hispanic students had at least one failing grade. That was up from 30% in 2019, and nearly three times the rate of white students."
"In Florida’s Miami-Dade County, school officials created a new learning loss index based on assessments, attendance and state exams, and then ranked students based on need. The district brought back retired teachers to work as tutors on a temporary basis, and it’s expanding summer school, Saturday classes and other programs."
Homeschooling Surge Continues Despite Schools Reopening: Via The AP.
"In 18 states that shared data through the current school year, the number of homeschooling students increased by 63% in the 2020-2021 school year, then fell by only 17% in the 2021-2022 school year."
"The rising numbers have cut into public school enrollment in ways that affect future funding and renewed debates over how closely homeschooling should be regulated. What remains unknown is whether this year’s small decrease signals a step toward pre-pandemic levels — or a sign that homeschooling is becoming more mainstream."
"Minnesota, for example, reported that 27,801 students are being homeschooled now, compared to 30,955 during the last school year. Before the pandemic, homeschool figures were around 20,000 or less."
"Black families make up many of the homeschool converts. The proportion of Black families homeschooling their children increased by five times, from 3.3% to 16.1%, from spring 2020 to the fall, while the proportion about doubled across other groups, according to U.S. Census surveys.
Pfizer Says Booster Shot Strengthens the Immune Response for Children 5 to 11: Press Release and NYT article.
"A third dose produced a 36-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant and a 6-fold increase in neutralizing against the SARS-CoV-2 wild-type strain."
"Pfizer and BioNTech plan to submit a request for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of a booster dose for children ages 5 through 11 in the U.S. in the coming days. The companies also plan to share these data with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other regulatory agencies around the world as soon as possible."
“I think a bottom line is that in order to protect from the Omicron, we know from studies and from adults and adolescents that you need three doses,” said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She predicted regulators would authorize the companies’ request."
Federal
NSF: New grant opportunity, "Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers". Proposed ITEST projects are expected to:
engage students in technology-rich learning to develop disciplinary and/or transdisciplinary STEM content knowledge, including skills in data literacy and evidence-based decision-making and reasoning;
prioritize the full inclusion of groups who have been underrepresented and/or underserved, including but not limited to Blacks andAfrican Americans, Alaska Natives, Hispanics and Latinos, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Native Pacific Islanders, persons with disabilities, neurodiverse students, and women in the STEM and information and communication technologies (ICT) workforce;
motivate students to pursue appropriate education pathways to technology-rich careers; and
leverage strategic and community partnerships to expand education pathways in communities through public and private partnerships and collaborations.
Covid-19 Research
FDA Authorizes First COVID-19 Diagnostic Test Using Breath Samples: The the InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer delivers results in less than three minutes. FDA statement.
Moderna: Britain's medicines regulator approved the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in children between six and 11 years.
Pfizer: A fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech provided significant added protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death for at least a month in older individuals, according to a new study.
"The estimated effectiveness of the fourth dose during days 7 to 30 after it was administered compared with a third dose given at least fourth months earlier was 45% against infection, 55% for symptomatic disease, 68% for hospitalization, 62% for severe disease and 74% for death"
BA.2: New York State, a bellwether of the US BA.2 wave, has had a 29% increase in hospitalizations in the past week, nearly all in people age 60+.
New Study Examines Parent Hesitancy Toward COVID-19 Vaccines for Children: Small study / Press Release.
"Parent hesitancy often relied on social media, and was influenced by narrative accounts of vaccination experiences. Many cited the lower risk of negative outcomes from COVID-19 among children, when compared with adults. Some also cited inaccurate and constantly changing information about COVID-19 vaccines."
School Nurse and COVID-19 Response: "This article addresses current evidence related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the evolving role of the school nurse. A case study incorporates tips and suggestions for school nurses who will deliver professional care during this COVID-19 crisis."
COVID Cases on the Rise Again: Via Axios.
Children and COVID-19: AAP State-Level Data Report
"Nearly 12.9 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic according to available state reports; over 114,000 of these cases have been added in the past 4 weeks. Since the first week of September, there have been over 7.8 million additional child cases."
State
Arizona: Scottsdale Unified offers free tutoring to all students.
California:
"Tutoring, a key learning recovery strategy, reaches fewer than 1 in 10 L.A. students"
Schools in Los Angeles County experiencing jump in COVID-19 cases as BA.2 subvariant continues to circulate "That number showed a much more drastic jump in L.A. County schools, which reported a 42% increase in positivity rate from 577 positive tests in the week ending April 1, to 822 positive tests for the week ending April 8."
Colorado: District 11 could cut more than 50 teaching positions due to decline in enrollment.
Georgia: Atlanta Public Schools extends application deadline for virtual academy.
New Jersey: Newark to use roughly half of $182 million in COVID aid on buildings, 5% on tutoring, Chalkbeat reports (with a searchable database)
Pennsylvania: Swing voters OK with Philly mask mandate, Axios reports.
Washington: The Washington state Board of Health has decided that COVID-19 vaccines will not be required for students to attend K-12 schools this fall.
Economic Recovery
Supply Chain Hurdles Will Outlast Pandemic: The NYT on CEA's Economic Report of the President.
“The coronavirus pandemic and its ripple effects have snarled supply chains around the world, contributing to shipping backlogs, product shortages and the fastest inflation in decades. But in a report released Thursday, White House economists argue that while the pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain, it didn’t create them — and they warned that the problems won’t go away when the pandemic ends.”
A few additional education items:
"Nearly half of new jobs created over the next decade are projected to require at least some postsecondary education or training at the entry level. Just as early-20th-Century universal elementary and secondary schooling helped create a highly skilled labor force, investments in higher education today can help workers fill the higher-paying jobs of tomorrow. The result will be broader and more robust economic growth."
"Children from low-income families often begin kindergarten at an academic disadvantage. Though there are also disparities at entry by race and ethnicity, these differences are smaller than those by family income."
“Although there is little consensus about effective education policies, several themes have emerged from the literature beyond the basic finding that resources matter. Barrow and Rouse (2007) review evidence on several inputs in K-12 education, including class size, teacher quality, time in school, and technology."
"Though accountability policies have been shown to cause schools to change instructional practices in meaningful ways, leading to increased test score performance (Rouse et al. 2013), in other settings test score improvements have been shown to come from gaming the system rather than from generating improvements in educational practices that benefit all students (e.g., see Neal and Schanzenbach 2010; Booher-Jennings 2005; and Hout and Elliott 2011)."
Recession Jitters:
Steven Rattner: “The debate over whether the recent surge in inflation is transitory or permanent has been settled. Now the question is whether the Federal Reserve can tame increasing inflationary turbulence and bring the economy to a soft touchdown.... Mounting evidence suggests a hard landing — in other words, a recession.”
Bloomberg: Larry Summers argues a recession is more likely than a soft landing.
According to a Bloomberg Markets Live survey conducted between March 29 and April 1, 48% of investors expect the US to fall into recession next year. Another 21% expect the downturn to happen in 2024, while 15% of the 525 respondents expect the recession to come as early as this year.
Resources
How School Leaders Can Respond to Pushback Over Social-Emotional Learning: Via EdWeek.
As Chronic Absenteeism Skyrockets Amid Reopenings, How Can States and Districts Reengage Students?: Via K12 Dive.
Some Surprising Things Schools Might Have to Cut Because of Fuel Cost Increases: Via EdWeek.
14% of district leaders said fuel costs have doubled or more than doubled since then, and 56% said they’ve increased between 1% and 50%.
Eleven schools in Davenport, Iowa, each week receive two deliveries of fresh fruit and vegetables through a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant program. More than 4,500 students take advantage of these offerings. For the last month, each delivery has come with an $8 fuel surcharge, said Coni Dobbels, supervisor of food and nutrition services for the district... Thanks to the fuel surcharge, one district has already run out of funds to continue getting its weekly fruit and vegetable deliveries, and other schools are headed for the same fate, Dobbels said."
"Meanwhile, the district’s bread vendor recently told Dobbels it won’t be able to continue delivering to her district unless she can pay 20 percent more to cover fuel cost increases."
Has Federal Crisis Spending for K-12 Schools Served Its Intended Objectives?: Asks Brookings.
Educating English Learners During the Pandemic: Via New America.
In Several States, Teachers Get Their Biggest Raise in Decades: Via NYT.
Data Dashboard Shows Economic and Health Security Program Participation, Anti-Poverty Effects: Via CBPP.
No Public Consensus on How Schools Should Discuss Sexuality and Racism: AP/NORC poll. One interesting table:
Dr. Lillian Lowery: Mourning her passing and celebrating her life.
First Pitch: South Korean figure skater Kim Ye-Lim had one of the best first pitches.
This Puppy: Thinks he's a bunny.