Top Three
Pandemic Schooling Mode and Student Test Scores: Evidence from U.S. School Districts: New paper by Rebecca Jack, Claie Halloran, James Okun, and Emily Oster.
"We estimate the impact of district-level schooling mode (in-person versus hybrid or virtual learning) in the 2020-21 school year on students’ pass rates on standardized tests in Grades 3–8 across 11 states."
"Pass rates declined from 2019 to 2021: an average decline of 12.8 percentage points in math and 6.8 in English language arts (ELA)."
"Focusing on within-state, within commuting zone variation in schooling mode, we estimate districts with full in-person learning had significantly smaller declines in pass rates (13.4 p.p. in math, 8.3 p.p. in ELA)."
"The value to in-person learning was larger for districts with larger populations of Black students."
"Taken together, 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. Specifically, our analyses suggest that a focus on areas that had less in-person learning over the 2020-21 school year would be critical."
"More generally, our analyses demonstrate that hybrid or virtual schooling modes cannot support student learning in the same way as fully in-person instruction can, at least during this elementary and middle school period. As such, educational impacts of schooling mode on students’ learning outcomes should be a critical factor in policy responses to future pandemics or other large-scale schooling disruptions."
Related: This is the kind of research enabled by the COVID-19 School Data Hub.
CDC Reports 75% of Children and Teens Had Covid by February: Reports NBC.
"In the study, the CDC examined blood samples taken from all age groups, testing for specific antibodies that develop only after Covid infection."
"The increase in Covid was most significant in kids: from 44.2% in December to 75.2% in February among children ages 11 and younger, the CDC report found. The percentages were almost identical for kids ages 12 to 17."
Experts Fear U.S. May Default to Annual Covid Boosters Without Sufficient Data: Via Stat.
"A number of vaccine experts are concerned the United States may be sleepwalking into a policy of recommending annual Covid-19 vaccine boosters — without having generated the evidence to show they are actually needed."
"The developments have some experts warning that the U.S. may be headed toward a policy of annual boosters as a sort of default position, not one arrived at by careful scrutiny of the evidence on how well vaccine protection is holding up."
"Paul Offit, a pediatric infectious diseases clinician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory panel, said there is enormous pressure mounting to move to a system of annual Covid boosters. He cited an April 6 meeting of the panel, the Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC. “The only question was what were we going to boost with, not whether we were going to boost,” said Offit, who has repeatedly questioned the need for additional booster doses at this point. “We didn’t define what the goal of this extra [shot was].”
"Immunologists and vaccinologists have been pointing out for months that the current crop of Covid vaccines are not going to be able to fend off mild infections. But they also note that the protection the vaccines induce against severe disease and death is not waning in any significant way."
“The efficacy data that I’ve seen from the CDC meeting” — the CDC’s vaccine experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Policy met last week to discuss boosters — “and lots of other data really shows that our protection from severe disease is holding up pretty well,” said John Wherry, director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. “We’ve created this public perception that when antibodies are declining, everything’s gone. And that’s not correct,” he said."
"Neuzil, who in her pre-Covid career focused a lot on influenza, can see the rationale for boosting this fall. And maybe every fall — or at least at regular intervals. The worst waves of the pandemic have occurred during the past two winters. If the thinking is that pattern may repeat itself this winter, it would make sense to boost before that happens, she said."
Federal
Covid Supplemental: White House Covid Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha OpEd, "More Covid-19 funding is needed to stay ahead in the next battle."
"We have a choice to make: We can wait and see what happens next, or we can use this moment as an opportunity to prepare. We can invest in the strategies that will save lives, protect our most vulnerable, keep schools open and keep the economy going when the next surge hits."
Vice President Harris: Tests positive for the coronavirus.
"The vice president’s office said she tested positive on both rapid and P.C.R. tests and would stay away from the White House until she tests negative, working instead from the vice president’s official residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory. She had not been in close proximity to Mr. Biden for an extended period in recent days, her office said."
“She has exhibited no symptoms, will isolate and continue to work from the vice president’s residence,” Kirsten Allen, Ms. Harris’s spokeswoman, said in a statement. “She has not been a close contact to the president or first lady due to their respective recent travel schedules.”
New Reconciliation Bill?:
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to talk about a reconciliation bill that could combat inflation, The Hill reports.
"Manchin told reporters that he supports a corporate tax rate of 25% and a capital gains tax of 28%."
"In recent weeks, White House officials have quietly tried gauging Manchin’s interest in a package that would consist primarily of clean-energy initiatives, prescription drug reform and higher taxes on the rich and corporations, the people said. The ideas discussed internally include more than $500 billion of deficit reduction, the people said. On Monday, a Manchin spokeswoman reiterated that he supports measures to boost U.S. energy production, lower prescription drug costs and raise tax revenue from corporations and the rich."
"The White House is running out of time to get Manchin onboard, with many lawmakers in Congress viewing July 4 as a crucial deadline for action."
Punchbowl: "Can we imagine that Senate Democrats will go for a tax-hike reconciliation bill with no social spending? No, not really. Republicans won’t go for this either, of course."
And "fears mount inside White House that Manchin won’t agree to any deal"
White House Doubles-Down on Title 42: “The White House had started preparing a more aggressive defense around its plan for lifting the Trump-era deportation policy known as Title 42, when a federal judge issued a Monday decision that likely changes the Biden administration’s plans for a full-court press,” Politico reports.
"The Biden administration said on Tuesday that it will comply with an expected court order from a Louisiana judge that would block the lifting of Title 42, a Trump-era deportation policy used to expel more than one million migrants at the Southern border."
Biden Signals He’s Open to Canceling Student Debt
“President Biden gave strong indications during a private meeting with House Democrats this week that his administration is poised to take significant action to relieve student loans in the coming months, a move that would likely include the cancellation of potentially tens of thousands of dollars in debt,” the Washington Post reports.
“Borrowers are currently benefiting from a moratorium on paying off their student loans until Aug. 31, a pandemic-induced pause that began under the Trump administration. The White House has come under considerable pressure from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to outright cancel the liabilities.”
CBS News: “The move could affect more than 43 million borrowers who hold more than $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt, the second-largest debt held by Americans, behind mortgages.”
Covid-19 Research
No Matter How You Feel About Masks, You Should Be Alarmed by This Judge’s Decision: Lawrence Gostin and Duncan Hosie in the NYT.
"Judge Mizelle’s ruling could prevent the federal government from effectively and nimbly responding to future pandemics. And long after this pandemic has faded, her approach and rationale could undermine the federal government’s authority to confront other big problems, from occupational health and safety to climate change."
State
Arizona: Gov. Ducey signed legislation barring government agencies from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations and forbidding schools from mandating masks for students under age 18 unless their parents approve.
Colorado: Gov. Polis signs universal preschool bill into law.
Illinois: The Chicago Teachers Union argued that the halting of the universal masking requirement at Chicago Public Schools last month violated their COVID-19 safety agreement by rescinding a key tenet of the plan without reopening collective bargaining.
International
China:
"The sound of a trombonist playing “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Les Misérables fills the air around apartments in Shanghai during lockdown. "
China’s Politburo is under mounting pressure to throw the country’s Covid-stricken economy a lifeline as they gather for a critical meeting in the coming days
Germany: Schools phase out mandatory Covid tests for pupils.
"Education unions and the German Teachers’ Association have criticised the end of mandatory testing. Heinz-Peter Meidinger of the Teachers’ Association told DPA that, “we are confronted with the justified concern of families who have high-risk individuals and sick children in their own households.”
"He added that the removal of all health protections would also come at the expense of graduating students who feared missing exams or having to take exams at a later date because of an infection."
International
Shanghai Shutdowns Are Worsening Shortages:
"And there are signs things could only get worse. Continuing lockdowns in Shanghai - a major hub for America's semiconductor and electronics supply chains - has set up automakers, electronics companies and consumer goods firms for months of delays and higher costs."
"In some cases, though, retailers are better positioned to weather the latest challenges than they were a year ago. Many have stashed away extra inventory in U.S. warehouses and stores to guard against supply chain delays. Roughly 90 percent of goods at grocery and drugstores are in stock, according to data analytics firm Information Resources. And the number of import containers sitting on the docks for more than nine days at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has been cut by one-half since October."
"The shipping time for toys from China to U.S. stores has ballooned from 21 days to 159 days during the pandemic, he said."
Degree-based or Skills-based Hiring? It Should Be Both: Via Bruno Manno.
Resources
Pandemic ‘Erased’ a Decade of Growth in Pre-K Enrollment: Via The 74.
"Enrollment in state pre-K programs fell for the first time in two decades after a period of steady growth, according to a new report focusing on the 2020-21 school year."
"Before the pandemic, states were serving 44% of 4-year-olds. Now they might not reach 40% over the next 10 years, the report found."
EdChoice 101: New documents and guides from EdChoice.
New Politics-of-Education Poll Shows Americans Think Schools Are Important & Need to be Fixed. That, Not Culture Wars, Must Inform the Next Election: Great analysis from the great Emma Bloomberg on a new Murmuration poll.
University Mask Mandates: At least a dozen U.S. universities reinstate mask mandates as Covid cases rise.
Qualified Broadband Projects Added to Private Activity Bonds by Jobs Act: Via Holland & Knight.
"As part of the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, $65 billion was allotted for broadband infrastructure, and the legislation added a new qualified broadband projects category for use with the private activity bond (PAB) program."
"PABs, which generally are tax-exempt and used to finance major projects such as airports and commuting facilities, now include projects to provide broadband services to underserved geographic areas based on residential access and minimum data transfer speeds."
Folger's Black Shakespeare Course in Partnership with Reconstruction: Receives Shakespeare Association of America's 2022 Shakespeare Publics Award. Congrats Kaya Henderson!
Nothing to See Here: Just a dachshund and a turtle playing soccer.