Top Three
What Are Districts Using Their Federal Relief Money for? How Fast Are They Spending It? How Much Is Left?: Via The 74.
"Edunomics Lab is compiling this data and has posted the early results in this ESSER Expenditure Dashboard."
"In Wasington state, for example, while nine districts have already met the federally required minimum, about half of districts have not yet spent any rescue plan money earmarked toward learning loss. That includes larger districts like Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. In other states breaking out this data so far, 80% to 90% of their student learning loss money remains unspent."
"In California, 99% of that funding remains. Of the amount that has been spent, only 27% has gone toward summer or afterschool programs, or an extended school day or year. To date, the biggest category — capturing 73% of the total — is “other interventions.”
Update on COVID Vaccines for Kids: Via Emily Oster.
"The vaccine efficacy for this outcome in both groups is moderate: 44% in the youngest group, 37.5% in the 2-to-6-years group. If we limit to cases confirmed by PCR testing, this was 51% and 37%. These numbers may seem low, but they are in line with what we are seeing in older populations in the wake of Omicron."
"We have generally had relatively little information about the FDA’s thinking, but on Monday, Representative James Clyburn released information from a briefing he got last week from the FDA (thank you, Rep. Clyburn). The briefing makes a few key points. First: the FDA representative (Dr. Peter Marks) said they would not wait for the Pfizer filing to review Moderna."
"Second, he indicated that the agency would not hold the pediatric vaccine to the requirement that it be 50% effective at preventing symptomatic infection. This makes sense given that the current vaccine efficacy against symptomatic infection in older children and adults is below this, even as serious illness protection has been maintained."
Teens in Distress Are Swamping Pediatricians: Via the NYT.
"Over the last three decades, the major health risks facing U.S. adolescents have shifted drastically: Teen pregnancy and alcohol, cigarette and drug use have fallen while anxiety, depression, suicide and self-harm have soared."
"The growing use of psychiatric medications in youth is one metric of the adolescent mental health crisis. From 2015 to 2019, prescriptions for antidepressants rose 38 percent for teenagers compared with 15 percent for adults, according to Express Scripts, a major mail-order pharmacy."
Federal
White House: President Biden orders U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset on May 16 in memory of the 1 million Americans who died of COVID-19.
AHA, AMA Ask HHS for COVID-19 Emergency Extension: Via FierceHealth.
Covid-19 Research
Long Covid: More than half of early Covid-19 patients at one hospital had symptoms two years later, study finds. More via CNN.
The Promising Treatment for Long COVID We’re Not Even Trying: Via Katherine Wu in The Atlantic, "Early anecdotes about Paxlovid’s effects on long COVID are intriguing, but no one’s testing them in clinical trials yet."
"The search for long-COVID therapies has been stymied, in part, by the nature of long COVID. The condition, like cancer, appears to be not a single disease but a category of related-but-distinct syndromes, each of which could manifest with its own set of symptoms, require its own treatments, and stem from a slightly different cause."
"In some proportion of long-haulers, maybe the majority, the virus is believed to have come and gone, leaving behind physiological devastation—battered tissues, raging inflammation, self-attacking antibodies, discombobulated nerves, a freckling of blood clots. In these cases, experts told me, Paxlovid probably won’t do diddly-squat. But perhaps the drug could help another group of long-haulers, who are thought to harbor hard-to-reach reservoirs of virus that regularly rile the body up."
"When asked to elaborate on Paxlovid’s experimental status, the NIH said only that the agency “is very interested in long term viral activity as a potential cause of PASC (long COVID), and antivirals such as Paxlovid are in the class of treatments being considered for the clinical trials.”
"Paxlovid could still be a bust. But the process of figuring that out could shift the landscape for long COVID. Carefully testing this drug in long-haulers could help researchers build templates for even more clinical trials."
State
Hawaii: Public school students in Hawaii will be required to wear masks while indoors for summer classes and related activities.
Illinois: 7 things to know about paid COVID sick leave for Illinois school staff.
Maryland: As COVID cases rise in Baltimore-area schools, leaders shy away from masking mandates.
New York:
NYC Mayor Adams and NYC Department of Education Chancellor David Banks, in consultation with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), today announced the lifting of the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for New York City public school proms.
Just 8% of Manhattan office workers are back full time, survey shows.
Economic Recovery
Apprenticeships for America (AFA): A new nonprofit focused on expanding registered apprenticeship programs nationwide, today announced the formation of its Advisory Council, which will bring together the employers, intermediaries, policymakers, and researchers responsible for shaping America's approach to work-based learning in the 21st century.
More Than 39 million Americans Have Some College, No Credential, According to New Research: According to a new report released by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Black, Latinx, and Native American learners are over-represented among the SCNC population, relative to their shares of currently enrolled undergraduate students.
Although California, Texas, New York, and Illinois account for more than a third of the nation’s SCNC students, Alaska shows the largest number of SCNC students per 1,000 currently enrolled undergraduates.
SCNC students who stopped out of multi-state institutions or primarily online institutions showed the second fastest rate of net growth and increase of more than 315,000 or 13.7%.
During the academic year 2020/21, 944,200 SCNC students re-enrolled and 60,400 earned their first-ever postsecondary credential. An additional 531,700 students were still enrolled after re-enrolling the previous year.
About 62% of the 944,200 students changed institutions upon re-enrolling, and 67% of those students who did change institutions also commonly crossed institution sectors.
70% of the 60,400 completers obtained their credential from a public institution, either two- or four-year. Private, nonprofit four-year institutions had the highest perseverance rates, 64.8%, while community colleges had the lowest, 50.2%.
Resources
Some Rural Schools Are Dipping Into Savings To Keep Up With Inflation: Via NPR.
Improving Instructional Resources to Enhance the Teacher Experience: Via Tyton Partners.
A Baby Formula Shortage Leaves Desperate Parents Searching for Food: Via the NYT.
More via Scott Lincicome with a lengthy piece at the Dispatch.
Readout of President Biden’s Virtual Meetings with Retailers and Infant Formula Manufacturers
Polling: EdChoice/Morning Consult. Report / K-12 Parents Crosstabs / Adults 18+ Crosstabs.
Quizlet Survey Reveals the State of Mental Health and the Modern Learner: Press Release.
Undercover Dog: I wonder if the sheep are onto him...
Speaking of dogs, my mom was here for the last few weeks recouping from a surgical procedure. It also meant Teddy had his best friend Toby to play with again. Teddy continued to use his mouth to pick Toby up by his harness and carry him around the house (picture a lion carrying around a cub by its mouth). Here is a picture of the boys in one of their calmer moments.