Top Three
Learning Loss: New NWEA research.
"Initial signs of academic rebounding were evident in 2021-22 with academic gains (fall to spring) that paralleled pre-pandemic trends, especially in math and among younger students."
"Despite initial signs of rebounding, student achievement is still lower than where we’d expect it to be if the pandemic did not happen. Furthermore, if improvements continue at the rate we saw this year, the timeline for a full recovery is years away and will likely extend past the availability of federal recovery funds."
The 74: "The nation’s students showed small signs of academic recovery during the 2021-22 school year, but high absenteeism, quarantines and short-term closures “thwarted hopes of a strong comeback."
NYT: "At this rate, elementary school students may need at least three years to catch up to where they would have been had the pandemic not happened, and middle school students may need five years or more."
Hechinger: "A good analogy is a cross-country road trip. Imagine that students were traveling at 55 miles an hour, ran out of gas and started walking instead. Now they’re back in their cars and humming along at 55 miles an hour again. Some are traveling at 60 miles an hour, but they’re still far away from the destination they would have arrived at if they hadn’t run out of gas. It’s this distance from the destination that educators are describing when they talk about learning loss."
Chalkbeat: "The bad news is that students — particularly low-income, Black, and Hispanic students — remain far behind where they would be if not for the pandemic. Recovery has been anemic or nonexistent in middle school, NWEA finds... The latest data from NWEA shows that in reading, high-poverty schools did make faster progress than low-poverty ones last school year, closing the gap ever so slightly. In math, though, progress was comparable in both types of schools, meaning the larger-than-usual gap hadn’t budged."
Novavax: The CDC's ACIP voted 12 to 0 to recommend use of Novavax's Covid vaccine. Three members missed this meeting: Beth Bell, Kevin Ault and Veronica McNally. It now goes to the CDC Director who is expected to approve it.
NYT: "The Biden administration said last week that it would buy 3.2 million doses of Novavax’s two-shot vaccine, enough to fully vaccinate 1.6 million people in the United States."
NYT: "Novavax’s vaccine works differently from the three Covid vaccines previously authorized in the United States. It provokes an immune response with nanoparticles made up of proteins from the surface of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Similar protein-based vaccines have been used globally for decades."
Materials from today’s meeting.
Stat's Helen Branswell with a thread covering the meeting and an article.
San Diego: Interview with SDUSD President Sharon Whitehurst-Payne
"For students who feel uncomfortable wearing a mask, SDUSD President Sharon Whitehurst-Payne suggests not returning to school at all."
Federal
FCC: Chairwoman Rosenworcel proposes raising the minimum broadband speed standard from 25 Mbps for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads to 100 Mbps for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads.
Treasury: Announced the approval of an additional group of four states under the American Rescue Plan’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF): Kansas, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota.
How Cities Are Spending SLFRF Funds: Axios on a Brookings study of Treasury's State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF).
"Cities and counties had budgeted 41% of their ARPA funds by the end of 2021."
"Actual expenditures on cities’ and counties’ budgeted projects as of December 31 represented 10% of their total SLFRF allocations, or 20% of their available first-tranche funds."
Covid-19 Research
Under 5s: Moderna received provisional registration from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for its Covid-19 vaccine, Spikevax, for kids aged six months to five years.
Covid Rises Across the U.S. Amid Muted Warnings and Murky Data: Via the NYT.
"More than two years after the pandemic began, though, public health officials are sounding only quiet warnings amid a picture that they hope has been changed by vaccines, treatments and rising immunity."
"Deaths are rising, but only modestly so far in this new wave. And state and local public health officials say they also must now factor in a reality that is obvious along the streets from Seattle to New York City: Most Americans are meeting a new Covid wave with a collective shrug, shunning masks, joining crowds indoors and moving on from the endless barrage of virus warnings of months past."
“I feel strongly that you can’t just kind of cry wolf all the time,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago health department, who said she would wait to see whether hospitals become strained before considering another citywide mask mandate. “I want to save the requirements around masks or updating vaccine requirements for when there’s a significant change.”
Schools Race to Improve Indoor Air Quality as Coronavirus Cases Climb: Via the Washington Post.
"At this point in the pandemic, cleaning the air is still “one of the smartest investments” schools could make, Georgia Lagoudas, senior adviser for biotechnology and bio-economy at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in a statement. “It’s really important that school leaders understand this money is still available and the guidance has become more clear on how to make indoor air upgrades.”
"The CDC did not respond to requests for comment."
Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index: New results:
33% of Americans say they know someone who got reinfected with COVID-19 in the last few weeks.
Despite recent reinfections, total concern for COVID-19 (61%) remains relatively unchanged since April 2021.
Fewer than two in five (36%) Americans now sometimes or always wear a mask outside their homes, the lowest number since the start of the pandemic. Additionally, 36% never wear a mask outside of the house, up 14 percentage points from this time last year.
Just over a quarter (26%) of Americans are familiar with Paxlovid, the COVID-19 antiviral pill treatment. This number remains unchanged from November 2021.
29% say the pandemic is over, a figure that has remained consistent since May. Here, political affiliation starts to play a role in driving differences – 48% of Republicans share this sentiment, compared to just 9% of Democrats.
IHME Covid Briefing: Interesting section from their latest update:
"Although it is harder to make sense of some of the trends, it is likely given the experience in other countries that the BA.5 surge will be relatively short-lived in the order of 4–6 weeks."
"Nor do we expect a major increase in deaths due to COVID-19 given high levels of past exposure to COVID-19, either through past infection or through vaccination.
"We estimate that only 2% of those who are not vaccinated still want to be vaccinated, so that expanding new vaccinations is unlikely to be a major control strategy."
State
Illinois: Gov. Pritzker has eased COVID-19 rules in the state, lifting a vaccine mandate for college students and employees.
"Vaccine mandates for higher education employees and students and emergency medical service providers will not be renewed," Pritzker's office said in a statement.”
"Vaccination mandates will remain in place in K-12 schools, daycares, state-run 24/7 congregate care facilities, and any health care facilities not covered under the federal CMS vaccine mandate (including independent doctors' offices, dental offices, urgent care facilities, and outpatient facilities)."
Michigan: Via Chalkbeat:
"Eight years ago, 55 Michigan school districts operated under some form of state oversight because they ran operating deficits, spending more than they received in revenue. By the end of the 2020-21 school year, after the first batch of federal COVID aid arrived, that number was down to just a handful."
"A review of districts that have faced the longest-running fiscal shortfalls showed that several of them used their federal COVID relief aid, known as ESSER funds, to cover basic operating costs, such as staff salaries and supplies, and reallocated their general fund dollars to shore up their reserves and eliminate deficits."
Economic Recovery
Mothers Still Aren't Fully Back to Work: Axios on new analysis of Indeed data.
"Though women are almost back to where they were before — the reverberations of this era will linger."
"Women who left the labor market missed out on months of job experience and paychecks — likely to weigh on gender wage disparities for years to come."
"With schools and daycare facilities shuttered, women with young children spent more time than their male counterparts providing secondary childcare — that is, taking care of children while engaged in other activities."
Resources
Living and Learning in a Digital World: Qustodio report which looks at children’s use of technology across five categories – online video, social media, gaming, education, and communication apps.
How Two States are Using Data Analysis and Professional Development for Learning Recovery: Via K12 Dive.
"In North Carolina, the state has launched the Office of Learning Recovery & Acceleration to provide technical assistance and share best practices."
Emmanuel Follow-up: "In their first joint interview, Emmanuel stared into our Zoom call, then at Blake, then away from the screen. He refused to comment."
"She began posting videos with the animals — cows, donkeys, ducks and, yes, emus in the plural — in 2018. Her rationale: “The world is dark, and animals bring everyone joy. They’re funny, they’re entertaining.”
And this sweet tweet: "Many of you are new to following me, but those of you who have been around for awhile, you know how big this is for me. I’ve always loved creating. I’ve always loved making people smile. I am living my dream....My mom told me she was proud of me today, for the first time in a long time. I am feeling incredibly fulfilled and I’m just extremely thankful."
And Just Play It Cool: Like nothing happened.