Top Three
'Inundated With Applications': No Teacher Shortage at Virtual Schools: Via The 74.
"An extreme example comes at Lowcountry Connections Academy, an online school in South Carolina. Before school started this fall, the cyber academy posted four new teacher openings. They received roughly 1,050 applications for the roles, said head of school GeRita Connor."
"Much of the interest in the Lowcountry Connections Academy roles came from educators currently teaching at in-person schools who liked the idea of working from home, Connor said."
"For Colwell, teaching at an online school has meant increased family time and more mobility. Last year, she enrolled her three children in Georgia Cyber Academy, where she was working, and took the opportunity to travel as a family. Over the course of the school year, the group spent time in Egypt and 19 different U.S. states. They planned their transit on weekend days so they could get set up for online school by Monday."
"Others who pivoted to fully remote teaching jobs since the pandemic echoed that flexibility and work-life balance have been major benefits. They also reported they feel able to serve students in a new and more fulfilling way online."
"After teaching in traditional schools for over a quarter century, Miles estimates the move cost her roughly a 20% salary reduction, but “with that cut in pay, comes a great quality of life increase.”
"We never have carpool duty, we never have lunch duty, we don’t have hallway duty, we don’t have to do any of those little things because there are no students on our campus.”
“Teachers are no different than the rest of the professionals who are reevaluating what is important to them. Flexibility, time on task versus commuting … certainly could be playing a big role in why some educators are pursuing full-time virtual careers.”
Washington Schools Seek More Time To Spend Federal Funds: Schools ask for more time to spend $2.6 billion in COVID relief.
"Superintendents across Washington state say deadlines to spend billions in federal education relief dollars risk cutting off key student supports just as they get off the ground."
"Washington K-12 schools have spent about half of $2.6 billion in combined relief, largely intended to help schools navigate immediate coronavirus-related challenges. Now as they look to the remaining $1.3 billion, administrators say they fear federal deadlines in 2025 will cut short projects addressing lost academic progress, student mental health and school air quality."
"Extending the expenditure deadline would allow a district to, for instance, pay a mental health counselor over two years by hiring someone part-time, budgeting other pots of money or finding other grants to stretch the dollars for a full-time counselor, Aune said, adding that an answer from the federal government will help districts consider their strategies on budgeting the remainder of their allocations."
Possible Fall Wave In The UK: Rise in Covid cases and hospital patients shows ‘winter wave’ has begun, government official warns."
"A total of 7,024 people with coronavirus were in hospital in England as of 28 September, according to NHS figures. This is up 37% from 5,142 a week earlier and is the highest figure since 19 August."
Federal
Scaled Back Student Debt Relief: Via Politico:
“The Biden administration is curtailing its sweeping student debt relief program for several million Americans whose federal student loans are owned by private companies over concerns the industry would challenge it in court."
“The Education Department will no longer allow borrowers with privately held federal student loans to receive loan forgiveness under the administration’s plan… The administration had previously said that those debt-holders would have a path to receive the administration’s relief of $10,000 or $20,000 per borrower.”
"Multiple legal experts tell NPR the reversal in policy was likely made out of concern that the private banks that manage old FFEL loans could potentially file lawsuits to stop the debt relief, arguing that Biden's plan would cause them financial harm."
Covid-19 Research
New Guidance Focuses on Long COVID in Kids: PASC Collaborative cautions that long COVID can present differently in children than in adults.
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Behaviors and Attitudes of Children and Adolescents: A cross-sectional study.
SARS-CoV-2 Incidence in Secondary Schools; the Role of National and School-Initiated COVID-19 Measures and Indoor Air Quality: New preprint in the Lancet of a small study of 18 Dutch schools.
"During a period with low population immunity to SARS-CoV-2, a national COVID-19 policy including reduced class-occupancy, expanded quarantine and testing of contacts reduced the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in Dutch secondary schools."
"Additional school-initiated COVID-19 measures did not reduce SARS-CoV-2 incidence."
"A consistent effect of reduced ventilation could not be confirmed in our study and effects may depend on other classroom conditions."
"Widespread SARS-CoV-2 air contamination was uncommon in schools, suggesting transmission occurred mostly by close range contact under the prevailing school conditions at the time."
State
Alabama: Provides $82 million for electric co-op middle-mile network: "Fiber Utility Network, a corporation formed by eight rural electric cooperatives, will create the network to connect more than 3,000 miles of new and existing fiber infrastructure over the next three years"
California:
About 90% of children in an SF school were chronically absent in the last year.
LAUSD changes plan for expanded school year under teachers union pressure. "Under the announced agreement, the original four acceleration days will revert to regular school days and the school year will end four days earlier as a result."
Florida:
Ian becomes a hurricane again as it takes aim at South Carolina
After being briefed at the FEMA headquarters, President Biden warns that Hurricane Ian "could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida's history" and says there are early reports of "substantial loss of life."
The scale of financial loss from Hurricane Ian is only beginning to emerge. An initial analysis from Fitch Ratings on Thursday found that losses covered by insurance alone could range from $25 billion to $40 billion for Florida.
Illinois:
Chicago students failed more classes during pandemic, but A’s rose too
Chicago issues RFI "to gather recommendations and ideas for how to provide affordable, quality, and reliable internet service options that meet the needs of communities most burdened by the digital divide.
North Carolina: Schools moving online and other closures due to potential impacts of Hurricane Ian.
International
Australia: Pfizer COVID vaccine approved for all children aged over six months old.
Singapore: Pfizer's Covid vaccine has been approved for children aged six months through four years.
Economic Recovery
GDP: MarketWatch on BEA data.
"The U.S. shrank in the first six months of the year, revised government figures confirm, and painted a picture of economy buffeted by strong headwinds and tailwinds."
"Gross domestic product, the official scorecard of the economy, fell at a 0.6% annual clip in the second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday. That’s unchanged from the prior estimate."
AP: "Consumer spending grew at a 2% annual rate, but that gain was offset by a drop in business inventories and housing investment."
Quirk Makes Inflation Look Lower: Via Axios:
Women Are Returning to Paid Work After The Pandemic Forced Many to Leave Their Jobs: Via NPR.
Resources
Education Reimagined: Leadership for Transformation: New report from WISE.
Google Fiber: Aspires to offer 100 Gig internet, more multi-gigabit tiers coming first.
High-Quality Classwork + Tutoring: Proven Recipe for Closing the Learning Gap: Amanda Neitzel in The 74.
ISTE and ASCD Set to Merge: Via EdWeek
"In the latest sign of just how central technology has become to teaching and learning, the International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit that helps K-12 teachers make the most of digital tools, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, one of the oldest and largest K-12 professional development associations, are slated to merge."
"Richard Culatta, currently the chief executive officer of ISTE, would lead the new, larger organization if ASCD members vote to approve the plan, the final step in the process. The merged organization—which is still yet to be named—would share a governing board, according to the plan."
"Under the proposed agreement, ASCD and ISTE would retain their separate identities and brands, Culatta said. But it is unclear how exactly that would work under the new umbrella organization."
New Mexico Musical Highway: On Route 66, east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, there is a section of road that plays "America the Beautiful".
On this quarter-mile section of the highway, the rumble strips have been engineered to sound like the song America the Beautiful when drivers are going exactly 45 miles per hour.