Top Three
More NAEP Reactions:
The 74: "Strong Link in Big City Districts’ 4th-Grade Math Scores to School Closures"
"Districts that spent the majority of that year learning remotely tended to lose more ground in fourth-grade math scores than districts that reopened sooner."
"Every 10 additional days of school closures was associated with a roughly 0.2-point loss on NAEP from 2019 to 2022."
"The pattern was statistically significant and held even when controlling for the share of students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch, a proxy for poverty."
"The districts with more remote learning have larger test score losses,” said Emily Oster, a Brown University economics professor who has tracked school closures through the pandemic."
“Maybe what [ED is] saying is that [school closure] is not the only determinant, and that’s right. It is not the case that there is a straight line between remoteness and test score losses,” she said."
"The 74 took the district-level approach, crunching data from a sample of large urban school systems included in the NAEP release. Their scores were then matched with closure data from Oster’s COVID-19 School Data Hub, which tracked the percentage of the 2020-21 school year that districts offered remote, hybrid or in-person instruction."
"Among the 23 remaining school systems, fourth-grade math was the only subject with a statistically significant relationship between district performance and time spent in remote learning. There were weak correlations in fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math and no association for eighth-grade reading."
John King: Interviewed on Fox5.
WSJ: "How Los Angeles Avoided National Academic Plunge During Pandemic"
"But amid a national plunge in math and reading scores on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, the Los Angeles Unified School District stood out, recording higher scores in three of the four categories."
"Mr. Carvalho said a combination of makeup classes and high attendance rates for online lessons contributed to the resilience of his district."
"Los Angeles also fared relatively well with remote learning during the pandemic, Mr. Carvalho said, due to a program that gave internet hot spots to all families who needed them during school shutdowns. A prepandemic policy that provided all students with tablets or laptops helped as well, he said."
"The district created an optional 30-day summer-school program for academic subjects which ended up serving more than 100,000 students, Mr. Carvalho said."
Nat Malkus: "Pandemic Fallout Shows in Nation’s Report Card. So Does Remote Learning"
"Our Return to Learn Tracker did systematically collect closure data. While matching them to overall state and district NAEP results is far too crude a comparison to draw conclusions from, the results below suggest the expected pattern is there, even if it is not as strong as some, including myself, might have guessed."
"I strongly caution against drawing strong conclusions from the patterns below. While I believe that more remote instruction led to less academic progress, all else equal, many things need to be accounted for to satisfy that phrase, “all else equal.” Shifting enrollments, remote and in-person instructional program quality, students’ actual time in remote instruction, and the quality of schooling in the 2021–22 school year, all load on these patterns."
The Covid-19 Pandemic Hit Economically Distressed Counties the Hardest: Via EIG.
"New county-level findings from EIG’s Distressed Communities Index (DCI) reveal striking health advantages associated with economic prosperity, showing that economically distressed counties on average have registered nearly two-times as many deaths per capita from Covid-19 as prosperous ones."
"Since the onset of the pandemic, distressed counties have recorded an average of 529 deaths for every 100,000 residents, whereas in prosperous counties, the rate is nearly half that at 272 deaths per 100,000. To put that difference into perspective: If the average death rate in prosperous places had been as high as that of distressed ones, they would have experienced around 360,000 additional deaths."
School Closures Were a Failed Policy: Via Derek Thompson:
"Several mainstream news organizations took pains to say that the latest NAEP study offered only murky evidence that school closures were the biggest culprit. For example, Texas opened its schools relatively early but still saw declines in math scores in line with the national average. California opened its schools relatively late, and its students’ scores declined less than the national average. According to one school-tracking site, Los Angeles schools stayed closed longer than those almost anywhere else, and it showed surprising gains in eighth-grade reading proficiency."
"A forthcoming paper from several economists, including the Atlantic contributor Emily Oster, finds that in-person learning softened the blow of the pandemic on achievement scores. Comparing students within commuting zones, those who attended school fully in person saw smaller declines in pass rates on standardized tests than those who went remote. Once again, the penalty for moving away from in-person learning was greatest “for districts with larger populations of Black students."
"Democrats’ disproportionate support for school closures was very likely an unforced error that has contributed to worse achievement gaps between rich kids and poor kids, and that has set children back several years in math classes in which they were already struggling to demonstrate proficiency."
"To steal a vibe from Matthew Yglesias: Democrats shouldn’t just want to be the party of government. They should want to be the party of government that actually works."
"With little evidence that school closures saved lives and ample evidence that they hurt kids, this is a policy that failed."
Federal
White House: Fact Sheet: Progress on Biden-Harris Action Plan for Building Better School Infrastructure.
IES: Now Available for Comment: WWC Study Review Protocol, Version 5.0
HHS: States brace for Medicaid spending surge.
"The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency could result in state Medicaid outlays growing at a rate of 16.3% in fiscal 2023, even with efforts underway to control future program costs, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation."
Covid Research
Omicron BA.2 Subvariant Appears to be Less Severe Than Other Strains: Study suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 subvariant carries a significantly lower risk of death than that of Delta and the original Omicron strain, B.1.1.529.
Covid Testing Providers Scale Back Despite Worries of Another Winter Surge:Via NBC News.
"Manufacturers of rapid at-home Covid tests are making only half the number of tests as they were in February, when they ramped up production in response to the omicron wave, and the White House committed to buying 1 billion at-home tests, according to data compiled by Mara Aspinall, a professor at Arizona State University who has consulted with companies and institutions on testing."
"Laboratories that process PCR tests have also cut their capacity by a third as more people turn to at-home tests, and public health guidance has become more relaxed around testing for schools and travel, according to Aspinall's data."
"Opko Health’s BioReference Labs, for example, has gone from processing 3 million PCR tests in the second quarter last year to 1 million in the same period this year. As a result, it has cut its testing workforce by more than 4,000 since its peak, including laying off 700 workers in June and July, the company said during its quarterly earnings report last month."
"Test manufacturers and laboratories say they are in a stronger position than last year to be able to quickly scale up capacity should there be another surge because of the investments they have already made in equipment and facilities."
A New Immunity-evading Virus Variant Looms. Here’s How to Fight It: Via the Washington Post Editorial Board.
"What is not yet known is whether or how well an immunity wall, built both by natural infection and vaccines, might protect against a new wave. One reason to worry is that BQ.1.1 evades immune systems on a greater scale than other variants and subvariants."
"BQ.1.1 evolved from BA.5, so there is hope the new bivalent boosters, offered by Pfizer and Moderna, will protect against it, too."
"No one will welcome a new surge, but everyone should prepare for one. The most important step is for all eligible individuals to get vaccinated and boosted."
China Using Inhalable COVID-19 Vaccine: Via the AP.
"The Chinese city of Shanghai started administering an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday in what appears to be a world first."
"The vaccine, a mist that is sucked in through the mouth, is being offered for free as a booster dose for previously vaccinated people, according to an announcement on an official city social media account."
Resources
How Do Americans Truly Feel About Public Education, & What Do They Want to See?: Javaid Siddiqi in The 74.
"More than 7 in 10 voters believe the country needs to ensure that students are reading at their appropriate grade level, and nearly half don’t believe the schools are teaching real-world skills for the future workforce. Voters also want additional counseling and social, emotional and mental health supports for students, indicating that “social-emotional learning” may not be the kind of dog-whistle issue it is sometimes portrayed to be."
"In North Dakota, State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler has organized a Family Engagement Cabinet in addition to a Student Cabinet composed of 3rd through 12th graders from across the state."
Rethinking School Testing After the Pandemic: Via Rick Hess:
Invest in creating low-burden, high-value assessments.
Design accountability systems for the real world.
Learn the lessons of the past.
Teen Survey: By EdChoice/Morning Consult: Report / Crosstabs
Broadband:
Alabama, New Mexico Voters Eye Constitutional Amendments for Broadband Funding
City council approved plan to bring Google Fiber to Omaha
"How Higher Ed Can Help Underserved Communities Access Broadband"
"Will BEAD Rules Drive States to Rethink Anti-Municipal Broadband Laws?"
Next Level Paper Airplanes: With a launcher.