I want to thank everyone who took the time to respond to the survey and offer some incredible feedback. I was going to offer all of you Taylor Swift tickets to express my appreciation, but then this happened.
More than 90% of respondents said the updates are helpful in their work, particularly the “top three”, the bullet summaries, and state section. There were some amazing examples of how the Updates have been used, including:
Informing the launch of a large-scale, multiple school effort to expand access to high-impact tutoring.
Providing briefings for their Governor.
Curating evidence/research on safety and mitigation strategies for returning to in-person learning.
Surfacing projects that led to several grants.
Providing a sense of the trends with enough detailed information to feel confident in moving forward in decisions.
Shaping Covid response strategies for several State Departments of Health.
So where do we go from here? More than 95% of respondents said we should continue publishing but at a reduced pace. The ideal schedule was tied between twice a week and weekly. And, a number of you asked if there was any way to make it shorter.
Based on that feedback, we’ll transition to a twice a week schedule, every Monday and Thursday. I’ll also work on tightening up the curation and summaries.
We’ll try that out for a few weeks to see how it works for everyone, but don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any additional thoughts or suggestions.
With appreciation,
—John
Top Three
New-Onset Diabetes Risk Higher in Recovering COVID-19 Patients: People recovering from COVID-19 are at higher risk of a new diabetes diagnosis, a research team from Beijing reported this week in BMC Medicine.
"Their findings come from a meta-analysis of nine studies that included nearly 40 million participants, the largest of its kind."
"They note that an increased risk of diabetes has also been found for other viruses, but their analysis shows a 20% higher risk of developing diabetes following COVID compared to patients with other upper respiratory viruses and an 82% increased risk compared to the general population."
Severe COVID Less Likely in Kids of Vaccinated Parents: CIDRAP: "Children younger than 5 years whose parents were vaccinated against COVID-19 appeared to be at reduced risk of hospitalization during the Delta and Omicron variant waves in France, according to a research letter published yesterday in JAMA Network Open."
To Help Students Shoot for the Moon, We Must Think Bigger and Bolder: Dan Goldhaber, Thomas Kane, Andrew McEachin and Emily Morton in the Washington Post.
"Today, school district leaders are responsible for reversing learning loss of a magnitude none of them have ever experienced. And they have been given little guidance about what an adequate response might look like. No wonder many system leaders have been launching the equivalents of bottle rockets: an increase in summer school enrollment or tutors for a few more students."
"States need to help everyone see the loss in terms of what it’s going to take to get students back on track. Telling educators that proficiency rates have declined isn’t enough. Explaining that students lost several months or a year of math instruction provides a more solid basis for planning an ambitious recovery agenda."
"Research suggests that districts might be able to get a year’s worth of additional growth by providing students with three hours of tutoring, with three or fewer students per teacher — each week. A summer school session provides an academic quarter’s-worth of learning. An additional period of algebra instruction can teach students the material they would learn in one semester."
Federal
Congress:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi will step down as House Democratic leader but will remain in Congress, the California Democrat announced on the floor today.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer won’t run for elected Democratic leadership in the next Congress but will continue to serve in the House.
"Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar will run as a united front with buy-in from a large swath of the Democratic caucus that is eager to usher in a younger and more diverse group of leaders to power."
Senator McConnell wins secret-ballot election to continue leading Senate Republicans.
Covid Research
Many Covid Boosters Are Going Unused: WSJ: “Outreach is limited in part because Congress hasn’t approved additional Covid-19 funding, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Covid-19 response. Health officials and experts say that the recent easing of the pandemic has also played a role in public outreach and messaging.”
Doctors Are Running Out of Antibody Drugs to Treat Covid as Virus Mutates: Bloomberg:
"But with each new round of Covid mutations, various antibody drugs have been deemed ineffective and pulled off the market. And with very little progress in antibody drug development, it’s quite possible doctors will soon have none to choose from.'
“Instead of having more options with these new variants, we’re seeing less and less options,” Florian Krammer, a virologist at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine said at a Galien Forum panel last month. “That’s a big issue that I see for the coming 12 months."
COVID Communication Often Failed: How Health Policy Makers Can Do Better: Via Scientific American.
"The mask-messaging fiasco “was a big credibility mistake”, says Willer, a sociologist at Stanford University in California. “It hurt the response that they weren’t honest.” Leaders should always be transparent about why pandemic health measures are being implemented, he says, even if some facts are tough to swallow."
"The messages that have the most influence are not always the ones that policymakers assume will work. Appeals to the empathy and responsibility of the public, delivered by people whom listeners trust, can work better than outright mandates. Offering rewards for vaccination might be less effective than simply issuing reminders. Timing is also crucial—what motivates people at one stage of a pandemic might be less effective later. And, as the mixed messaging around masks shows, honesty is a baseline requirement."
Safety Concerns Lead COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Latino Parents: About three in five Latino parents attributed their COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy to concerns regarding vaccine safety and effectiveness, researchers found.
State
Minnesota: Minneapolis school board removes district's staff COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
New Mexico: A New Mexico vaccine advisory committee has recommended that students attending public schools should be vaccinated against COVID-19, but stopped short of seeking to add the vaccine to the state’s list of required immunizations.
Texas: Governor Abbott directs TEA, superintendents to prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students.
Economic Recovery
Thanksgiving Inflation: Via the WSJ. "This year’s Thanksgiving meal will cost American families about 14% more due to higher prices of turkey, flour, eggs and other staples"
"Whole bird turkey is up 16.7% for the month ended Oct. 30 compared with a year ago, according to IRI data, and bone-in ham is 11.2% higher over the same period."
Resources
Black Families Look to Continue Pod Schooling Movement Beyond Pandemic: Via The 74.
Schools Have Turned to Paper’s Online Tutoring. Some Worry It’s Falling Short: Via Chalkbeat.
Students Are Turning to TikTok for Homework Help: Via EdWeek.
"In fact, a general survey of TikTok users in the United States found that 1 in 4 use the platform for educational purposes, according to a new survey from online learning platform Study.com. And 69 percent of those who use TikTok for educational purposes said it has helped them complete their homework."
A New Strategy to Solve the Substitute Teacher Crisis: Via FutureEd.
"A new study we’ve done of substitutes in Chicago points to a simple and relatively inexpensive solution that could go a long way toward addressing the problem: providing subs financial incentives to work in hard-to-staff schools. Though common in the private sector, financial incentives don't have much history in public education, where educators have long been paid based on their college credits and years teaching."
Springsteen: With some great storytelling and acoustic performances of Thunder Road and Land of Hope and Dreams.