After an uncertain and challenging start to the school year, students will be able to return to Lahaina schools in mid-October, officials said Tuesday.

Hundreds of children from Lahaina have been attending schools elsewhere on Maui or undergoing distance learning since the Aug. 8 inferno that left much of the historic town in ruins, killing 97 people and uprooting thousands from their homes. 

One school, King Kamehameha III Elementary, was burned beyond repair, but the other three will reopen next month after extensive air, drinking water and soil quality testing and debris removal, according to the state Department of Education.

Lahainaluna High School will be the first to reopen on Oct. 16, followed by Lahaina Intermediate on Oct. 17 and Princess Nahi鈥檈na鈥檈na Elementary on Oct. 18. The elementary school will serve its original student population as well as students formerly enrolled in King Kamehameha III Elementary.

Meanwhile, a temporary campus is being built to replace King Kamehameha III Elementary at the Pulelehua project, a mixed-use development located between Kaanapali and Napili. The school should be ready for operations in approximately 95 days, said Col. Jesse T. Curry of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is helping build the facility. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will fund the $5.36 million in building costs, said DOE Superintendent Keith Hayashi. He added it is premature to talk about a timeline for building a permanent replacement for the school, although the department鈥檚 lease for the temporary site is currently set for three years. 

Prior to the start of the school year, 603 students were registered at King Kamehameha III Elementary, and 680 students were registered at Princess Nahi鈥檈na鈥檈na Elementary. A total of 3,001 students were registered at the four Lahaina campuses, which have been closed since the start of August.

Families may  in central and south Maui schools or in the Department of Education鈥檚 virtual learning option, Hayashi said. The department is still assessing its plans for the West Maui learning hubs providing in-person support to students enrolled in distance learning. 

鈥淥ur hope is that by providing the reopening dates, with about three weeks of lead time, families can use this information to make decisions that are in the best interest for their situation,鈥� Hayashi said. 

The DOE said all large debris has been removed from the schools, and they鈥檙e undergoing professional cleaning.

Kara Scott, who lives in Napili, said her 8-year-old son was set to start third grade at King Kamehameha III Elementary this year. She said her family needed the temporary school site 鈥測esterday,鈥� adding that she and her partner cannot afford to take more time off to supervise their son as he completes the state鈥檚 distance learning program. 

Even when Princess Nahi鈥檈na鈥檈na Elementary reopens after fall break, Scott is unsure if she will enroll her son, citing concerns about unsafe air and soil quality on the campus. 

鈥淲e don鈥檛 know enough about the air quality and soil and water, and we鈥檙e afraid,鈥� Scott said. 

David Brown, a special education teacher at King Kamehameha III, echoed Scott鈥檚 concerns of returning students to Princess Nahi鈥檈na鈥檈na Elementary, adding that some parents may not want their children passing by the site of the fire on a regular basis. However, he believes any site north of Kaanapali should be far enough away from the fires to ease parents鈥� concerns about their children鈥檚 health.

Kenneth Fink, director of the state Department of Health, emphasized that the drinking water and soil at the three Lahaina schools opening after fall break are safe. 

The air quality monitors on the three campuses have also consistently reported good air quality, Fink said, although the department will continue to monitor the air for any residual ash. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e very happy to be at this point that we can confidently say it鈥檚 safe for students and staff to return,鈥� Fink said. 

In a Board of Education meeting last week, deputy superintendent Tammi Oyadomari-Chun said the department鈥檚 reopening plan will include procedures for monitoring any changes to schools鈥� air quality. 

Rebuilding can take years, Gov. Josh Green said, but he hopes that a return to school will provide Lahaina students with a stable routine that can aid their recovery. 

鈥淭he best way for us to heal is to achieve normalcy,鈥� Green said. 

Civil Beat鈥檚 education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.

This story was originally published in .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

• : “Many American parents would be shocked to know where their kids were actually achieving. Nationally, 90% of parents think their children are reading and doing math at or above grade level. In fact, 26% of eighth graders are proficient or above in math and 31% are proficient or above in English, according to Learning Heroes, an organization that collects data and creates resources to improve parent-teacher relationships.”
• “There are two reasons for the staggering mismatch between what teachers know and what parents think. The first is that many report cards do not measure just achievement, or what a child knows, but a basket of items including attendance, effort, homework completion and behavior.”
• “The second reason parents are in the dark about their children鈥檚 performance is that teachers are neither trained nor given ample time to have honest conversations with them. They rightly fear that they will be blamed, not believed, or not supported by their principals if they tell parents exactly where their children are performing.”

Key Insights 

• : “What鈥檚 troubling about this variant, scientists say, is that it contains more than 30 mutations on the spike protein, which is what helps the virus enter cells and cause an infection. This means it might be able to evade current vaccines and previous infections more easily, and it likely won鈥檛 be a great match with the fall booster expected to be approved soon.”
• “What鈥檚 unknown is how transmissible the variant is and whether it will spread widely or fizzle out like many other variants. Another important, outstanding question is whether it causes more severe disease.”
• “, the CDC said scientists are evaluating the effectiveness of the fall COVID-19 booster, expected to roll out in September, and the new variant.”
• .

• : “If students can鈥檛 catch up, the learning loss may impact their future earnings and even become a drag on the U.S. economy.”
• ” 鈥業 hate to be so doom and gloom about it,鈥� said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a nonpartisan research and policy analysis organization. 鈥楤ut this is very serious. It鈥檚 an all-hands-on-deck moment for kids affected by COVID.鈥� 鈥�
• “First, school districts did not use all of their funds to address learning loss specifically.鈥�
• 鈥淎lso, reversing the learning loss is easier said than done. Some school districts are facing a variety of challenges including staff shortages. And many school leaders say that political polarization around LGBTQ+ issues, critical race theory and COVID-19 has disrupted schooling, according to a report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education and RAND.鈥�

• on new reports from and .
• The report from Education Resource Strategies identifies risk factors that indicate the likely severity of a district鈥檚 post-ESSER fiscal situation:
  • Districts that saw an enormous leap in per-pupil revenue likely faced more hurdles to spending that money quickly and wisely than districts that got only a small sum per student.
  • Districts that invested federal relief funds in recurring expenses like increased teacher salaries or new staff positions will have to find new funding sources to cover those investments or risk needing to cut them.
  • Districts seeing increases in state aid or local tax revenue will have an easier time filling ESSER-shaped budget holes than districts in states that have kept education funding flat amid high inflation.
  • Some states and localities allow districts to maintain funding reserves from state and local sources that they can use for emergency situations, like the sudden loss of federal relief aid. Those districts have a financial cushion that their counterparts in states that restrict how districts can spend excess money won鈥檛 have.
  • Districts that have been slow to invest their ESSER allocations could be tempted to hastily allocate funds to recurring or unwise expenses that come back to haunt them.

• : “Policymakers should pursue opportunities to allocate additional funding toward in-school day, high-impact tutoring, in time for the 2025 fiscal year. In tandem, policymakers could streamline policies to provide clarity and guidance for local system and school leaders鈥� use of federal funding.”
• “State and district system leaders should consider carry-forward dollars in federal funding streams that may have grown with the availability of ESSER. Tutoring programs could be further prioritized by using state and district set-asides across these funding streams.”
• “School leaders should use their Title I allocations to support their students鈥� learning needs by leveraging tutoring as an evidence-based intervention.”

• reports on a new
• “Teachers are leaving the classroom at higher rates, and the pool of candidates is not big enough to replace them.”
• “Tuan Nguyen, a Kansas State University education professor, last year set out with two colleagues to collect statewide data on teacher shortages. They counted more than 36,500 vacancies in 37 states and D.C. for the 2021-22 school year. Updated data found that teacher shortages had grown 35% among that group, to more than 49,000 vacancies.”

Gen Z鈥檚 Declining College Interest Persists 鈥� Even Among Middle Schoolers

• 蜜桃影视 on a new
• “Two in five Gen Z students agreed with the statement: 鈥楾he pandemic has made me less interested in pursuing higher education.鈥� 鈥�
• “That attitude has translated into an 8% decline in college enrollment from 2019 to 2022, showing how attending college is no longer a given for Gen Z.”
• “YPulse found Gen Z students were more likely to choose Google and YouTube over a teacher when asked: 鈥業f you wanted to learn something new, what resources would you use?鈥� 鈥�

Fueled by Teacher Shortages, 鈥榋oom-in-a-Room鈥� Makes a Comeback

• Via 蜜桃影视: “Live, online instruction in school has long linked students to subjects they couldn鈥檛 otherwise take, like A.P. Calculus or Latin. But as districts struggle to fill teaching vacancies, they are increasingly turning to companies like Proximity to teach core subjects.”
• “Districts are spending thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars on virtual teachers, according to 蜜桃影视鈥檚 review of purchase orders. 鈥� The practice 鈥� derided at the height of the pandemic as 鈥淶oom-in-a-room鈥� 鈥� is raising eyebrows as students return to school and continue to grapple with the lingering effects of remote learning.”

• : 鈥淪tep 1: Assume all students are going to use the technology.”
• “There is a lot of confusion and panic, but also a fair bit of curiosity and excitement. Mainly, educators want to know: How do we actually use this stuff to help students learn, rather than just try to catch them cheating?”
• 鈥淪econd, schools should stop relying on A.I. detector programs to catch cheaters.鈥�
• “My third piece of advice 鈥� is that teachers should focus less on warning students about the shortcomings of generative A.I. than on figuring out what the technology does well.”
• “My last piece of advice for schools that are flummoxed by generative A.I. is this: Treat this year 鈥� the first full academic year of the post-ChatGPT era 鈥� as a learning experience, and don鈥檛 expect to get everything right.”

鈥n a Lighter Note

WIIIII: .

Bear Cubs: .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

• Via : “Our analysis shows that nationwide, an estimated 17 million students have more than half a year of pandemic-related learning delay, 16 million students who need mental health support are not receiving it and 15 million students are chronically absent.”
• 鈥淪everal states and districts have seen accelerated rates of learning recovery after adopting high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and aligned professional development; providing high-quality, high-intensity tutoring; and extending the school year through summer or intensive-learning academies.鈥�
• High-quality materials 鈥減aired with high-quality aligned professional development have demonstrated effectiveness in raising students鈥� state assessment scores.”
• “A more realistic and sustainable approach may be to embed practices into future budgets. Extending the recovery period from one year to two, providing an additional year of HQIM and aligned professional development for teachers, could address 83% of students with pandemic-related learning delays.”

Key Insights 

• Via the and : Over a quarter of students missed at least 10% of the 2021-22 school year, leading to an estimated 6.5 million more chronically absent students. Absences were more prevalent among Latino, Black and low-income students.
• “In seven states, the rate of chronically absent kids doubled for the 2021-22 school year, from 2018-19, before the pandemic. Absences worsened in every state with available data 鈥� notably, the analysis found growth in chronic absenteeism did not correlate strongly with state COVID rates.”

• : “In the realm of education, this technology will influence how students learn, how teachers work and ultimately how we structure our education system.”
• “Prompts can also be constructed to get these AI systems to perform complex and multi-step operations. For example, let鈥檚 say a teacher wants to create an adaptive tutoring program 鈥� for any subject, any grade, in any language 鈥� that customizes the examples for students based on their interests. She wants each lesson to culminate in a short-response or multiple-choice quiz. If the student answers the questions correctly, the AI tutor should move on to the next lesson. If the student responds incorrectly, the AI should explain the concept again, but using simpler language.”
• “AI might tackle some of the administrative tasks that keep teachers from investing more time with their peers or students.”
• “AI鈥檚 ability to conduct human-like conversations opens up possibilities for or instructional assistants that can help .”
• “ with both educators and classmates.鈥�
• “While past technologies have not lived up to hyped expectations, AI is not merely a continuation of the past; it is a leap into a new era of machine intelligence that we are only beginning to grasp. While the immediate implementation of these systems is imperfect, the swift pace of improvement holds promising prospects.”

• “A new by the Economic Innovation Group, shared first with Axios, quantifies the reasons some of America’s biggest cities are struggling to rebuild their economies post-pandemic.”
• “It also shows a surge in income that arrived in many rural and exurban places and in popular vacation destinations.”
• “Not only did residents leave the biggest cities, but those who left disproportionately had high incomes, meaning the hit to those local economies was larger than migration numbers alone would imply.”
• “In San Francisco, out-migration caused a 20% drop in adjusted gross income from 2020 to 2021 as a share of the taxable income of those who stayed put. In Manhattan, that drop was 13%, and in Boston, 11%.”
• “Income flows out of urban areas and towards these growth regions appears to have been driven by upper-income households; in growing counties, in-migrants were on average higher earners than out-migrants, while in shrinking counties, out-migrants earned more than newcomers.”

• on a new : 鈥淢ore than a third of the national public school enrollment decline since COVID-19 pandemic cannot be attributed to switches to private school or homeschooling, or to a shrinking population of school-aged children, according to new research.鈥�
• “It鈥檚 likely that many of the students who are unaccounted for 鈥� generally schools鈥� youngest learners 鈥� opted to skip kindergarten altogether, a move that could have long-term consequences for their academic achievement.”
• 鈥� 鈥楤ecause such demographic changes are likely to be durable, districts that lost enrollment due to such factors are unlikely to see their enrollment rebound substantially,鈥� the report says.鈥�

• : “A 鈥� from researchers at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers reviews all current literature on athletes, sudden cardiac arrest and myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccines, and finds that athletes engaged in intensive activity are not at increased risk for heart complications following vaccination.”
• “An Australian study of more than 4 million young adults showed no increase in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest for those with recent COVID-19 infections or vaccination.”

• : “This study synthesizes 33 articles on the implementation of tutoring, defined as one-to-one or small-group instruction in which a human tutor supports students grades K-12 in an academic subject, to better understand the facilitators and barriers to program success.” 
• “We find that policies influenced tutoring implementation through the allocation of federal funding and stipulation of program design.”
• “Successful implementation hinged on the support of school leaders with the power to direct school funding, space and time. Tutoring setting and schedule, recruitment and training, and curriculum influenced whether students are able to access quality tutoring and instruction.”

U.S. Department of Education Announces Key K-12 Cybersecurity Resilience Efforts

• and 蜜桃影视: The department announced K-12 cybersecurity resilience efforts including the establishment of a Government Coordinating Council, as well as the release of the department鈥檚 three K-12 Digital Infrastructure briefs, including , and .

• : “The 鈥� effect of years of remote learning during the pandemic is gumming up workplaces around the country. It is one reason professional service jobs are going unfilled and goods aren鈥檛 making it to market. It also helps explain why national productivity has fallen for the past five quarters, the longest contraction since at least 1948, according to the U.S. Labor Department.”
• “The shortcomings run the gamut from general knowledge, including how to make change at a register, to soft skills such as working with others. Employers are spending more time and resources searching for candidates and often lowering expectations when they hire. Then they are spending millions to fix new employees鈥� lack of basic skills.”
• “Army recruits aren鈥檛 communicating within their squads as well as they did before the pandemic, instructors say. Scores on recruiting exams fell 9% since the pandemic and prompted the Army to create a new testing boot camp to help recruits pass, a requirement for gaining admission to the military.”

• : 鈥淭he Playbook is intended to serve as a tool for states to further impactful policy solutions that strengthen youth mental health.鈥� The central topics are:
  • Addressing prevention and building resilience
  • Increasing awareness and reducing stigma
  • Ensuring access and affordability of quality treatment and care
  • Training and supporting caregivers and educators

鈥n a Lighter NoteRun to the Ball:

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

• : A research brief on national end-of-school-year reading data for K-3 students revealed that while schools across the country have made progress in reading scores among earlier elementary grades (K-2), gains among third graders remains comparatively slow.
• “ compared to the 2021-22 school years, with the greatest gains among Black and Hispanic students. At the same time, third graders exhibited the least improvement from two years ago and no improvement from the prior year鈥檚 third-grade cohort. The slower improvements in grade 3 suggest a persistent impact on the cohort of students most affected by lost instructional time during the pandemic.”

Key Insights

• : 鈥淎聽聽of 31 studies published through December 2022 reveals that persistent symptoms three months after confirmed COVID-19 infections, or 鈥榣ong COVID,鈥� affect 16% of children and adolescents.鈥�
• The most common persistent symptoms seen in the studies were sore throat, persistent fever, sleep disturbance, fatigue and muscle weakness.

• on a new
• “For applicants with the same SAT or ACT score, children from families in the top 1% were 34% more likely to be admitted than the average applicant, and those from the top 0.1% were more than twice as likely to get in.”
• “The new data shows that among students with the same test scores, the colleges gave preference to the children of alumni and to recruited athletes, and gave children from private schools higher nonacademic ratings. The result is the clearest picture yet of how America鈥檚 elite colleges perpetuate the intergenerational transfer of wealth and opportunity.”
• 鈥� 鈥榃hat I conclude from this study is the Ivy League doesn鈥檛 have low-income students because it doesn鈥檛 want low-income students,鈥� said Susan Dynarski, an economist at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who has reviewed the data and was not involved in the study.”

Education鈥檚 Long COVID Continues

• Via Lindsay Dworkin in 蜜桃影视: “Researchers Karyn Lewis and Megan Kuhfeld analyzed test score data from approximately 6.7 million students in grades 3 to 8 in 20,000 public schools who took MAP Growth reading and math assessments last academic year.”
• “They found that, in nearly all grades, achievement gains last year fell short of pre-pandemic trends. Because students are behind where they were before the pandemic, they would need to make greater-than-ordinary progress to get back on track. NWEA data show that isn鈥檛 happening; over the course of the 2022-23 school year, older students鈥� movement toward full recovery stalled.”
• “NWEA researchers now estimate that on average, students will require interventions and support equivalent to 4.1 months of additional schooling to catch up to pre-COVID levels in reading and 4.5 months in math.”

• “A University College London-led team finds a very low risk of pediatric intensive care unit admission and death from COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) during the first two years of the pandemic, with the highest risk among children with complex medical problems and neurodisabilities.”
• “We must now look beyond counts of pediatric COVID-19 cases to understand, measure and reduce the deleterious indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children 鈥� and at a time when many have declared the COVID-19 pandemic ‘over,’ our efforts to overcome these secondary pandemic effects have only just begun,” they wrote.

• Registered Republicans experienced a “significantly higher” rate of excess deaths than Democrats in Florida and Ohio in the months after COVID-19 vaccines were made widely available, .
• “The study looked at deaths in both Florida and Ohio during the first 22 months of the pandemic and found the overall excess death rate of Republican voters was 15% higher than that of Democrats. “
• .

• : 鈥淏y 2030, activities that account for up to 30% of hours currently worked across the U.S. economy could be automated 鈥� a trend accelerated by generative AI.鈥�
• 鈥淎n additional 12 million occupational transitions may be needed by 2030. As people leave shrinking occupations, the economy could reweight toward higher-wage jobs. Workers in lower-wage jobs are up to 14 times more likely to need to change occupations than those in highest-wage positions, and most will need additional skills to do so successfully. Women are 1.5 times more likely to need to move into new occupations than men.鈥�
• 鈥淏y 2030, we further estimate a 23% increase in the demand for STEM jobs.鈥�
• 鈥淧eople in the two lowest-wage quintiles (those earning less than $30,800 a year and those earning $30,800 to $38,200 a year) are up to 10 and 14 times more likely, respectively, to need to change occupations by the end of this decade than the highest earners.鈥�

鈥� And on a Lighter Note 

Two For One:

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

• “The story is this. When COVID arrived on American shores, the United States did not have to collapse into COVID partisanship, with citizen turning against citizen and each party vilifying the other as the source of our national misery. Instead, political leaders could have moved forward more or less in unison, navigating epidemiological uncertainties unencumbered by the weight of the culture war.”
  
• “This is one of the revelations of 鈥�,鈥� by 34 experts, published in April by PublicAffairs.”
  
• “Probably the most explosive and long-lasting fight was over school closings, but those fights didn鈥檛 take off in earnest until September 2020 at the earliest. According to a database maintained by Education Week, all but nine states ordered their schools closed for the remainder of the academic year in spring 2020. Of the nine that didn鈥檛, three with Democratic governors, including California, and four with Republican governors, including Florida, recommended it. Two controlled by Republicans left the question up to local school districts.”

鈥楨ducation鈥檚 Long COVID鈥�: Recovery Stalled for Most Students, Data Show

• Via 蜜桃影视: 鈥溾�嬧�婸andemic recovery has essentially stalled for most of the nation鈥檚 students, new data shows, and upper elementary and middle school students actually lost ground this year in reading and math.鈥� 

• 鈥淥n average, students need four more months in school to catch up to pre-pandemic levels, according to the results from NWEA, a K-12 assessment provider. This fall鈥檚 ninth graders need far more 鈥� roughly a full extra school year.鈥�
  
• .

• : “Efforts to develop the next generation of COVID vaccines are running up against bureaucratic hassles and regulatory uncertainty, scientists say, obstacles that could make it harder to curb the spread of the coronavirus and arm the United States against future pandemics.”
  
• “Project NextGen, conceived with COVID deaths at their lowest level, has neither Warp Speed鈥檚 vast money nor the mandate to purchase shots in bulk.”

• : 鈥淒ire warnings of teacher shortages are nothing new, especially during the pandemic, and are sometimes overblown. But a confluence of warning signs suggest that the country is at a post-pandemic inflection point.鈥�
  
  • 鈥淢ore teachers left the classroom last year, new data confirms鈥�
    
  • 鈥淭eacher morale has dropped sharply since the pandemic鈥�
    
  • 鈥淔ewer people want to become teachers鈥�
    
  • 鈥淪ome schools and subjects have longed faced major shortages 鈥� and continue to鈥�

$190 Billion Later, Reason to Worry Relief Funds Won鈥檛 Curb COVID鈥檚 Academic Crisis

• Via 蜜桃影视: A 鈥�10-month examination by 蜜桃影视 shows that many districts haven鈥檛 used the funds with the urgency intended. Some have barely tapped monies advocates say are critical for academic recovery, while others have pumped millions of dollars into major classroom additions, upgrading athletic fields and other expenditures unrelated to the pandemic.鈥� 

• 鈥淲ith just over a year left to allocate the funds, the question isn鈥檛 only if districts will hit the September 2024 deadline, but whether the unprecedented windfall will leave students better off.鈥�

• The catch: 鈥淒istricts have not made it easy to answer those questions.鈥� 

• : 鈥淏eginning Sept. 30, 2023, states will face a steep dropoff in federal child care investment. Without congressional action, this cliff will have dire consequences. More than 3 million children are projected to lose access to child care nationwide. Seventy-thousand child care programs are likely to close.鈥�
  
• 鈥淚n addition, we project that millions of parents will be impacted, with many leaving the workforce or reducing their hours, costing families $9 billion each year in lost earnings.鈥�

• : Recently, 鈥淭he New York Times the pandemic is over. We are in a very different place. And, I understand the desire for a 鈥榯hank goodness that鈥檚 done鈥� mindset. And I hope COVID-19 isn鈥檛 always on top of your mind.鈥�
  
• But: 鈥淐OVID-19 is increasing; don鈥檛 be surprised to hear more people getting infected around you. I already am. This isn鈥檛 enough reason to change my personal behaviors, but that time may come this fall.鈥�

鈥� And on a Lighter Note

This Week鈥檚 Top Story 

How Billions in COVID-19 Relief Aid Was Stolen or Wasted

• : “An Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID relief aid.”
• 鈥淗ow could so much be stolen? 鈥� In short, [investigators and outside experts] say, the grift was just way too easy.鈥�
• 鈥淢ost of the looted money was swiped from three large pandemic-relief initiatives launched during the Trump administration and inherited by President Joe Biden. Those programs were designed to help small businesses and unemployed workers survive the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic.鈥�

The Big Three

• : “We estimate the impact of district-level schooling mode (in-person versus hybrid or virtual learning) in the 2020-21 school year on students’ pass rates on standardized tests in grades 3 to 8 across 11 states.”
• : 鈥淪chool districts with in-person learning had smaller declines than those with remote or hybrid learning models.鈥�

• : “In this interim analysis of children aged 5 years and younger, safety surveillance of more than 245鈥�000 COVID-19 mRNA vaccine doses over nine months did not detect a safety signal for any outcome during the 21 days after vaccination. Importantly, no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis occurred after vaccination.” 

• : 鈥淧arents of young children have long been among the most susceptible groups for vaccine hesitancy, since most shots are administered to infants who are often vulnerable to deadly diseases. Online anti-vaccine rhetoric often appeals specifically to mothers, calling on them to 鈥榩rotect鈥� their children from the shots.鈥�
• Heather Simpson, a mother in Dallas, started Back to the Vax, an organization that 鈥渁ims to counter that [anti-vax] narrative by supporting parents, educating doctors and creating online resources. The organization recommends parents call a doctor instead of searching for answers online, and also advises doctors on communicating with parents who are on the fence about vaccines.”

COVID-19 Research

• “An expert panel of the FDA on Thursday , unanimously recommending that they target an Omicron strain known as XBB that’s responsible for nearly every infection in the U.S.”
• and . And more via .
• : “Pfizer said it could distribute reformulated doses as early as the end of July, depending on the strain selected. Moderna said it expects to begin shipping updated doses, pending FDA approval, 鈥榖y the end of the summer.鈥� Novavax said it could have updated doses available in the fall.”

• on a new : “MIT researchers asked undergraduate students to test whether chatbots 鈥榗ould be prompted to assist non-experts in causing a pandemic.鈥� “
• “Within an hour, the chatbots suggested four potential pandemic pathogens.”
• “Our results demonstrate that artificial intelligence can exacerbate catastrophic biological risks. Highly intelligent students without any relevant technical background in the life sciences can use 鈥� chatbots to walk them through the process of identifying and acquiring publicly known potential pandemic pathogens. This represents a major international security vulnerability.”

City & State News

California: federal COVID relief despite deep, widespread learning loss.

Kansas: : 鈥業 have kids that legitimately cannot read.鈥�

Minnesota: to help cover $97 million gap in proposed budget.

Viewpoints

Educators Beware: As Budget Cuts Loom, Now Is NOT the Time to Quit Your Job: Via Katherine Silberstein and Marguerite Roza in 蜜桃影视. “In the last few years, the hiring bonanza has been fueled by a flood of federal pandemic relief funds (ESSER). Districts across the country used that money to add staff that they wouldn鈥檛 have been able to afford otherwise. Now, that funding is set to disappear by the fall of 2024, which means districts are paying for more employees than they can afford.”

How COVID Changed High School Seniors’ Plans About College and Their Future Careers: . “Of this year鈥檚 graduating class, who were ninth graders when the health crisis began, more than 40% of students changed their thinking about their college major or future career because of COVID, according to new .”

The Pandemic Wiped Out Decades of Progress for Preschoolers. It鈥檚 Time to Get Them Back On Track: .

…And on a Lighter Note

Swearing, Dippin Dots and an Economics Lesson in Inflation: .

School’s out for the Summer: .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

• “Babies and toddlers are being diagnosed with speech and language delays in greater numbers, part of developmental and academic setbacks for children of all ages after the pandemic. Children born during or slightly before the pandemic are more likely to have problems communicating compared with those born earlier, studies show. Speech therapists and doctors are struggling to meet the increased need for evaluation and treatment.”
• “In an analysis of nearly 2.5 million children younger than 5 years old, researchers 鈥� found that for each year of age, first-time speech delay diagnoses increased by an average of 1.6 times between 2018-19 and 2021-22. The highest increase was among 1-year-olds, the researchers said.”
• 鈥淵oung children with delayed speech should get treatment as early as possible because children with communication problems tend to have more difficulty in school later on, speech and language experts said.鈥�

The Big Three

Detroit Schools Got $1.3 Billion in COVID Relief. It Might Not Be Enough

• “With more than half the money already out the door, less than 1% has gone toward bringing students back to classrooms, according to officials, despite two-thirds of the district鈥檚 53,400 students last year missing school at a threshold researchers say puts them academically at risk.”
• “Detroit is using COVID stimulus money to cover $700 million worth of expenses it typically pays for with its general fund, leaving the saved cash in its reserves with no spending deadline. The size of its general fund has swollen over 500% since stimulus funds began flowing and will be drawn down over the next five years, the district said.”

• “High-poverty school districts (46%) are much more likely to say they plan to spend remaining stimulus aid on addressing learning loss in elementary-grades math than are low-poverty school systems (29%).”
• “District and school leaders from high-poverty school systems will put a greater priority on learning recovery in secondary-grades math (40%) than will their peers in low-poverty systems (25%).”
• “K-12 officials from school districts in the Southern U.S. (46%) and Western states (36%) are significantly more likely to spend remaining stimulus money on learning recovery in elementary math than are those based in the Midwest (24%) and Northeast (21%).”

• 鈥淎mericans are much more confident in routine childhood vaccines than COVID-19 shots, but support for vaccine requirements in schools has slipped from pre-pandemic levels, according to a new .鈥�
• 鈥淲hat [Pew researchers] found: 88% of Americans believe the benefits of childhood vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella outweigh the risks, compared to 62% who have the same views about COVID-19 vaccines.鈥�
• .

Federal Updates

Department of Health and Human Services: Announced “.” Innovative, community-led solutions to advance the mental health of children and youth. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• to help protect people from respiratory infections, with a goal of at least five air changes each hour and upgraded filters.
• for K-12 Schools and Early Care and Education Programs to Support Safe In-Person Learning鈥�

COVID-19 Research

• “Now entering its fourth year, the COVID-19 pandemic remains one of the most significant threats to global public health, at a cost of more than 6.5 million lives lost and trillions of dollars in lost economic output to date.”
• “In addition to direct effects of the pandemic, resultant economic, human security, political and national security implications of COVID-19 continue to strain recovery efforts, presenting both known and unforeseen challenges that probably will ripple through society and the global economy during the next year and for years to come.”
• “Countries globally remain vulnerable to the emergence or introduction of a novel pathogen that could cause a devastating new pandemic.”
• “The [intelligence community] continues to investigate how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, first infected humans, maintaining a Community of Interest across agencies.”

• “A new nationwide French comparing outcomes for patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) for either influenza or COVID-19 due to acute respiratory failure shows that . The study was published yesterday in the Journal of Infection.”

City & State News

Kansas: .

New York: during the first half of the school year.

Rhode Island: “The Barrington School Committee has .”

• “Brittany DiOrio, Stephanie Hines and Kerri Thurber will each receive a payment of $33,333, a spokesperson for the school district announced. 鈥� Additionally, they will receive back pay: $65,000 for Hines, $128,000 for Thurber and $150,000 for DiOrio. The three teachers’ legal counsel will receive $50,000 in attorney’s fees.”

Utah: .

Viewpoints and Resources

: Via FutureEd with 86 pages of promising solutions. 

With New Grants, 5 States Could Lead the Way to Widespread, Effective Tutoring: Via Kevin Huffman

: Via Chalkbeat

: Via EdChoice and MorningConsult

: NYT essay by the members of Biden-Harris Transition COVID Advisory Board

: Via McKinsey

鈥� And on a Lighter Note

Big Sports Weekend:

• .

• New world record for the : 856 feet.

• .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

• Tom Kane and Sean Reardon in
• 鈥淢ath, reading and history scores from the past three years show that students learned far less during the pandemic than was typical in previous years. By the spring of 2022, according to our calculations, the average student was half a year behind in math and a third of a year behind in reading.鈥�
• 鈥淥ur detailed geographic data reveals what national tests do not: The pandemic exacerbated economic and racial educational inequality.鈥�
• 鈥淭he pandemic left students in low-income and predominantly minority communities even further behind their peers in richer, whiter districts than they were.鈥�
• “In the hardest-hit communities 鈥� where students fell behind by more than one and a half years in math 鈥� schools would have had to teach 150% of a typical year鈥檚 worth of material for three years in a row just to catch up.鈥�

The Big Three

• /
• : “The decision was made on the advice of a panel of independent experts, the so-called COVID-19 emergency committee. 鈥� Though a couple of members of the committee were reportedly hesitant about the move, the majority agreed COVID no longer meets the criteria of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.”

• “The WHO Emergency Committee believes three things: COVID-19 is not unusual and unexpected; cross-border transmission can鈥檛 (and won鈥檛) be stopped; COVID-19 does not require a coordinated international response.”
• “This doesn鈥檛 mean the end of a pandemic.鈥�

• “Reversing [the learning loss] crisis will require a historic investment. The good news is, that鈥檚 just what states and school districts have gotten from Congress: approximately $190 billion from coronavirus rescue plans.”
• “High-dosage tutoring, done correctly, could compensate [for COVID learning loss], giving kids as much as an additional year of growth every year it鈥檚 implemented.”
• “High-dosage tutoring is essential to make up for the learning loss COVID-19 has wrought. It could also help ensure future students don鈥檛 lose so much to begin with.”

• Via : “To help crystallize the events of the past three years, a team of 34 experts from public health, global health, science, academia and industry 鈥� called the 鈥� spent two years examining the nation’s response. [In April] they published a book on their investigation, .鈥�
• “Group members held ‘listening sessions’ with nearly 300 people, and in the absence of a federal commission on the topic, they felt a duty to speak out about what they found.” 
• via USA Today

Federal Updates

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky to Step Down June 30. ;

Department of Health and Human Services: fact sheet

• 鈥淲e know so many people continue to be affected by COVID-19, particularly seniors, people who are immunocompromised and people with disabilities. That is why our response to the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, remains a public health priority. To ensure an orderly transition, we have been working for months so that we can continue to meet the needs of those affected by COVID-19.鈥�
• Related:

Surgeon General: Released a facing our country, the destructive impacts it has on our collective health and the extraordinary healing power of our relationships. ;

National Center for Education Statistics: : 2022 NAEP Civics Assessment. ; 蜜桃影视

Education Department:

COVID-19 Research

Some Messages More Likely to Sway Parents to Vaccinate Kids Against COVID

• on new
• “A survey of 898 parents found that more were very likely to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 after reading messages indicating that other trusted parents have done so or that the vaccine is safe, but not when the messages said the vaccine is well-tolerated.”

How Well Does Masking Work? And Other Pandemic Questions We Need to Answer

• : “We should be systematically studying pandemic mitigation efforts in order to 鈥宭earn which interventions are effective and how best to employ them. 鈥孞ust as important: We should 鈥屸�宒o so with the understanding that the absence of evidence of effectiveness is not the same as having evidence of ineffectiveness.鈥�

City & State News 

Ohio: “The state legislature recently expanded its , which provides qualifying families with a $1,000 credit per child for enrichment and educational activities.”

Tennessee: Penny Schwinn, influential state education chief, to step down.

Texas: Burbio analyzed 2022-23 enrollments in Texas. 鈥� that have announced 2022-23 enrollments to date.鈥�

Virginia: to parents of school-age children for tutoring in different subjects.

Viewpoints

Post-Pandemic, It鈥檚 Time for a Bold Overhaul of U.S. Public Education

• : “Education leaders must be brave and stand up and admit publicly and repeatedly that this system just isn鈥檛 working and discuss what is needed to improve it. Policymakers must revamp our education system鈥檚 faulty design and the failed policies that prevent us from trying new approaches.”
• “We believe that this can be achieved by making the future of learning more personalized, focused on the needs of individual learners, with success measured by progress and proficiency instead of point-in-time test scores.”

Teen Survey

• Via EdChoice and Morning Consult. ;
• Teens indicate their lives have improved in many areas since the height of the pandemic. They continue to feel better about their relationships with their close friends and immediate family since the pandemic. Stress and anxiety remain challenges.
• Less than 1 in 3 teens feel their school is handling mental health effectively.

How States Can Support Ongoing Academic Recovery

• Give parents clear, accessible information on their children鈥檚 progress and needs.
• Support the development of individualized learning plans for students.
• Provide individualized catch-up opportunities.

鈥� And on a Lighter Note

Thank You Kaya: .

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

• : “This study extends research evidence to additional student outcomes 鈥� absences, course grades and grade retention 鈥� and to examine how pandemic effects are distributed across students.”
• “Using a combination of descriptive and regression analyses, we find negative average impacts on all outcomes.” 
• “Effects are also largest in middle school for most outcomes and are typically larger among historically marginalized groups of students.”

Top Three

• “Scent-trained dogs detected COVID-19 infection with 83% sensitivity and 90% specificity in nearly 3,900 screenings at California K-12 schools in spring 2022, according to a .” More via .
• ” 鈥榃hile modifications are needed before widespread implementation, and could be used for other pathogens,鈥� [researchers] concluded.”

• : 鈥淸Last week] in Pediatrics the safety data of the Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT-162b2) COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents ages 12 to 17 years. After one year, very few serious adverse events were reported, and instances of myocarditis (inflammation of heart muscle) were lower than initially reported.鈥�
• “The authors conclude that the vaccine is safe for this age group, noting that the risk of cardiac disease after COVID-19 infection may be two- to sixfold higher than after vaccination.”

• : “AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and The Jed Foundation this week announced the initiative, called , that aims to provide school districts across the country with a framework of best practices, expert support and data-driven guidance about how to best support students鈥� mental health and prevent suicide.”
• “The organization鈥檚 guidance for high schools focuses on seven overarching themes: developing life skills, promoting social connectedness, encouraging help-seeking behaviors, improving recognition of signs of distress, access to mental health care, establishing crisis management procedures and promoting the importance of keeping lethal and dangerous items away from children.”
• Related: Despite 鈥榗risis,鈥� states and districts slow to spend $1B in mental health funds

Federal Updates

White House: . A potential replacement could be senior adviser Neera Tanden.

Education Department: .

Institute of Education Sciences: Director Mark Schneider shares his priorities.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: . .

City & State News

California: than before pandemic.

Michigan: as COVID funding comes to an end.

New York: “Enrollment in New York City’s public schools, the country’s largest school district, , according to a fiscal watchdog funded by the city.”

North Carolina: “A of North Carolina test results from the 2021-22 school year shows that students made significant strides from the previous year in recovering instructional time lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Ohio: .

COVID-19 Research

• 鈥淎 of U.S. counties suggests that communities with schools that switched from remote to in-person instruction in fall 2020 four to eight weeks later than those that remained virtual.鈥�
• “The magnitude of school contribution to community transmission found in this study must be interpreted in the context of the potential benefits of in-person instruction models on the academic, social, mental health and physical outcomes of many students.” 
• “The implications for future public health preparedness include consideration of the relatively small and manageable magnitude of school contribution to community transmission that may present a tolerable risk for the resumption of in-person education, with sufficient mitigation measures.”

• 鈥淏ased on the , the [World Health Organization] on April 20 said it elevated XBB.1.16 from a variant under monitoring to a variant of interest.鈥�
• “. XBB.1.16 doesn’t seem to come with additional health risks compared to XBB.1.5, but it may become dominant in some countries owing to its growth advantage and immune escape properties.”

In-Depth

• : “Thirteen of the nation鈥檚 20 largest districts have added teletherapy since the pandemic began.”
• 鈥� 鈥業t鈥檚 not for everybody, but for those students and parents who want that, it鈥檚 been fantastic,鈥� said JaMaiia Bond, who oversees student mental health services for Compton鈥檚 schools in California, which started offering teletherapy through Hazel Health this school year.”

• : “The movement, under the banner of 鈥榯he science of reading,鈥� is targeting the education establishment: school districts, literacy gurus, publishers and colleges of education, which critics say have failed to embrace the cognitive science of how children learn to read.”
• “Ohio, California and Georgia are the latest states to push for reform, adding to almost 20 states that have made moves in the last two years. Under pressure, school districts are scrapping their old reading programs.”

Bill Gates Talks Learning Recovery, AI and His Big Bet on Math

• Via 蜜桃影视: 鈥淭here is a gigantic upside in improving our public education system, both economically and in terms of equity,鈥� Gates said. 鈥淏ut the country鈥檚 not falling apart as much as you might think.鈥�
• “The shortcomings of the U.S. education system are clear in terms of the inequity you end up with: the kind of jobs, salaries, mobility you鈥檇 like to see in society. Education is the great enabler of mobility, and we鈥檙e falling short on that.鈥�
• 鈥淚 think the predictions that this is going to hurt us in the long run are true, and we鈥檇 be further ahead if we were running our education system as well as we鈥檇 like to.”

…And on a Lighter Note

She Literally Did a Cartwheel: .

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

New Campaign Tries to Convince Parents Their Kids Have Fallen Behind

• “The advertising campaign will target the six cities 鈥� Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York City, Sacramento County in California and Washington, D.C. 鈥� with displays of side-by-side data showing the percentage of students proficient in math or English in that city and the percentage of parents who think their child is at or above grade level in that subject.”
• “A 鈥� a nonprofit focused on ensuring parents have accurate information about students鈥� progress 鈥� found that 92% of parents believe their children are at grade level and doing fine in the classroom despite evidence that a majority of students are struggling.”
• More here:

The Big Three

What We Know So Far: Post COVID-19 Test Score Recovery

• : NBER paper from Clare Halloran, Claire Hug, Rebecca Jack and Emily Oster.
• “We use state test score data to analyze patterns of test score recovery over the 2021-22 school year.”
• “On average, we find that 20% of test score losses are recovered in English language arts (ELA) by 2022, compared to 37% in math.” 
• “These recovery rates do not significantly vary across demographic characteristics, baseline achievement rates, in-person schooling rates in the pandemic school year or category-based measures of recovery funding allocations.”
• Related: , led by Oster, is seeking input from education professionals, researchers and journalists who work with state assessment data, via a . The purpose of this is to better understand how the data are being used and to better understand areas for growth. 

Six Budget Considerations for Districts as ESSER Fiscal Cliff Looms

• 鈥淲ith the last federal COVID-19 relief fund deadline approaching in 18 months, district financial teams should prepare for financial stress over the next two years that could be worse than the last recession, according to Marguerite Roza, an education finance researcher and director of Georgetown University鈥檚 Edunomics Lab.鈥�
• 鈥淲hile most district leaders don鈥檛 yet have a game plan, budgeting decisions made by districts later this spring 鈥� as well as earlier decision-making, like where they invested ESSER funds 鈥� will determine how well they are able to weather the storm.鈥�
• .

National COVID Emergency Ends

• President Joe Biden has .
• However: 鈥淭he law Biden signed Monday 鈥� along with the Trump-era Title 42 border policy.鈥�

COVID-19 Research

School Closures During COVID-19: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

• : “Both school closures and in-school mitigations were associated with reduced COVID-19 transmission, morbidity and mortality in the community. School closures were also associated with reduced learning, increased anxiety and increased obesity in pupils.”

Scientists Continue to Debate COVID-19 Origins

• : “Chinese researchers who isolated three live SARS-CoV-2 viruses and viral DNA from environmental samples at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, say the findings , according to a published today in Nature.”

City & State News

Florida: .

• “An analysis that was the basis of a highly criticized recommendation from Florida鈥檚 surgeon general cautioning young men against getting the COVID-19 vaccine omitted information that showed catching the virus could increase the risk of a cardiac-related death much more than getting the mRNA shot, according to drafts of the analysis obtained by the .”

Tennessee: A state law could in bid to help kids recover from the pandemic.

California: during spring break in Los Angeles Unified.

These 15 states could take the biggest hit as ESSER funds expire: on a new .

Viewpoints

America鈥檚 Teens Are in Crisis. States Race to Respond

• : 鈥淩esponding to clamoring from parents, and dreadful stories of youth suicide and hospitalizations, leaders in both parties convey an increasing sense of urgency to address epidemic levels of teenage anxiety, depression, loneliness and lashing out.鈥�
• Related: Teen mental health crisis pushes more school districts to sue social media giants, via 蜜桃影视

Rewrite Attendance Laws to Promote Learning, Not Seat Time

• : 鈥淭wo depressing developments of the past couple years have given birth to a radical idea: Let鈥檚 rethink state 鈥榗ompulsory attendance鈥� laws so that they鈥檙e phrased in terms of kids learning rather than years in school.鈥�
• First: 鈥淓vidence that lots of students are not availing themselves of high-dose tutoring when it鈥檚 available, no matter how much they need and would benefit from it, and they鈥檙e not signing up for summer school, either.”
• Second: 鈥淭he growing number of districts and schools that are moving to four-day weeks, ostensibly to deal with budget woes and teacher shortages, ease burn-out and forestall quitting.”
• “Maybe, finally, today we鈥檝e reached an inflection point where, with the help of better assessments, lots of 24/7 technology and much greater concern with 鈥榬eadiness,鈥� we should ease off the focus on time and refocus instead on mastery.”
• Related analysis via 蜜桃影视: Students in 4-day-a-week schools can suffer COVID-level learning losses

…And on a Lighter Note

It’s Officially Spring:

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

Awash in Federal Money, State Lawmakers Tackle Worsening Youth Mental Health

• Via Stateline
• New York City: 鈥淢ayor Eric Adams announced a broad mental health agenda that includes a youth suicide prevention program.”
• North Carolina: 鈥淕ov. Roy Cooper declared that the state would spend $7.7 million to provide suicide prevention training for university and community college personnel, create a mental health hotline for students and develop resiliency training for faculty, staff and students.”
• New Jersey: 鈥淕ov. Phil Murphy unveiled a $14 million mental health grant program that targets K-12 schools with the greatest need.”
• Rhode Island: 鈥淕ov. Daniel McKee introduced a $7.2 million program to train K-12 school employees to detect mental illness and suicide risk, respond to it and connect students and families to community social services.”
• “Last year, Illinois, Iowa and Maryland launched programs to provide mental health training for school personnel.”
• “And Arizona, California and South Carolina raised Medicaid reimbursement rates to incentivize behavioral health providers to provide services in schools.”
• Related: California .

The Big Three

• “It may look like the pandemic is over; stadiums are open again, crowds are everywhere, and hardly a mask in sight. But COVID hurt a lot of things you can’t easily see, especially in schools. 
• Harlem Children鈥檚 Zone founder Geoffrey Canada: “I feel like I just need to stand on a mountaintop and just yell, ‘Take this seriously! Everything is at stake right now!’ “
• ” 鈥楾here’s a whole cohort of young people who are not going to get the kind of education that’s going to allow them to get the best jobs,鈥� Canada said. 鈥業t’s going to cost lots of kids tens of thousands of dollars over their earnings, or some, hundreds of thousands of dollars.鈥� “

COVID Exploited Political Divisions Along With Racial and Health Disparities

• on a new in The Lancet. More via .
• “For deaths, they found a fourfold difference in rates across states, with fatalities lowest in Hawaii and New Hampshire and highest in Arizona and Washington, D.C.”
• “Overall, they found that states with higher poverty, lower levels of education, less access to quality health care and less trust in others had disproportionately higher rates of COVID infections and deaths.”

Education Department Approves Extensions for ESSER Spending

• directed to districts, known as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief I, said James Lane, senior adviser in the Office of the Secretary, in an email to K-12 Dive.鈥�
• “The seven states, along with the District of Columbia, that requested and received approval to extend districts鈥� ESSER I spending timeline now have until March 30, 2024, or 14 months beyond Jan. 28, 2023, to draw down those funds.鈥�
• The states are Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

Federal Updates

White House Disbanding Its COVID-19 Team in May: .

Food and Drug Administration Authorizes Pfizer Bivalent COVID Booster for Kids 6 Months Through Age 4: In amending the emergency use authorization, the FDA said the .

City & State News

New Budget Numbers: from New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, plus Seattle, from Burbio.

Connecticut: “Gov. Ned Lamont and Education Commissioner Charlene M. Russell Tucker today that the Connecticut State Department of Education is preparing to launch the 鈥� a new statewide program for students in grades 6 to 9 that will provide intensive tutoring in mathematics to accelerate learning and address learning loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Illinois: Wednesday but still promised to increase funds for pandemic recovery, migrant students and other needs in the coming school year鈥檚 budget.

Michigan:

New Mexico

• Online tutoring company
• In rare move, New Mexico adds weeks鈥� worth of extra K-12 class time

COVID-19 Research

Do We Need a Spring COVID-19 Booster?

• “If you鈥檙e immunocompromised and/or an older adult with a comorbidity (and it鈥檚 been six months since an infection or last booster), a spring booster may be a good idea to stay ahead of the virus.”
• “Will it be official U.S. policy? We don鈥檛 know. There are rumors of FDA conversations happening behind closed doors. Hopefully, we will have an answer soon. But, as you can tell, it鈥檚 not a straightforward call.”

COVID Origins 

• Advisers to the World Health Organization have urged China to after new findings were briefly shared on an international database used to track pathogens.
• New York Times: “An international team of virus experts said 鈥� that they had , adding evidence to the case that the worst pandemic in a century could have been ignited by an infected animal that was being dealt through the illegal wildlife trade.”
• Vox: “.”

Viewpoints

Most Americans Doubt Their Children Will Be Better Off

• on a new
• The poll shows 鈥渟hows growing skepticism about the value of a college degree and record-low levels of overall happiness.鈥�

Schools Bought Tech to Accelerate Learning. Is It Working?

• “With federal COVID-relief funding, schools purchased tech tools to help students make up for the unfinished learning that happened during the most critical period of the pandemic. 
• “While there are digital tools that are pushing the envelope on learning acceleration, there are other ed tech tools that claim to accelerate learning but aren鈥檛 actually aligned with the principles of learning acceleration, said Bailey Cato Czupryk, the senior vice president of learning, impact and design for TNTP, a nonprofit that consults with districts on teacher training, instructional strategy and other education issues.”
• “Zearn 鈥� is an example many experts pointed to. A analyzing the impact of the Nebraska education department鈥檚 statewide partnership with Zearn found that elementary and middle school students who consistently used Zearn had 2.5 times the growth in their state assessment scores than students who did not use Zearn.”

• “The development of AI is as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet and the mobile phone. .”

鈥� And on a Lighter Note

The Look-a-Like Cam: 鈥� wait for the end.

Happy National Puppy Day: .

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

• “By March 25, every public school building in the country had been closed, taking more than 50 million students out of the classroom.”
• “What this means is that paradoxically, the age group that was most resistant to the virus itself may be the group that pays the biggest price over the longest term. Call it the 鈥榦ther long COVID鈥� 鈥� and it鈥檚 something the U.S. is only beginning to grapple with.”
• “One survey found that on average, children missed 26 days鈥� worth of school through the first half of the 2021-22 school year, while a New York Times survey found that in January 2022, in the midst of the Omicron outbreak, a majority of students were at home for at least three days, while almost one in 10 were out for half the month or more.”
• ” 鈥楲earning loss鈥� may be the term experts agreed on when describing the effect of pandemic school disruptions, but for the most part, students didn鈥檛 suddenly lose what they had already achieved before the pandemic.”
• “Rather, they lost the opportunity and the time to build on what they knew. And while that may have been a temporary hindrance for high-achieving students who had the support at home to catch up, it was nothing short of catastrophic for marginalized students of color who before the pandemic might have had the resources of their school, and little else.”
• “An estimated 1 million students didn鈥檛 just experience learning loss; they lost school altogether, dropping out or disappearing, an outcome disproportionately seen among Black and Hispanic students. They were also more likely to be among the growing number of students who postponed or canceled college enrollment during the pandemic, which cuts them off from what is still one of the surest paths to the middle class.”

The Big Three

• “Experts say that purposefully aligning tutoring to curriculum content … helps kids get the support they need to be successful in class.”
• “Even so, accomplishing this kind of alignment is complex and time-consuming. And it can fall low on the priority list for districts that are struggling with more basic challenges, like hiring staff or retooling the master schedule to support tutoring.”
• 鈥淥nly one in 10 students actually get this [high-impact] tutoring, though, according to recent federal data.鈥�
• 鈥淎nd much of schools鈥� energy right now is focused on program logistics 鈥� even though most district leaders understand that aligning tutoring to classroom instruction should be their ultimate goal,鈥� one expert said.

• “But how much do masks reduce transmission? Studies have attempted to answer this:
  • “Mask wearing corresponded to a 19% decrease in the R(0) in one study. In other words, masks helped reduce transmission.
  • “In Bangladesh, villages were randomized to be provided free masks. Villages that got the intervention had more than double the mask usage than villages that didn鈥檛 (13% vs. 42%). This resulted in a 9% reduction in cases in the mask-wearing villages.
  • “In the U.S., a 10% increase in mask wearing was associated with greater control of transmission.
  • “In Germany, mask mandates reduced spread by 45%.”
• “These studies found a huge range (9%-45%) and reflect vastly different settings and cultures. We need more studies.”
• “If we just look at the mask studies, the [recent] included 12 studies. But the details matter,鈥� and the studies have limitations. For example, the review includes studies about influenza, which is less contagious than COVID-19. 
• The bottom line: 鈥淭he scientific 鈥榓rc鈥� of mask discovery is ongoing. Science is always evolving. Do not let anyone convince you of a one word answer to the question: Do masks work? It depends.鈥�
• More via The Conversation:

Despite K-2 Reading Gains, Results Flat for 3rd Grade 鈥楥OVID Kids鈥�

• Via the 74
• “The percentage of third graders on track in reading hasn鈥檛 budged since this time last year, according to a new .”
• “The test鈥檚 administrators are interpreting the flatline at 54% as good news. Paul Gazzerro, director of data analysis at curriculum provider Amplify, said it鈥檚 likely that third graders would have fallen even further behind without efforts like tutoring and additional group instruction.”
• 鈥淚t looks as if nothing happened, but the reality is I would鈥檝e suspected that things could鈥檝e gotten worse,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese are students in many cases that are missing very tangible skills. They may even be grade levels behind.鈥�

COVID-19 Research

Previous COVID-19 May Slash Severe Illness at Reinfection by 89%

• on a new
• “Our meta-analyses showed that protection from past infection and any symptomatic disease was high for ancestral, Alpha, Beta and Delta variants, but was substantially lower for the Omicron BA.1 variant.”
• ” 鈥榁accination is the safest way to acquire immunity, whereas acquiring natural immunity must be weighed against the risks of severe illness and death associated with the initial infection,鈥� senior author Stephen Lim, P.h.D, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, said in a .”

Lab Leak Most Likely Caused Pandemic, Energy Dept. Says

• Via and
• “New intelligence has prompted the Energy Department to conclude that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic, though U.S. spy agencies remain divided over the origins of the virus, American officials said on Sunday. Some officials briefed on the intelligence said that it was relatively weak and that the Energy Department鈥檚 conclusion was made with 鈥榣ow confidence.鈥� … While the department shared the information with other agencies, none of them changed their conclusions, officials said.”
• 鈥� 鈥楾he intelligence community and the rest of the government is still looking at this,鈥� National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. 鈥�, so it鈥檚 difficult for me to say 鈥� nor should I feel like I should have to defend press reporting about a possible preliminary indication here. What the president wants is facts.鈥� 鈥�
• : “Underlying all of this is that there is the possibility of a lab leak, and a possibility of a natural spillover, and a possibility of intentional lab leaks. We need to address all of these to ensure a safer future. I鈥檓 afraid we鈥檙e losing sight of this.”

City & State News

Tennessee:

• 8 out of 10 teachers believed that the tutoring their students had received is associated with improved academic performance in their classroom. 
• Over 20% of teachers reported that they do not have access to training or resources to help students with mental health issues or trauma.
• 53% said adapting to quarantines was a challenge.

Arizona:

California: .

Michigan:

Viewpoints and Analyses

• 鈥淟ast year, when it became clear that a nationwide expansion of summer school would not be happening, I led a group of philanthropists in creating Summer Boost in New York City.鈥�
• “More than 16,000 students from 224 schools participated. At the end of the summer, we tested students to assess their progress, and the results were encouraging.”
• “The percentage of students who met grade-level standards in math nearly doubled 鈥� and in English, it more than doubled. The share of students scoring below the most basic levels of proficiency fell by nearly half. By the end of the summer session, many students had caught up and were back on track for success. But in much of the country, students didn鈥檛 spend any of their summer vacations in classrooms.”
• “Because of the strong results鈥� we have decided to run the program again this summer 鈥� and expand it to charter schools in seven other cities: Baltimore; Birmingham, Alabama; Indianapolis; Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; San Antonio; and Washington.”

Top Priorities for 39 Governors in 2023

• Analysis by FutureEd via 蜜桃影视
• 鈥淭he COVID pandemic 鈥� the topic that has dominated education conversations for the past three years 鈥� is largely missing from the State of the State addresses that governors are delivering to their legislatures this winter.鈥�
• An analysis of 39 State of the State speeches 鈥渇ound that despite the academic gaps exposed in last year鈥檚 National Assessment for Educational Progress scores, there was surprisingly little talk of learning loss and efforts to catch students up. There was also little explicit ‘culture war’ rhetoric around teaching racial history or banning books 鈥� and more lofty talk about the value of education.鈥�
• Some of the most common education topics were teacher pay, school choice, curriculum and instruction, higher education, workforce development, early education and mental health. 

鈥� And on a Reflective Note

Trey Louis Sings “Stone” by Whiskey Myers: “” suffered a school shooting in May 2018, during which he lost eight of his friends and two of his teachers.

Grin and Bear It: Colorado wildlife camera captures hundreds of adorable “.”

• Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks team set out to track animals that live in the area using motion-capture cameras 鈥� but they were surprised to find that .

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

Thousands of Kids Are Missing From School. Where Did They Go?

• Coverage from , and .
• “An analysis by The Associated Press, Stanford University鈥檚 Big Local News project and Stanford education professor Thomas Dee found an estimated 240,000 students in 21 states whose absences could not be accounted for.”
• “The true number of missing students is likely much higher. The analysis doesn鈥檛 include data from 29 states, including Texas and Illinois, or the unknown numbers of ghost students who are technically enrolled but rarely make it to class.”
• “These students didn鈥檛 move out of state, and they didn鈥檛 sign up for private school or homeschool, according to publicly available data.”
• “The missing kids identified by AP and Stanford represent far more than a number. The analysis highlights thousands of students who may have dropped out of school or missed out on the basics of reading and school routines in kindergarten and first grade.”

The Big Three

Half of Public School Students Began 2022-23 School Year Behind Grade Level in at Least One Academic Subject

• (; more from , 蜜桃影视 and )
• “Public school leaders estimated that about half 鈥� 49% 鈥� of their students began the 2022-23 year behind grade level in at least one academic subject.”
• “Most public schools have relied on diagnostic (88%) and formative (85%) assessment data to identify individual students鈥� academic needs, and 81% of public schools have used remedial instruction techniques. Over half (59%) of public schools have used tailored accelerated instruction.”
• “Less than half of the school leaders surveyed said they鈥檝e increased the number of students participating in high-dosage tutoring this school year over 2021-22.”
• “While 9 out of 10 provided high-dosage tutoring in reading, only 8 out of 10 did so in math, and fewer than a quarter of schools offered struggling students intensive tutoring in science, social studies or other subjects.”
• “About 2 out of 5 schools also said they can鈥檛 find the time in their regular school schedule to tutor students.”
• At least 40% of schools said they can鈥檛 find qualified staff (or lack the money to pay them) to sustain either regular or high-dosage tutoring programs.”

CDC Recommends COVID-19 Vaccine in Routine Immunizations for Children

• reports on the released Feb. 10.
• “While the recommendation does not mean vaccines will be required for school attendance 鈥� a requirement that is set by states 鈥� many states do look to the CDC for guidance on the issue and have routinely depended on the agency to set policy around COVID-19 precautions.”
• 鈥淒espite early debate over schools potentially requiring the [COVID] shot, localities have mostly pushed off the decision or dropped it entirely.鈥�

States Are Flush With Cash, Which Could Soften a Possible Recession

• “States will hold an estimated $136.8 billion in rainy-day funds this fiscal year, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers, up from $134.5 billion a year earlier, when they represented 0.53% of gross domestic product, the highest in records going back to 1988. This year鈥檚 figure would represent roughly 12.4% of their total spending.”
• “Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said state and local governments 鈥榓re really flush these days,鈥� which could support economic growth this year.”
• “Moody鈥檚 Analytics estimates 39 states have the reserves necessary to offset all the revenue expected to be lost in a relatively mild recession. Four more are within striking distance.”

COVID-19 Research

Strengthening the U.S. Pandemic Response in a Free Society

• COVID Collaborative, the CSIS Global Health Policy Center and the Brown School of Public Health released .”
• “As a leading democracy, the United States possessed assets, such as highly sophisticated science and technology traditions, which should have enabled the nation to launch a rapid response and deploy interventions with laser-like focus on managing infectious disease outbreaks and biological events. But 鈥� the pandemic placed excessive stress on its health care system, and the United States had a higher death rate than comparable countries because of leadership failings, because it had insufficient tools in its arsenal of public health measures and because it used those tools too ineffectively.”
• “National crises have historically brought the country together. Yet, the United States was unable to organize cohesive leadership at the national, state, local and tribal levels, and it failed to rapidly unify its citizens to act in solidarity to suppress the emerging pandemic and overcome preexisting health and other social inequities that exacerbated the toll of the pandemic.”
• “More must be done to empower communities by providing a larger menu of options for responding to pandemics that can be tailored to their specific needs and values and that provide feedback loops from the public to adjust the response over time.”

We Still Don’t Know How Best to Slow the Spread of COVID-19

• “When it comes to [non-pharmaceutical interventions, known as NPIs], every angry person online has a strong belief that if only we had spent more time promoting mask wearing, been more like Sweden with its government-sponsored health care and incredibly generous paid sick leave provisions, or done something, anything, better than we did, we could have averted the mass death, disability and orphanhood that COVID-19 caused. However, given the lack of data, it鈥檚 remarkably hard to know exactly how we could have used NPIs more effectively.”
• “The most strident critics of government interventions and of public health measures during COVID-19 go so far as to say that the 鈥榗ure was worse than the disease鈥� 鈥� that is, they think NPIs killed more people than COVID-19 itself. Our research found no evidence for this assertion; we found that letting the virus rip through the population in an uncontrolled way was much deadlier, at least in the short term, than the most stringent NPIs, such as shelter-in-place orders.”
• “Nevertheless 鈥� highly restrictive NPIs clearly caused harms. For example, prolonged shelter-in-place orders were linked with an increase in harmful alcohol use and domestic violence. However, there has been little in the way of research on the trade-offs 鈥� that is, on understanding the balance between the harms of uncontrolled viral transmission versus those of NPIs. And it can also be very difficult to distinguish the impacts of the pandemic itself from the harms of NPIs.”
• “There鈥檚 no doubt, for example, that prolonged school closures affected children鈥檚 mental health, but so did losing a parent or other caregiver to COVID-19.”

To Mask or Not to Mask: That Is (Somehow) Still a Question

• “When faced with this kind of debate, many hope the answer could be found in formal scientific research. Which brings us to the recent , which considered whether physical interventions 鈥� including masks 鈥� reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Cochrane Reviews are widely considered the gold standard of evidence-based medicine.”
• ” 鈥榃earing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference,鈥� the review authors concluded of their work comparing masking with non-masking to prevent influenza or SARS-CoV-2. What鈥檚 more, even for health care workers providing routine care, 鈥榯here were no clear differences鈥� between medical or surgical masks versus N95s.”
• “But as the saying goes, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The review doesn鈥檛 show that masks definitely do not reduce the spread of COVID 鈥� only that studies to date have not proven that they do.”
• 鈥� 鈥楾he Cochrane Review tells us two important things. First, there have been very few high-quality studies examining the effectiveness of masks during the COVID pandemic, and second, from the little high-quality data we do have, we don鈥檛 see large impacts of masking in preventing viral infections on the population level,鈥� Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the pandemic center at Brown University School of Public Health, told Slate. 鈥楾his doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean masks don鈥檛 protect individuals. But it could mean that the way they鈥檙e used at the population level is not effective. We need more randomized trials to understand why.鈥� 鈥�

COVID Deaths 5 Times Lower After Bivalent vs. Monovalent Booster

• on a new CDC .
• “Recipients of the bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 vaccine booster were 14 times less likely to die of Omicron BA.4/BA.5 infections than their unvaccinated peers and 5 times less likely to die than recipients of the monovalent (single-strain) booster, particularly among older people.”

City & State News

California: The Los Angeles County Office of Education, in partnership with L.A. Care Health Plan, Health Net, their plan partners and the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, through Hazel Health.

Colorado: . Are they missing or in private school?

Connecticut: School districts are dealing with two major issues: . In Hamden, school leaders say that without help from the state or taxpayers, program cuts are possible.

Florida: .

Michigan: .

New York:  

• .
• “The nation鈥檚 largest school district has hemorrhaged students since the start of the pandemic, in grades K-12 since then.”

Washington: .

Viewpoints and Analyses

Teacher Shortages Continue

• : Most of the U.S. is dealing with a teaching shortage, but the data isn’t so simple.
• “Between October and the end of January, ABC News reached out by phone and email to the overarching education departments in all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
• “As of Feb. 9, at least 39 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands 鈥� 41 out of 53 surveyed 鈥� reported ongoing shortages. Many also reported subject matter vacancies in areas such as physical and special education and science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
• Related:

How Much Faith Should Educators Have in High-Dosage Tutoring?

• : 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 some real value here, but that it depends on how tutoring is designed and employed.鈥�
• One solution: 鈥淩esearch has pointed to the promise of intensive vacation-academy programs in which groups of struggling students devote a week-long break to a single subject. With student-teacher ratios of roughly 10 to 1, these programs are relatively inexpensive, but they鈥檙e also more akin to classroom teaching. That means they require experienced teachers. Again, incorporating these is feasible but requires rethinking school calendars, schedules and teacher roles and compensation.鈥�

…And on a Lighter Note

Valentine’s Day: .

National Anthem: .

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This is our weekly briefing on the pandemic, vetted by John Bailey. .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

White House to End COVID Public Health Emergency May 11

The White House announced plans to end the public health emergency for COVID-19 on May 11.

• Kaiser Family Foundation . 
• Education angle: A Biden administration official told the AP 鈥渢hat ending the health emergencies , saying the COVID-19 pandemic affected millions of student borrowers who might have fallen behind on their loans during the emergency.鈥�
• The COVID-19 emergency鈥檚 end will mean new costs and hassles. .
  • Many will have to pay for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. People without health insurance will have to pay out of pocket, while those with private plans could see more costs, depending on the terms of their coverage.
  • Employers will no longer be able to offer telehealth access as a premium, tax-free benefit separate from other health plans.
  • Other administrative rules that helped people receive their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will end.
• White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha posted a .

The Big Three

Students Lost One-Third of a School Year to Pandemic 

• on a new : “Children experienced learning deficits during the COVID pandemic that amounted to about one-third of a school year鈥檚 worth of knowledge and skills, according to a new global analysis, and had not recovered from those losses more than two years later.”
• “Thomas Kane, the faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard, who has studied school interruptions in the United States, reviewed the global analysis. Without immediate and aggressive intervention, he said, 鈥榣earning loss will be the longest-lasting and most inequitable legacy of the pandemic.鈥� 鈥�
• “A separate review of test scores from 2.1 million students in the United States highlighted the impacts of economic disparity. Students at schools in communities with high poverty levels spent more of the 2020-2021 school year learning remotely than those at schools in wealthier communities did, and students in poorer schools experienced steeper declines in performance when they were remote.”
• 蜜桃影视 shares 4 top takeaways
  

Engaging Chronically Absent Students

• A shows that the Connecticut Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP) made a significant difference in reducing absenteeism, particularly with secondary school students.
• : “The new research is important for two reasons. First, it showcases a powerful intervention for improving student attendance, which is essential for academic recovery. Second, it highlights a second Connecticut initiative: using federal aid to create a research consortium that can turn around results quickly and guide district-level work.”
• “Fifteen school districts received money for Connecticut鈥檚 LEAP program, which they used to pay school staff and community organizers to visit nearly 8,700 chronically absent students and families at their homes or other locations. One district targeted entire neighborhoods rather [than] concentrating on students with the most severe absenteeism problems and saw little change in attendance patterns.”

Schools鈥� New Normal: Teacher Shortages, Repeat Meals, Late Buses, Canceled Classes

• Via 蜜桃影视: “This is the new normal in schools across the country: Classes are back in person but day-to-day operations are a far cry from pre-pandemic norms, the lingering effects of the COVID crisis challenging everything from staffing and student mental health to school lunches.”
• “By 5 a.m., a high schooler in a small city between Orlando and Tampa, Florida, is up 鈥� sleep deprived but with a sense of urgency: He has to reach the Wesley Chapel bus hub by 5:59 a.m, to get to class by 7:06 a.m. His school now starts earlier to make up for hurricane days and remote learning.”
• “At a Milwaukee Catholic high school, social studies teacher Mary Talsky has noticed lots of empty seats. For every email about a kid out sick, she gets three to four times more about absences because of mental health issues: My kid is struggling with anxiety and can鈥檛 come in today; I鈥檓 taking my child to an appointment with a psychiatrist.”
  

Federal Updates

Education Department: “$63 Million to Expand Community Schools and Increase Social, Emotional, Mental Health and Academic Support for Students, Educators and Families.鈥� ()

• The White House also released a .

Education Department: Secretary Miguel Cardona highlighted the key focus areas of 鈥淩aise the Bar: Lead the World鈥� in a speech ( / )

Institute of Education Sciences: for Individuals with Disabilities.

COVID-19 Research

FDA Advisers Recommend Replacing Original COVID Vaccine With Bivalent Omicron Shots for All Doses

• The Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory group unanimously recommended streamlining COVID-19 vaccine campaigns by offering just the newer bivalent (two-strain) versions of the vaccine for both primary and booster series.
• : “The FDA has proposed moving to a system that resembles how the agency updates and rolls out flu shots every year. The agency would select a COVID vaccine formulation in June to target the variant that is expected to dominate in the fall and winter. That formulation would be used by all manufacturers for all doses.”
• More via and
• Stat shared a of the meeting.

Annual COVID-19 Booster? FDA Cliffs Notes

• : “The [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] presented data that is not surprising: Most hospitalizations and deaths occur among older adults. Interestingly, children under 6 months are being hospitalized at about the same rates as those aged 50-64 years. This highlights the importance of maternal vaccination during pregnancy.”
• “The bivalent vaccines are working well. Adults who received a bivalent booster had 3 times lower risk of hospitalization and 2 times lower risk of dying compared to those who were vaccinated but did not get the bivalent booster. Both were more effective than no vaccination.”
• “Moderna surprised us today with new data, though: a randomized trial in the U.K. They randomly gave people the original vaccine or the bivalent vaccine (BA.1 formula) as a booster. The bivalent vaccine did better. This really put the debate to rest.”
• “I was excited to see Novavax data. It鈥檚 clear this is a solid vaccine. And their presentation was much more useful than Moderna鈥檚 or Pfizer鈥檚. To demonstrate, they included data on mixing Novavax with mRNA vaccines. It looks like no matter how you mix the two, the combinations work about the same way.”

New Study Finds Vaccines Are Safe and Effective for Kids

• on a new : “Two doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine among school-aged children safely and effectively reduces COVID-19 infection risk as well as associated risks for developing multisystem inflammatory syndrome and COVID-19 related hospitalizations.”
• “[Researchers] found vaccinated children had lower rates of infection and less severe symptoms if they did end up infected. Severe reactions to the shot were rare, and any local injection irritation went away after several days. The low rates of severe side effects should be reassuring for parents and guardians worried about adverse events following vaccination, according to the study’s authors.”
• “The study also found only a small increase in risk for kids to develop inflammation of the heart (myocarditis) after COVID-19 vaccination. It found that there are 1.8 cases of myocarditis per million children who get two doses of the vaccine, a comparable or slightly higher rate than in children diagnosed with myocarditis before the COVID-19 pandemic.”

City & State News

Arizona: A for Arizona , an initiative to modernize and improve access to reliable and safe transportation for students. The is open until March 29. 

Illinois:

• “Preliminary data released last week by the Illinois State Board of Education shows overall enrollment dropped by about 31,000 students 鈥� or 1.7% 鈥� between last school year and the current one, according to numbers as of Dec. 14.”
• “Chicago Public Schools accounts for at least a quarter of the decline. The district lost 9,000 students and its place as the third-largest school district in the country.”

Indiana: , but remain far from 2025 goal.

Michigan: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants .

• “Students in Lansing and Saginaw lost the equivalent of a , while students in Birmingham lost about a fifth of a school year, new data shows, according to a .”

North Carolina: A report released by the Department of Public Instruction鈥檚 Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration found that

In-Depth

A Teacher Shortage So Acute That Students Have to Learn Without One

• “In rural Mississippi, the geometry teacher is a recording. The chemistry students often teach themselves. Rural and Southern states face a crisis.”
• “Researchers trying to understand the teacher shortage could find sufficient data for only 37 states, and among those, Mississippi鈥檚 was the worst. For every 10,000 students there, 69 teacher positions are unfilled or filled by someone without traditional credentials. That鈥檚 159 times the ratio in Missouri, according to their working paper, published by Brown University鈥檚 Annenberg Institute for School Reform.”
• Related: A Practical Toolkit for Leaders to Address Teacher Shortages,

Schools Speed Up COVID-Aid Spending after a Slow Start: .

• “Districts have drawn on about a quarter of the $122 billion in federal money, up from 7% in May.”
• “Illinois has spent about 32% of its $4.8 billion in federal pandemic relief and is on track to meet the deadline for depleting the funds,” said 鈥嬧�婯rish Mohip, deputy chief of operational education for the Illinois State Board of Education. “Salaries are the largest category for schools鈥� pandemic relief spending in the state, accounting for almost 37% of those expenditures, he said.”
• “New York City鈥檚 school system, the largest in the U.S., has used about [a third], spending more than $1.5 billion of the $4.8 billion it received, according to city education officials. New York City is allocating just over 30% of the money for academic recovery efforts such as literacy programs.”

How Parenting Today Is Different, and Harder

• on the recent
• “Today鈥檚 parents spend more time and money on their children than previous generations 鈥� working mothers spend as much time with their children as stay-at-home mothers of the 1970s 鈥� and feel more pressure to be hands-on. Especially for college-educated mothers with careers, the demands have caught them off guard, economists have found.”
• “At the same time, many jobs have become all-consuming, paying people disproportionately more per hour for working long hours and being available anytime 鈥� but at a cost.”

At $611 a Day Per Student, Some Question if L.A. Schools鈥� Extra Learning Days Are Worth It

• : Extra learning days 鈥渃ame at considerable expense 鈥� about $611 per day per student for up to two added 鈥榓cceleration days.鈥� “
• “The bonus schooling on Dec. 19 and 20 cost $36 million. After a heavy promotional push, about 17% of the district鈥檚 422,276 students signed up; however, less than 9%, or 36,486, showed up, according to newly released data.”
• “Other problems emerged. Some teachers complained they were unable to plan effectively because they did not have advance access to rosters and student data. Under the plan, students were divided by groups into those who needed to catch up and those who would receive enrichment.”

…And on a Lighter Note

The Detroit Youth Choir:

“It’s a Lovely, Warm Feeling. I Belong.” .

Thank you for reading to the end! to share what you think of this series.

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story 

Schools Sink Money into Tutoring, but Some Programs Fall Short 

• “Federal data collected in June showed that 56% of schools reported using high-impact 鈥� also called 鈥榟igh-dosage鈥� 鈥� tutoring and 36% of schools reported using other forms. Some school leaders say they use multiple kinds of tutoring.”
• “Virginia鈥檚 Fairfax County is a good example of the drawbacks. Less than 2% of the student body used an opt-in tutoring service 鈥� 鈥� after it debuted for the final quarter of the previous school year, according to an internal analysis. Most of those who did log in used it for less than an hour 鈥� the median was 29 minutes 鈥� 鈥榓n amount of time that is unlikely to yield tangible benefits to student achievement, particularly for those with greater academic need,鈥� the analysis said. A majority of those who accessed the online tutoring were students who did not demonstrate academic need, the report said.”
• “Research 鈥� showed just 19% of students ever opted into an online tutoring service offered by a California charter school system, according to a published by EdWorking Papers.”
• “Opt-in services often falter because some students lack confidence, motivation or clarity about what they need, so they don鈥檛 sign in, said Anthony Salcito, chief institution business officer at Varsity Tutors, a longtime tutoring company.鈥�

The Big Three 

Study Notes Racial Disparities in Kids’ COVID Vaccine Uptake

• on a new
• By Aug. 31, 2022, 33.2% of all children aged 5 to 11 years, 59% of those aged 12 to 15 and 68.6% of 16- to 17-year-olds had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Uptake was highest among Asian children (range, 63.4% of 5- to 11-year-olds to 91.8% of those 16 to 17 years), followed by Hispanic youth (34.5% to 77.3%).
• Vaccination rates among Black and white children aged 12 to 17 were similar, but uptake among Black youth aged 5 to 11 was 4 to 33.6 percentage points lower.
• The highest coverage was seen among children aged 12 to 17 years, those whose mothers had a college degree and had received at least one vaccine dose, and those whose household earned at least $75,000 a year and usually wore a mask in public in the previous week.

CDC Launches New Dashboards

• Two new dashboards to track respiratory virus trends in the U.S. are available
• 鈥淭he Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network (RESP-NET) comprises three platforms that conduct population-based surveillance for laboratory-confirmed hospitalizations associated with COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) among children and adults.鈥� 

Opinion: Prepare Now for the School Closures That Are Coming

• Tim Daly via 蜜桃影视 and Fordham Institute
• “Due to enrollment shifts and falling birth rates, many districts nationwide are experiencing a surge in empty seats. For a few years, federal funding tied to pandemic recovery may allow districts to delay difficult consolidation decisions. However, there will come a time when the expense of staffing, maintaining and operating an outsized number of schools becomes untenable 鈥� and closures will be the only option.”
• “The numbers tell the same story in city after city: Just 60% of the available placements in Indianapolis are occupied. After shrinking by several hundred thousand students since 2000, Los Angeles expects to lose another 28% of its enrollment over the next eight years. Shifts in Boston have left the district with the equivalent of 16.5 unused school buildings.”
• “My advice to cities grappling with falling enrollment is to begin planning now. Engage in robust processes to take community input on which schools will close and when. But do not drag your feet hoping for a miracle that saves you from the scourge of closures altogether. That miracle is not coming.”

Federal Updates

White House: The Biden administration has extended the COVID Public Health Emergency. .

National Center for Education Statistics:

• 82% of public schools indicated they had a written plan in place to deal with a pandemic disease scenario this school year
• 93% of public schools reported feeling “somewhat” or “very prepared” to handle pandemic disease
• 30% of public schools reported having to quarantine students and 18% reported having to quarantine staff members

Department of Health & Human Services: to support youth mental health and help the health care workforce meet families鈥� mental health needs.

City & State News

Alabama: : How they did it. 

Colorado: The state Department of Public Health and Environment will between 5 and 11 whose records in the Colorado Immunization Information System indicate they may be due for their COVID-19 vaccine.

New York: .

Washington: Seattle Public Schools is suing social media companies including TikTok and Meta, saying the tech giants’ “misconduct has been a substantial factor in causing a youth mental health crisis.” ( / / )

COVID-19 Research

COVID-19 Vaccines and Sudden Deaths

• . Read the whole thing, but here are some highlights:
• “Vaccine rumors continue to swirl, and distrust in vaccines remains. The latest onslaught comes from blogs and social media around heart problems and sudden deaths following COVID-19 vaccination, particularly among young adults.”
• “To be very clear: We have more evidence than for any other vaccine or disease in the history of humans that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines greatly outweigh the risks.”
• “The U.K. Health Security Agency recently released data evaluating all deaths (COVID-19, car accidents, strokes, etc.) in the U.K. by vaccination status, after adjusting for age. This is powerful data because it allows us to remove noise from the debate 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 matter if the death was 鈥榳ith鈥� or 鈥榝rom鈥� COVID or how the person died. And, the story is clear: Vaccines save lives.”
• “No one denies COVID-19 vaccines can have rare but severe effects. The question is how severe they are and how often they occur compared to infection.”
• “Unfortunately, no vaccine is risk-free. There are rare vaccine tragedies, and they need to be taken seriously. But do not confound these rare tragedies with thinking they are common occurrences. And certainly don鈥檛 forget that COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives across the globe and will continue to do so.”

More Evidence that Breastfeeding Moms’ COVID Vaccination Protects Babies

• on a new
• 鈥淯niversity of Florida researchers found higher levels of immunoglobulin A and G (IgA and IgG) antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the stool of infants of breastfeeding mothers compared with those who breastfed from unvaccinated moms. The study involved 34 mothers and 24 infants.鈥�

WHO Questions Severity of XBB.1.5 COVID Subvariant as U.S. Cases Rise

• “New York City health officials said the subvariant now accounts for close to 73% of cases sequenced in New York,” .
• “The World Health Organization said in a earlier this week that the omicron XBB.1.5 variant 鈥� which it called one of the 鈥榯he most antibody-resistant variants鈥� 鈥� doesn鈥檛 have any mutations that make people sicker compared to previous variants.”
• “But the WHO said it doesn鈥檛 have any real-world data on how the variant is actually affecting people, so the full severity of the variant and its symptoms can鈥檛 be fully determined, .”

Viewpoints and Resources

COVID-19 Learning Delay and Recovery: Where Do U.S. States Stand?

• New analysis .
• 鈥淚f student performance improvement follows historical pre-pandemic trends, it could take decades for students to fully catch up. But resources are available to help students recover more quickly.鈥�
• 鈥淪tates can play an important role in supporting districts by ensuring Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds deliver maximum impact for students.鈥�

What Midterm Voters Say about K-12 Education in the New Year

• on new
• Among the takeaways:
  • 鈥淣either party has an advantage on being trusted to handle issues related to K鈥�12 education.鈥�
  • 鈥淲hile economic concerns and abortion rights clearly led the issue agenda in the 2022 election, voters say improving K鈥�12 education is a top priority for state lawmakers next year.鈥�
  • 鈥淭here is relatively high awareness of NAEP test performance, and voters believe children have not recovered from the pandemic.鈥�

Opportunities

• Innovative schools: to teams designing new K-12 schools that center equity, innovation and an expanded definition of student success. This funding opportunity is for public schools 鈥� both district and charter 鈥� opening in fall 2024. Applications are due Jan. 27 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

• VITAL Prize Challenge: supported by a partnership between the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Schmidt Futures and the Walton Family Foundation.
  • The $6 million prize challenge will provide funding, resources and capacity-building support for small teams to bring new discoveries to educational and learning contexts to improve the experiences of those who have been historically and systematically excluded from learning and education systems.

• Workforce challenge: to drive partnerships among NY colleges, community organizations and employers

…And on a Reflective Note

Dr. Martin Luther King鈥檚 Visit to Iowa’s Cornell College: “. They fear each other because they don鈥檛 know each other, and they don鈥檛 know each other because they don鈥檛 communicate with each other, and they don鈥檛 communicate with each other because they are separated from each other.”

Paw Patrol: to go for a walk.

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provide financial support to 蜜桃影视. The Heckscher Foundation provides financial support to 蜜桃影视. The Carnegie Corporation of New York, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies and Walton Family Foundation provide financial support to NewSchools Venture Fund and 蜜桃影视. John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation.

This is our weekly briefing on the pandemic, vetted by John Bailey. .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story 

New Data Reveals XBB.1.5 Variant Surge in Recent Weeks 

• for the week ending Dec. 31. That鈥檚 up about 20% from the week ending Dec. 24.
• Good of what is known about the variant.
• Eric Topol: “, especially among seniors, in recent weeks as this variant has been taking hold. Of course, other factors are likely contributing, such as waning of immunity, indoor/holiday gatherings, cold weather, lack of mitigation. But it is noteworthy that New York鈥檚 COVID hospital admission rate is the highest since late January [2022] (and also exceeds the summer 2021 Delta wave, but with some ambiguity as to how hospitalizations were categorized then and now).”
• shared what we know and don’t know.

The Big Three

Quarantines, Not School Closures, Led to Devastating Losses in Math and Reading

• I have a piece up on 蜜桃影视 that explores the academic disruptions caused by COVID quarantines and how few districts had plans for live instruction.  
• “Quarantine guidance from the CDC required an entire class of students to be sent home for as long as two weeks if they had close contact with a child who tested positive. The result was massive learning disruptions that occurred throughout the school year, even in states where schools were officially reopened.”
• “A bipartisan poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Impact Research found that on average, children missed five weeks鈥� worth of school in the first half of the academic year, due in part to quarantines.”
• “Only four of the largest 100 districts promised live instruction for quarantined students, and just 36% of quarantined students reported having live classes with teachers.”  
• “Even more devastating: A review of data from the Census Bureau鈥檚 Household Pulse Survey from March to June 2022 found that on average, a staggering 16% of students said they had no live contact with teachers over the previous seven days.”
• “It鈥檚 little wonder then that 7 out of 10 students found quarantine to be disruptive to their learning. And it should not be surprising that so many disrupted school days and so little interaction with teachers would contribute to the academic loss reflected in the NAEP scores.”

Racial Equity Effects of Pandemic Schooling Disruptions in Washington

• The Washington Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee released a new / / .
• Washington Legislative Auditor鈥檚 : 鈥淩acial disparities in student assessment scores increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in higher-poverty schools. [The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction] does not yet have a process to monitor the effectiveness of federally funded interventions to promote learning recovery.鈥�
• “Student assessment scores [for all groups] declined during the pandemic. School poverty level had the greatest association with assessment scores.”
• The superintendent鈥檚 office 鈥渉as not yet established processes to monitor districts鈥� efforts to address the pandemic’s academic effects or the outcomes of emergency spending.”

In-Person Schooling and Youth Suicide Patterns

• : “We document three key findings. First, using data from the National Vital Statistics System from 1990-2019, we document the historical association between teen suicides and the school calendar. We show that suicides among 12- to-18-year-olds are highest during months of the school year and lowest during summer months (June through August).”
• “Second, we show that this seasonal pattern dramatically changed in 2020. Teen suicides plummeted in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S., and remained low throughout the summer before rising in fall 2020, when many K-12 schools returned to in-person instruction.”
• “Third, using county-level variation in school reopenings in fall 2020 and spring 2021 鈥� proxied by anonymized SafeGraph smartphone data on elementary and secondary school foot traffic 鈥� we find that returning from online to in-person schooling was associated with a 12% to 18% increase teen suicides.”
• “Auxiliary analyses using Google Trends queries and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey suggests that bullying victimization may be an important mechanism.”

Federal Updates

Education Department: Released

• 鈥淚n FY 2021, roughly 43% of expended funds from subgrants to [local education agencies] were used to meet students鈥� academic, social, emotional and other needs. This represents the largest category of LEA subgrant expenditures.鈥�
• 鈥淥ver 2,700 LEAs expended ESSER funds on mental health supports.鈥�
• 鈥淔or FY 2021, 44% of expended funds from subgrants to LEAs were used for personnel, including salaries and benefits for additional staff and additional staff time to address the impacts of lost instructional time.鈥�
• Related: using the latest Education Department data. 

Federal Spending Package: Congress reached consensus around . Some highlights:

• Total for Education Department: $79.6 billion (+$3.2 billion). Title I: $18.4 billion (+$850 million). The bill also directs the department to target $87 million within the Education Innovation and Research grant program to support SEL grants and an additional $87 million for STEM. The bill also directs the Institute of Education Sciences to “support a new funding opportunity for quick turnaround, high-reward scalable solutions.”
• Mental Health: $5.27 billion (+803 million), including $111 million for school-based mental health grants at the Department of Education.
• The National Science Foundation is in line for $10 billion in funding, the largest dollar increase ever for the agency and the largest percentage increase in two decades.
• Related: Omnibus Bill Includes Substantial New Funds for Education R&D

COVID-19 Research

The Economic Cost of the Pandemic

• Learning loss could shave $70,000 off the lifetime earnings of children who were in school during the pandemic.
• : “If the learning losses aren鈥檛 recovered, K-12 students on average will grow into less educated, lower-skilled and less productive adults and will earn 5.6% less over the course of their lives than students educated just before the pandemic 鈥� the losses could total $28 trillion over the rest of this century.”

COVID鈥檚 Winter Surge is Poised to Exceed Summer Peak: .

• “The number of people with COVID-19 is about to surpass the figure reached during this summer鈥檚 spike.”
• “Notably, the number of people hospitalized with COVID 鈥� roughly 40,000 鈥� is still far below the winter waves of 2020-21 and 2021-22 (the wave driven by the original Omicron variant) as well as the Delta wave in summer and fall 2021.”

More Than 1 in 4 Think Someone They Know Died from COVID-19 Vaccines 

• According to a new .
• “Seventy-seven percent of adults who have not gotten COVID-19 vaccinations believe it鈥檚 at least somewhat likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths. Among those who have gotten the vaccine, just 38% consider unexplained deaths from the vaccine at least somewhat likely.”
• “46% of whites, 48% of Blacks and 57% of other minorities believe it is at least somewhat likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths.”
• Related: The Inflated Risk of Vaccine-Induced Cardiac Arrest, via : “Damar Hamlin鈥檚 collapse on Monday Night Football calls attention to a medical myth that will not die.”

City & State News

Florida:  

• “ at Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis鈥檚 request to investigate any wrongdoing with respect to the COVID-19 vaccines.”
• 鈥淒eSantis鈥檚 petition for a grand jury investigation into COVID-19 vaccines, in which he decries the ongoing vaccine campaign as 鈥榩ropaganda鈥� by the Biden administration, is drawing fierce criticism from health experts,鈥� .

Louisiana: Louisiana鈥檚 education chief from public devices amid concerns about security and the privacy of user data.

Massachusetts: There are nearly for school nurse positions, accounting for more than 10% of all those in the state.

Michigan: with the state to help improve academic outcomes for students, state education officials announced in November 鈥� an increase over the previous year that reflects underfunding, a teacher shortage and the ongoing impact of COVID-19.

New Mexico: Students in Title I schools, including those in tribally controlled areas, with Paper through a nearly $3.3 million investment.

Viewpoints and Resources

: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation has launched a , seeking creative thinking for the next iteration of federal and/or state K-12 assessment and accountability policy. This design challenge is a part of the foundation’s ongoing partnership with its .

: Windy Lopez-Afilitto in Ms. Magazine

Learning Loss Is Worse than NAEP Showed. Middle School Math Must Be the Priority: David Wakelyn in 蜜桃影视

…And on a Lighter Note

Dance Your Style:

• . It’s fun watching the

Happy New Year: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice.” T.S. Eliot

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story 

• “71% of adults say healthy children should be required to get vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) in order to attend public schools, down from 82% who said the same in an October 2019 Pew Research Center poll.”
• “Almost three in 10 (28%) now say that parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their school-age children, even if this creates health risks for others, up from 16% in 2019. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, there has been a 24-percentage-point increase in the share who hold this view (from 20% to 44%).”

The Big Three

• “Since the start of the pandemic through March 15 of this year, school districts across the country had spent $1.7 billion, or $199 per student, of their COVID-19 federal relief funding on tutoring, both online and in person, according to data from FutureEd, a Georgetown University research center that has been analyzing COVID-19 relief spending.”
• “In December 2020, the Jefferson County school district in Louisville, Kentucky, entered into a contract with FEV Tutor to offer about five hours of tutoring per week to around 7,000 third through 12th graders.”
• “The Jefferson County district made a point to ensure that its tutoring would follow the Annenberg research [Dena Dossett, the district鈥檚 chief of research, said]. That鈥檚 why the district went with FEV Tutor for the bulk of its program. The tutoring service helps schools in the district to identify students struggling with core subjects鈥� Those students then participate in live video tutoring with the same tutor five hours a week during class time.”
• 鈥淪o far, it has worked for Jefferson County. Students who used FEV Tutor saw their math scores increase 4.5 points and their reading scores increase 4.2 points in a winter-to-spring 2021-22 analysis of NWEA MAP scores. Students who didn鈥檛 use FEV Tutor grew, too, but not as much.鈥�

‘Late-in-the-Game鈥� COVID Relief Fund Guidance Leaves Some Scratching Their Heads

• Via 蜜桃影视
• “Earlier this month, more than two years into schools鈥� attempts to spend an unprecedented $189 billion in COVID relief funds, federal officials released a that 鈥榮trongly encourages鈥� districts not to spend the windfall on construction.”
• “There鈥檚 one hitch: According to , districts are already spending, or planning to spend, almost a quarter of funds from the American Rescue Plan on facilities and operations.”
• 鈥� 鈥楪etting clarifications and new restrictions this late in the game is tough on [districts],鈥� said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. 鈥榃hat happens if money is already approved and spent before these recent鈥� guidelines were released?”

• on a new
• 鈥淭he implementation challenges district leaders recounted suggest that the simple-sounding logic of academic intervention 鈥� identify students in need and provide them extra support 鈥� belies a host of complex design and implementation decisions.”
• “For example, when it comes to virtual learning tools focused on academic recovery, the study shows that some schools use them during core instruction time while others expect students to use them outside of school.”
• “Virtual learning tools (e.g., iReady, ALEKS, Dreambox) were used in four of the 12 districts to add academic time to students鈥� days beyond core instruction.”

City & State News

California: 

• Gov. Gavin Newsom announces an unprecedented .

Illinois: .

Virginia: .

Federal Updates

White House: Fact Sheet:

• “The administration is announcing that is open for a limited round of ordering this winter.”
• The Department of Health and Human Services 鈥渨ill work with states to launch teams and 鈥� partner with their Quality Improvement Organizations, home health agencies and emergency medical technicians to deliver vaccines to residents of long-term care facilities.”

Congress: Lawmakers unveil sprawling spending bill to avoid shutdown. The compromise would keep the government open through next fall. Some highlights include:

• $285 million, an increase of $50 million, to support the apprenticeship program
• $20 billion, an increase of $2.8 billion, for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start.
• An increase of $850 million for Title I grants and an increase of $850 million for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act grants to states
• $150 million, an increase of $75 million, to support additional Full Service Community Schools
• $5.27 billion, an increase of $803.2 million, for mental health research, treatment and prevention

Federal Communications Commission: To date, the has provided support to approximately 10,000 schools, 1,000 libraries and 100 consortia, and provided more than 12 million connected devices and more than 8 million broadband connections.

COVID-19 Research

• Updated bivalent (two-strain) mRNA booster shots, which target the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 sublineages of COVID-19 and the original strain, cut the risk of contracting severe COVID-19 by up to 57%, according to a . 
• A second showed the bivalent boosters are particularly effective at preventing hospitalizations in elderly Americans.  
• and .

• on a new
• “Vaccinated or previously infected COVID-19 hospital patients had lower rates of severe illness and death than their unvaccinated, COVID-naive peers during both Omicron and Delta variant predominance.”
• “While the unvaccinated had fewer poor outcomes during Omicron than in Delta, their risk was similar to that seen with previous SARS-CoV-2 strains.”

More noteworthy research

• COVID-19 Vaccines Saved $1.15 Trillion, 3 Million Lives: A estimates that, through November 2022, COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than and 3.2 million deaths and saved the country $1.15 trillion. More via .
  
• Autopsies Show COVID-19 Virus in Brain, Elsewhere in Body: “An analysis of tissue samples from the autopsies of 44 people who died with COVID-19 shows that SAR-CoV-2 鈥� including into the brain 鈥� and that it lingered for almost eight months. The () was published 鈥� in Nature.”
  
• Only Half of COVID Preprint Studies Later Published in Journals: : “Slightly more than half of COVID-19-related scientific studies posted on the preprint server medRxiv were published in peer-reviewed journals within the next two years, according to a published [Dec. 8] in JAMA Network Open.” The 鈥渦nprecedented increase in preprints has been subject to criticism, mainly because of reliability concerns owing to their lack of peer review,鈥� the letter says.

Viewpoints and Analysis

• about the group of volunteers who quickly became Google鈥檚 and then the U.S. government鈥檚 best source on where to find vaccines during the pandemic. Some highlights:
• “The essential workers list heavily informed the vaccination prioritization schedule. Lobbyists used it as procedural leverage to prioritize their clients for vaccines. The veterinary lobby was unusually candid, in writing, about how it achieved maximum priority (1A) for veterinarians due to them being 鈥榟ealth care workers.鈥� “
• 鈥淭eachers unions worked tirelessly and landed teachers a 1B. They were ahead of 1C, which included (among others) non-elderly people for whom pre-existing severe disability meant that 鈥榓 CID-19 infection is likely to result in severe life-threatening illness or death.鈥� “

• 鈥淭hey had to increase their pace 鈥� and they did,鈥� said Marguerite Roza 鈥� who previously questioned whether schools would meet the September 2024 deadline to exhaust the funds. Her new forecast: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there will be any money left over.鈥�
• 鈥� 鈥榊ou don鈥檛 snap a finger and do that in a week,鈥� said Dennis Roche, co-founder of Burbio, a data service that tracks school spending. 鈥業t takes time.鈥� 鈥�
  

• 5 best practices from EdWeek
• Be strategic about who receives tutoring
• Develop relationships with consistent tutors
• Ensure tutoring is high-dosage and done during the school day
• Involve teachers
• Evaluate throughout the school year

鈥� And on a Lighter Note

Breaking News: .

Kindness: In 1999 Ayda Zugay was an 11-year-old refugee fleeing the former Yugoslavia with her older sister when a stranger handed them an envelope on a flight to the United States. Inside 鈥� a $100 bill. .

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

The Crisis of Student Mental Health is Much Vaster Than We Realize

• “The [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] found 45% of high school students were so persistently sad or hopeless in 2021 they were unable to engage in regular activities. Almost 1 in 5 seriously considered suicide and 9% surveyed tried to take their lives during previous 12 months.”
• 鈥� 鈥榃e simply don鈥檛 have enough people in our profession to meet the need,鈥� said Kelsey Theis, president of the Texas Association of School Psychologists.鈥�
• 鈥淗ospital emergency room visits spiked for suspected suicide attempts among girls ages 12 to 17, according to the [CDC]. From February to March 2021, the number jumped by 51% compared with the same period during 2019.鈥�
• Related: National student survey finds mental health is top learning obstacle

The Big Three

Signs of Academic Rebounding Emerge, But Concerns Remain 

• ; more from 蜜桃影视
• Academic rebounding in reading and math continued in fall 2022; however, rebounding is not even across school years and summers, especially in reading.
• The youngest students in the sample (current third graders who were kindergartners when the pandemic began) have the largest reading declines and showed the least rebounding.
• Even with continued rebounding, student achievement remains lower than a typical year, and full recovery is likely still several years away.
• “These young students鈥� reading improvement was slower than their math improvement, researchers found. And they estimate that it will take them at least five years to fully recover from the pandemic in both reading and math, longer than nearly any other group studied except current eighth graders. Given the five-year time horizon, many of those students may never fully get up to speed in either subject by the time they finish high school, they warn.”
• Related: Schools Face 鈥楿rgency Gap鈥� on Pandemic Recovery, via 蜜桃影视

45% of Public Schools Don鈥檛 Have Full Teaching Staffs

• 45% of public schools are operating without a full teaching staff. 
• More than half of public schools in high-poverty neighborhoods (57%) had at least one teaching vacancy, compared with 41% of public schools in low-poverty neighborhoods.
• 83% of public schools reported having experienced challenges that appeared to be the result of supply chain disruptions during the 2022-23 school year. The most prevalent challenges were in procurement of food services (55%), laptops and other electronic devices (48%), and furniture (30%).

Teen Brains Changed During COVID

• Via and .
• “The stress of living through the pandemic physically changed teen brains 鈥� with accelerated signs of aging commonly seen in children experiencing violence and neglect.”
• The compared 163 teenage MRI scans 鈥� half taken before the pandemic and half after. A 16-year-old girl鈥檚 brain might be the equivalent of a 19- or 20-year-old鈥檚 before COVID.”

Federal Updates

Education Department:

• are listed as having made STEM commitments. Other groups/companies/philanthropies can make commitments by Dec. 31 using .

Federal Communications Commission: Released the long awaited ( / / )

• The new maps will serve as a basis for the NTIA to allocate $42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grants to states and territories next summer.
• The public, along with local governments and providers (including schools), are now able to submit :
  • Location (for example, incorrect location address, incorrect location unit count, etc.) 
  • Availability (for example, if the map incorrectly lists a certain provider or broadband technology as available)

City & State News

Washington, D.C.: CityBridge released Establishing Roots: . Key takeaways:

• A robust tutoring strategy requires a large coalition of partners with unique models coordinated around a common goal and set of standards.
• A centralized network that provides multiple types of support across the entire implementation process leads to a significant increase in standards-aligned tutoring. 
• Tutoring quality improves when partners have regularly structured opportunities to share information and collaboratively problem-solve.

Georgia: A from Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education details how school districts are spending $6 billion in federal COVID relief funds. 

• Nearly half of district leaders (48%) report inflation has altered their plans, which increases to 63% among rural districts.
• About 77% of local education agencies hired additional staff to address student mental and physical health needs. 

New York: Schools in the state have been slow to spend federal aid sent to them in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a .

North Carolina: , a high-impact tutoring initiative in partnership with Bertie County Public Schools.

Texas: 鈥� from 4.5% at the end of the 2019-20 school year to 12% at the start of the 2020-21 school year. The increase was particularly notable among Black families.

COVID-19 Research

Efficacy, Effectiveness and Safety COVID-19 Vaccines for Children Ages 5-11

• , via Preprints with The Lancet
• “In 5- to 11-year-old children mRNA-vaccines are moderately effective against infections with the Omicron variant, but probably still protect well against COVID-19 hospitalisations. Vaccines were reactogenic but generally safe.”
• “Safety data suggests no increased risk of serious adverse events, with approximately 1 to 2 events per 100,000 administered vaccines reported in real-life observations. Evidence on the risk of myocarditis was uncertain.”
• Related: Pfizer submitted an application to the FDA for its for children ages 6 months through 4 years.

Analysis and Viewpoints

States Ramped Up K-12 Spending in 2022, But Growth Likely to Slow

• on new
• “Overall state spending on K-12 education continued to increase in fiscal year 2022, rising 8% over the previous year to hit $538 billion, as federal aid and state investments continue to fuel growth.”
• “In fiscal 2022, state general fund revenues are estimated to have grown 15.9% while revenues increased 16.6% in fiscal 2021.”

Why Are Americans Fleeing Public Schools?

• “The government projects that K-12 public school enrollment 鈥� already facing demographic pressures 鈥� will drop further to about 46 million students by fall 2030, according to the NCES.”
• Related: Pandemic pushed Head Start enrollment down by 33%,

…And on a Lighter Note

Never Out of the Fight: .

Peek-A-Boo: .

Mental Health of Teachers, Teens Takes Big COVID-19 Hit

• Via
• “ within the previous seven days than were health care workers, 20% more likely than office workers and 30% more likely than workers in other occupations, such as military, farming and legal professions. 
• 鈥淭eachers with a remote role were 60% more likely to report feeling isolated than their in-person counterparts, and female teachers had 70% higher odds of anxiety than their male peers.”
• “In the on pandemic teen mental health, researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) mined data on 9,720 U.S. adolescents who responded to at least one survey fielded by the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, a sample of more than 10,000 U.S. children 11 to 14 years old, from May 2020 to May 2021.”
• “Over 70% of adolescents said their families lost wages during the pandemic. Teens in families that sustained lost income were more likely to be Black (19.5% vs. 12.2%), Hispanic (22% vs. 12.9%), and living below the poverty line (15.2% vs. 4.2%) than those without financial losses. These populations also reported higher levels of stress about the financial toll.”
• Related: Teachers felt more COVID anxiety than health care workers, study finds (蜜桃影视)

The Big Three

鈥楾he Bottom Has Dropped Out鈥�: Study Confirms Fears of Growing Learning Gaps

• 蜜桃影视 on a new
• “Before the pandemic, the average fifth-grade class had students whose learning spanned seven grade levels. But in May 2020, NWEA, the nonprofit behind the widely used MAP Growth assessment, predicted that this variation would grow as the lowest-scoring students would fall two years behind. Because the exams are not given before third grade, the researchers warned then that their findings might not reflect students whose levels of understanding are even lower.”
• “New NWEA research finds this range has increased by 5% to 10%, with the losses disproportionately affecting low-performing students. While all pupils made less progress than they would have without COVID-19鈥檚 interruptions to instruction, children who were already struggling academically have fallen much further behind.”
• : “Students who were already struggling were hit harder by the initial COVID disruptions and are now rebounding at a slower rate than their highest-achieving peers, according to findings from testing group NWEA.”
• 鈥� 鈥楾he ceiling stayed pretty consistent to where it was before, but the floor has dropped substantially, and I worry that we鈥檙e starting to push teachers beyond their capacity to meet that diversity of needs,鈥� said Karyn Lewis, an NWEA researcher. 鈥楽o I think this has less implications for what teachers should be doing, but more for what we should be doing as supporters of teachers.鈥� 鈥�

• A survey of district leaders found that more than 90% have faced challenges deploying stimulus funds effectively. 
• “By the end of the 2021-22 school year 鈥� halfway through the available funding window 鈥� districts had spent an estimated $45 billion of total available funds. That leaves $140 billion to allocate over the next three budget cycles, increasing districts鈥� near-term annual budgets by approximately 5% to 6%.” 
• “Based on these findings, McKinsey projects that nearly $20 billion in ESSER funds may not be obligated by the deadline because of a variety of factors, including administrative hurdles, limited internal planning capacity, and talent and vendor shortages.”
• “Nearly three-quarters of district administrators said they had struggled to overcome administrative hurdles to receiving funds, navigating compliance and finalizing procurement.”

• via National Center for Education Statistics 
• “56% of public schools are offering afterschool programs for students who need academic assistance during the 2022-23 school year.”
• “48% of public schools offering this type of programming incorporate high-dosage tutoring into the programming, while 42% incorporate some other type of tutoring.”
• “As of September 2022, 85% of public schools had no COVID-19 vaccination requirements for staff to be in the school building for the 2022-23 school year.”
• “99% percent of public schools had no COVID-19 vaccination requirements for students to be in the school building for the 2022-23 school year.”
• “12% of public schools required that students wear masks inside the school building in September 2022, compared to 15% at the end of the 2021-22 school year.”
• “The percentage of public schools that reported having to quarantine students in September was 47%, an increase from the 34% that required students to quarantine at the end of the 2021-22 school year.”

Federal Updates

White House:

Senate:

• “The Senate voted 62-36 to end the emergency declaration nearly three years after it was invoked. It鈥檚 unclear if the House will take up the measure.”
• “President Biden threatened to veto any congressional efforts to end the national emergency declaration鈥檚 status, ” in a statement.

Federal Communications Commission:

City & State News

California:

Iowa: Gov. Kim Reynolds will appeal a federal court ruling that enables school districts to impose universal mask mandates on students and staff

Nebraska:

New Hampshire:

New Jersey:

COVID-19 Research

• : “Our findings support the notion that in-person schooling during the pandemic may serve as an equalizer for lower-achieving students, particularly from historically marginalized or vulnerable student populations.”
• “A led by a North Carolina State University researcher found that although there were steep learning losses in reading for elementary school students during the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person learning opportunities helped some of those students mitigate learning loss and accelerate gains in reading compared to online learners.”
• “Younger elementary students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, English learners and students with disabilities were particularly affected by the pandemic school closures.”

• Via : “A of U.S. patients aged 0 to 20 years hospitalized for COVID-19 or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) in 2020 and 2021 shows that 22% had a neurologic condition, including 9% with life-threatening illness.”
• “Life-threatening neurologic disorders were more common during the Delta variant surge than in previous waves (64% vs. 36%). Ten of 42 (24%) of patients with neurologic involvement were released from the hospital with new-onset neurologic conditions, and 8 (19%) died. Among patients with non鈥搇ife-threatening neurologic involvement, 4% were released from the hospital with neurologic deficits, 90% had no neurologic disorders and 5% died.”
• “COVID-19 vaccination is effective at preventing hospitalization for acute COVID-19 and MIS-C and may decrease associated neurologic complications.”

More noteworthy research:

The COVID-19 School Data Hub that allow users to explore each state’s learning model and assessment data.

(Study)

(A look at the research from Nature)

(Study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)

Virtual School Enrollment Kept Climbing Even as COVID Receded (Center on Reinventing Public Education via 蜜桃影视)

Viewpoints

Closing Schools in the Pandemic Was Bad. Keeping Them All Open Would Have Been Worse

• 鈥淭he consequences of extended school closures were brought home, vividly, with the release late last month of reading and math scores for fourth- and eighth-graders, documenting a sharp slide in proficiency since the pre-pandemic year of 2019.鈥�
• “Yet there鈥檚 much more to consider. The question that never gets raised, much less answered, when the conversation turns to how bad the school closures were, is: 鈥楥ompared to what?鈥� 鈥�
• “The number of deaths among children younger than 18, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pegs at 1,853, 鈥榳ould have been higher had 60-70 million unvaccinated children contracted the virus over several months鈥� time in 2020. It鈥檚 reasonable to assume that several thousand children would have died.鈥� 鈥�
• “Those findings might explain what happened when Florida opened its schools in August 2021 and banned remote teaching: Child COVID deaths in the state by the first week of September. One month into the reopenings, districts across the state were being forced to shut down schools and impose quarantines affecting thousands of pupils.”
• “More than 1 in 5 children hospitalized with acute COVID infections suffered lasting neurological conditions, according to a . Thousands may have suffered severe neurological conditions, even including stroke.”

Lifting Universal Masking in Schools 鈥� COVID-19 Incidence Among Students and Staff

• “Before the statewide masking policy was rescinded, trends in the incidence of COVID-19 were similar across school districts.”
• “During the 15 weeks after the statewide masking policy was rescinded, the lifting of masking requirements was associated with an additional 44.9 cases per 1,000 students and staff (95% confidence interval, 32.6 to 57.1), which corresponded to an estimated 11,901 cases and to 29.4% of the cases in all districts during that time.”
• “Our results support universal masking as an important strategy for reducing COVID-19 incidence in schools and loss of in-person school days. As such, we believe that universal masking may be especially useful for mitigating effects of structural racism in schools, including potential deepening of educational inequities.”
• But: NEJM鈥檚 Disappointing Decision to Publish the Boston School Mask Study:

…And on a Lighter Note

When Your Friend:

This is our weekly briefing on the pandemic, vetted by John Bailey. .

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

• “Learning loss generally is worse in districts that kept classes remote longer, with the effects most pronounced in high-poverty districts, researchers say. Yet reading scores are below 2019 levels for certain grades even in some states that quickly returned to in-person instruction, such as Florida.”
• “While some students have begun to make up ground, researchers say that, on average, it could take five years or more for today鈥檚 fourth-graders to read proficiently unless the pace accelerates.”
• “These students are at a pivotal stage. Educators pay particular attention to 9-year-olds鈥� literacy rates because research shows that reading ability by the end of third grade can be predictive of educational success, career earnings and the risk of incarceration.”
• Related: New Testing Data: Fewer Students in Early Grades Developing Basic Phonics Skills

The Big Three 鈥� September 16, 2022

• with briefs related to:
  • Why is COVID-19 generally milder in children?
  • Why do some children develop Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C)?
  • Long COVID in children and young people
  • What is the role of children in transmission of SARS-CoV-2?
  • The importance of vaccinating children against COVID-19

• New must-read from the Center on Reinventing Public Education (more at 蜜桃影视 and )
• : Questions for assessing how your state or district is tracking pandemic impact and recovery
• “School district leaders, state policymakers and advocates can take important steps now to address students鈥� immediate needs and set the bar high for system transformation.”
  • “Districts and states should immediately use their federal dollars to ensure every student in the COVID generation makes a full recovery. They must focus their resources on proven interventions, such as well-designed tutoring, extended learning time, credit recovery, additional mental-health support, college and career guidance, and mentoring.”
  • “By the end of 2022-23, states and districts must commit to an honest accounting of rebuilding efforts by defining, adopting and reporting on their progress toward ambitious five- and 10-year goals for student recovery and reimagining. States should invest in rigorous studies that document, analyze and improve their approaches.”

• The Texas Child Mental Health Consortium was created to address a mental health crisis among young people in the state, many of whom lack access to care. It 鈥渋s made up of medical schools and universities with health programs as well [as] other experts in the mental health field.鈥�
• 鈥淏ecause of a shortage of mental health practitioners, many children are unable to get treatment or have to endure long wait times. In Central Texas, experts [say] that even with health insurance, children can expect to wait about six months before being seen.鈥�
• 鈥淭he overall span of the program has grown to encompass more than 3,000 schools across the state, reaching both urban and some rural areas.鈥�
• School counselors can schedule the appointments and set up computers in their offices for children to attend their sessions. 

City & State News

ARIZONA: A for Arizona launched the second round of the state , a first-in-the-nation $20 million initiative to modernize transportation options and improve access to reliable and safe transportation for K-12 students.

MARYLAND: Gov. Larry Hogan announced a new .

NEW JERSEY: .

WASHINGTON: The Seattle Education Association reached a tentative agreement with Seattle Public Schools after a week-long strike.

Federal Updates

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Issues for school-based Medicaid services. More via .

• “While schools primarily provide education, school settings offer a 鈥榰nique opportunity鈥� to enroll children and teens in Medicaid and the Children鈥檚 Health Insurance Program and provide Medicaid-covered services, including mental health services, said Daniel Tsai, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services.” 
• “The checklist includes a variety of recommendations for services and reimbursement management practices, as well as explanations and clarifications of existing rules.”

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: to the State Educational Technology Directors Association and its coalition partners: InnovateEDU, Learning Forward, Project Tomorrow and Whiteboard Advisers.

COVID-19 Research

• .
• “Of long COVID鈥檚 many possible symptoms, brain fog 鈥榠s by far one of the most disabling and destructive,鈥� Emma Ladds, a primary-care specialist from the University of Oxford, told me. It鈥檚 also among the most misunderstood. It wasn鈥檛 even included in the list of possible COVID symptoms when the coronavirus pandemic first began. But 20% to 30% of patients report brain fog three months after their initial infection, as do 65% to 85% of the long-haulers who stay sick for much longer.”
• “Most people with brain fog are not so severely affected and gradually improve with time. But even when people recover enough to work, they can struggle with minds that are less nimble than before.”

• 鈥淐hildren aged 5-11 will no longer be offered COVID jabs, except those in clinical risk groups.鈥�
• 鈥淭he decision to reduce the number of children who are offered COVID jabs has prompted outcry from parent groups and academics.鈥�
• “The UK Health Security Agency said children who had not turned 5 by the end of last month would not be offered a vaccination, in line with advice published by the UK鈥檚 Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in February 2022.”

Viewpoints

Bloomberg:

• Via Michael Bloomberg in The Washington Post
• “A closer look at the [NAEP] data reveals even greater reasons for alarm. Although white students performed five points worse in math than in 2020, scores fell by eight points among Latinos and by 13 for Black students. The gap between the best and worst scores also widened. 鈥� Put simply, the pandemic did the most harm to the children who could least afford it.”
• “Blame for these dismal results lies mostly with poorly designed and implemented remote instruction programs that stretched on far too long 鈥� and long after vaccines became available 鈥� largely because leaders of public school teachers unions wrongly insisted that requiring teachers to return to work endangered their safety.” 
• “President Joe Biden can be doing far more to call public attention to the crisis and mobilize all levels of government to address it, including accelerating efforts to recruit and train tutors focused on highly vulnerable students.” 
• “It鈥檚 also imperative that all students spend more time in class to help make up the lost ground. 鈥� School districts should use federal relief funds to increase instructional time, lengthen the academic year, expand summer-school slots and launch more 鈥楽aturday academies鈥� 鈥� preferably all of the above.”

• This series 鈥渆xplores how differences in access to full in-person instruction during the first full pandemic school year of 2020-21 relate to changes in student academic outcomes.”  
• gives an overview:
  • “Across 12 states with data released, we see universal test score declines from 2019 to 2021. Most states recover somewhat between 2021 and 2022. On average: states recover ~30% of losses between 2021 and 2022.”  

• “In rural Alabama鈥檚 Black Belt, there were no certified math teachers last year in Bullock County鈥檚 public middle school.”
• “Schools in the South are more likely to struggle with teacher vacancies. A federal survey found an average of 3.4 teaching vacancies per school as of this summer; that number was lowest in the West, with 2.7 vacancies on average, and highest in the South, with 4.2 vacancies.”
• “The school system in Moss Point, a small town near the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, has increased wages to entice more applicants. But other districts nearby have done the same. Some teachers realized they could make $30,000 more by working 30 minutes away in Mobile, Alabama.”
• Related via 蜜桃影视: Yes, There鈥檚 a Shortage of Special Education Teachers. And That鈥檚 Nothing New

鈥� And on a Lighter Note

Off to the Races: .

Simple Enough: .

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

Two Decades of Growth Wiped Out by Two Years of Pandemic 

• / / More via 蜜桃影视
• : “In two years, reading scores on a key national test dropped more sharply than they have in over 30 years, and math scores fell for the first time since the test began in the early 1970s.”
• : “The declines spanned almost all races and income levels and were markedly worse for the lowest-performing students. While top performers in the 90th percentile showed a modest drop 鈥� 3 points in math 鈥� students in the bottom 10th percentile dropped by 12 points in math, four times the impact. In math, Black students lost 13 points, compared with 5 points among white students, widening the gap between the two groups.”
• 70% of students learned remotely at some point during the 2020-21 school year.
• Some startling data: Only 26% of lower-performing students say they had their teacher available to help them every day.

The Big Three 鈥� September 9, 2022

• Via the NYT: “The Biden administration has taken credit for a relative return to normalcy in schools over the last year of the coronavirus pandemic. But in one of the few education programs the federal government directly oversees 鈥� Head Start preschools and child care centers for low-income families 鈥� mandatory masking rules are still on the books for teachers and children as young as 2 years old.”
• “That requirement is out of line with current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released last month, which recommend universal masking only if there is a high community transmission rate.”
• “In a written statement, the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start, acknowledged that the current guidelines contradict those of the CDC but said that centers are not being checked for compliance on masking.”
• “During the pandemic, the United States was an outlier in ever calling for universal masking for toddlers. The World Health Organization has advised that masks are not generally appropriate for children under 5.”

• Via USA Today: “According to a White House memo provided exclusively to USA Today, the companies will set up ways school districts can recruit and hire prospective teachers and for teachers looking for jobs to find openings.”
• “ZipRecruiter is launching an online job portal specifically for K-12 schools. Indeed will set up virtual hiring fairs for educators and other staff across the country. And Handshake, which helps college students find jobs, is creating new ways of sharing job openings with undergraduate students in education, including a virtual event in October for college students interested in the field.”

School Budgets Soar 16% Over 2 Years, But Experts Warn of 鈥楤loodletting鈥� to Come

• Via 蜜桃影视: “As federal COVID relief dollars flow to schools across the country, budgets have swollen more than 16% over the last two years, a recent analysis of more than 100 districts reveals.”
• “The average increase was 10.8% from 2020-21 to 2021-22 and 16.5% from 2020-21 to 2022-23, according to a late August audit of 118 large school system budgets [by Burbio].”
• “Nearly 1 in 5 district budgets within that group had grown by more than 25% since 2021.”
• “But with American Rescue Plan money set to expire in 2024, and with U.S. student enrollment projected to drop by more than 5% by 2030 due to slowed birth rates nationwide, [one school finance expert] warns that schools must brace for a period of 鈥榖loodletting鈥� by 2024-25, when budgets must adjust back down.”

Federal Updates

• Via Stat: “As part of its push to encourage vaccine-weary Americans to get the updated COVID shot, the White House put forth a new selling point Tuesday: to view it as a first annual shot, akin to the annual flu shot.”
• 鈥� 鈥業t is becoming increasingly clear, that looking forward with the COVID-19 pandemic, in the absence of a dramatically different variant, we likely are moving toward a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual updated COVID-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population,鈥� Anthony Fauci, the country鈥檚 top infectious disease official, said at the briefing.”
• : “The message is simple: If you are vaccinated, and over 12, get the new annual COVID shot this fall.鈥�

City & State News

WASHINGTON, D.C.: District .

• “The new deadline gives families with children in kindergarten through fifth grade until Oct. 11 to be vaccinated before they will not be allowed to come to school.”
• “Middle and high school students will have until Nov. 4 after an initial noncompliance notice on Oct. 3.”
• “For students required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the first official notices of noncompliance will begin Nov. 21, officials say. Noncompliant students will not be allowed in school starting Jan. 3, 2023.”

DELAWARE: .

ARIZONA: .

NEW YORK: .

COVID-19 Research

• , via STAT:
  • 鈥淭he Pfizer-BioNTech booster was authorized for people 12 years of age and older. The Moderna booster was authorized for people 18 and older.鈥�
  • 鈥淧eople who are fully vaccinated against COVID 鈥� those who鈥檝e had a primary series 鈥� and people who鈥檝e had a primary series plus one or two previous boosters are eligible to get one of these new shots.鈥�
• Katelyn Jetelina:

• According to a new
• : “An estimated 10.5 million children lost parents or caregivers to COVID-19, and 7.5 million were orphaned, with the greatest numbers in the Africa (24.3%) and Southeast Asia (40.6%) WHO regions and the least in the Americas (14%), Eastern Mediterranean (14.6%), European (4.7%), and Western Pacific (1.8%) regions.”

• Pfizer’s vaccine was in protecting children younger than 5 as Omicron spread in the spring, the company announced Tuesday. More via .

• Via the CDC: “Among parents of 393 children aged [under] 5 years in this analysis, 64% indicated at baseline that they were likely to have their child vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine.”
• “During a three-month observation period, however, parents indicated decreased intention to vaccinate and decreased confidence in COVID-19 vaccine safety and effectiveness as well as less trust in the government.”

• Via the CDC: “Approximately, 1 million young children have received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The findings in this report are consistent with those from safety data from preauthorization clinical trials for young children.” 
• “Trial participants aged 6 months to 4 years who received Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 6 months to 5 years who received Moderna vaccine most frequently reported mild or moderate local and systemic reactions; no serious adverse events judged to be related to vaccination were reported in the trial data.” 

Viewpoints

• Via Leana Wen in The Washington Post, along with a .
• “I accept the risk that my kids will probably contract COVID-19 this school year, just as they could contract the flu, respiratory syncytial virus and other contagious diseases. As for most Americans, COVID in our family will almost certainly be mild; and, like most Americans, we鈥檝e made the decision that following precautions strict enough to prevent the highly contagious BA.5 will be very challenging.鈥�
• 鈥淢asking has harmed our son鈥檚 language development, and limiting both kids鈥� extracurriculars and social interactions would negatively affect their childhood and hinder my and my husband鈥檚 ability to work.鈥�

School Mask, Vaccine Mandates Are Mostly Gone. But What if the Virus Comes Back?

• CRPE’s Bree Dusseault in 蜜桃影视
• “Schools have been opening up across the country with relatively low fanfare in the first three weeks of August. Our regular review of 100 large and urban districts finds that all those that have started classes are in-person. None have reported closures due to COVID outbreaks. It appears that perhaps students are settling into something like the old sense of normal.”
• “Our review finds that just 55 have shared updated handbooks or websites that outline health and safety policies for the 2022-23 school year. Of those that have published information, it鈥檚 clear that districts are jettisoning many of the protective measures that they endorsed just months ago.”
• “Fewer districts are also requiring vaccinations this school year, with 10 maintaining strict policies for their staff.”
• “That does not mean districts can afford simply to return to pre-pandemic ways of doing business. Families, staff and students need continued clear communication about what to expect as schools return to traditional schedules and expectations, and they deserve to know what to expect if rising viral caseloads or other unanticipated events threaten the stability of yet another school year.”

…And on a Lighter Note

Nothing to See Here: .

Uvalde High School: . It happened thanks to a miraculous 51-yard run with 36 seconds to go. And then a go-ahead, one-handed TD catch with 12 seconds left.

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

Another third are continuing longstanding programs that had been in place before schools shuttered, and the remaining third are operating new virtual programs created during the pandemic, the review found.

The distinct approaches of America鈥檚 100 largest districts suggest that most are jettisoning remote learning entirely, or reverting back to programs that existed before the pandemic forced them to swiftly provide all families with some sort of online option.  

The discontinuation of virtual programs launched during COVID shutdowns could mean they weren鈥檛 as effective or popular as those already in place before the pandemic upended America鈥檚 education systems in early 2020.

CRPE, a nonprofit research center at Arizona State University, has monitored the learning options offered by the nation鈥檚 100 largest school systems since March 2020. In its review this month of districts鈥� learning plans for fall, CRPE found 35 indicating they planned to end remote learning entirely, 34 that would continue virtual programs established before the pandemic and 31 that would keep their new, pandemic-era online options.

For example, the , a virtual school in the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, has operated since 2013. But the individual Clark County schools initiated last school year are being suspended; Nevada Learning Academy will be the only virtual option the district offers in 2022-23.

In Colorado, Aurora Public Schools plans to continue the virtual school it opened last year for K-8 students, but only for students in .

Fewer students in general are eligible to enroll in district-run virtual programs this year than last. In 2021-22, 56% of large and urban districts offered all students the ability to learn remotely. This year, that number dropped to 46%.

In Detroit, the district this year to try to improve attendance and reduce failure rates, according to Chalkbeat Detroit. Detroit Public Schools in 2021-22, intending to make it permanent, and had planned to spend $5 million on staffing. But it struggled with , and hiring challenges mounted. This year, the school is not accepting students in third through 12th grades who were chronically absent last year and failed one or more core academic classes. The school also did not accept children in kindergarten through second grade who were chronically absent last year, according to the . 

Other large districts have pivoted to expand virtual options 鈥� either because students were successful or parents wanted them, or both. Four of the 100 large districts we鈥檝e tracked have widened their virtual academies since the start of the pandemic. Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia, for example, recently expanded its full-time online learning option to K-3 students. But parent demand has been strong for Gwinnett County’s online program, which started in 1999. The district even extended the enrollment period for fall 2022 to accommodate the inquiries, according to documents we reviewed.

Last fall, when CRPE reviewed the learning models of large and urban school systems for the 2021-22 school year, 94 of the 100 large districts said they intended to offer remote learning. This year, they have understandably phased out many of these programs as more students return to full-time, in person classes.

What鈥檚 curious is that a majority of them are not keeping anything developed in the pandemic, when educators had to innovate quickly to reach all students. Some districts may be ending their programs because they have not matched the academic quality of in-person classes, or because interest dropped among families. But the window is closing for districts to continue pandemic-era innovations that created new options for families. While virtual schooling has become a permanent part of some districts鈥� repertoire, it鈥檚 unlikely to become a defining feature of urban public education in the years to come.

• and both submitted emergency use authorization applications to the Food and Drug Administration for BA.4/BA.5 Omicron-targeting bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccines.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scheduled a two-day meeting of its advisory panel of experts for .
• , sources say.
• 鈥淭he government plans to offer the new Pfizer booster to everyone 12 and older while limiting the new Moderna shot to adults,鈥� according to .
• : “For the first time, the FDA is planning to base its decision about whether to authorize new boosters on studies involving mice instead of humans. 鈥楩or the FDA to rely on mouse data is just bizarre, in my opinion,鈥� says John Moore, an immunologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. 鈥楳ouse data are not going to be predictive in any way of what you would see in humans.鈥� “
• : “It鈥檚 actually striking that in two months from the June 28 FDA meeting, there is a BA.5 vaccine booster made at scale. That is finally in keeping with all the excitement about the plasticity of the mRNA vaccine platform, that it could be ideal for rapid updating.”

The Big Three

Learning Delays at Every Grade Level

• The released a new 鈥渞eview of evidence.鈥�
• 鈥淥n average, children at all grade levels have suffered significant delays in learning.鈥� 
• 鈥淟earning delays occurred at every grade level, but it鈥檚 unclear which age group has been most negatively affected.鈥�
• 鈥淟earning delays were greatest in 2019-20, but many students also lost ground in 2021-22.鈥�
• 鈥淟earning delays are closely related to the amount of time students spent out of school or in remote instruction.鈥�
• 鈥淟ow-income students and students of color, who on average spent the most time in remote instruction, experienced the greatest learning delays and fell even further behind their white, advantaged peers.鈥�

• “ that at-home rapid antigen tests can deliver false negative results and people who need tests should plan to do so more than once to make sure they are not 鈥榰nknowingly spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus to others.鈥� 鈥�
• “The FDA now advises that people who plan to use at-home tests get several of them so they can test more than once. For people with COVID-19 symptoms who test at home and receive a negative result, the agency recommends taking a second at-home COVID-19 test, 48 hours after the first, for a total of at least two tests.”
• “For those who suspect a COVID-19 exposure but have no symptoms, the FDA now recommends up to three tests, each separated by a 48-hour period.”

• “No reports of myocarditis or death after receipt of dose 3 were received.”
• 鈥淎mong children aged 5-11 years, serious adverse events after dose 3 are rare.鈥�
• The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System 鈥渞eceived 581 reports of adverse events after receipt of a Pfizer-BioNTech third dose by children aged 5-11 years; 578 (99.5%) reports were considered nonserious and the most common events reported were vaccine administration errors.”
• “In the week after third dose vaccination, 6.9% (225) of enrolled children were reported to be unable to attend school and 12.1% (392) were unable to complete daily activities.”

Federal Updates

Back to School

• White House Fact Sheet: and Stay Safely Open All Year Long.
• Adviser Dr. Ashish K. Jha shared a .

City & State News

• CALIFORNIA: , or about 11%, missed the first day of school.

• COLORADO: invest over $1.6 million in mental health.

• NEVADA: Clark County School District .
  
• OREGON: 鈥�,” state Department of Education Director Colt Gill said this week.

• TEXAS: Houston district鈥檚 improved state rating is partly , officials say.  

COVID-19 Research

• Pfizer effectiveness with under-5s: Pfizer’s vaccine was in protecting children younger than 5 as Omicron spread in the spring, the company announced Tuesday. More via .

• New vaccine approved: for adolescents aged 12 through 17.

• Monkeypox: for schools.

• Long COVID: Long COVID is relatively rare in children and teens, according to a new .

• Vaccination rates: COVID-19 vaccines are uncommon for U.S. children under age 5, according to .

Learning Recovery Research

• The MAP Accelerator tool developed by Khan Academy and NWEA helped boost scores across all grades, races and poverty levels in grades 3-8. ()
• “For example, fifth-grade students who used MAP Accelerator for 30 minutes per week grew an average 18% more than projected, gaining 1.7 points above pre-pandemic norms.”

• . More via 蜜桃影视.
• “Analyzing data from 3 million students assigned lessons through a widely used literacy program, the nonprofits ReadWorks and TNTP found that during the 2020-21 school year 鈥� the first full year after the start of the pandemic 鈥� students were assigned work below their grade level a third of the time.鈥�
• 鈥淐hildren in high-poverty schools were given less challenging materials more often than their affluent peers 鈥� even when they had already mastered grade-level assignments.”

Was 2022鈥檚 Summer Learning 鈥楨xplosion鈥� Enough to Reverse COVID Losses?

• “93% of districts, according to Burbio, and 87%, according to CRPE, offered summer learning programs this year.”
• “79% of school systems that had programs provided them at no cost to families.”
• “The average program length was 154 hours, just under four weeks and roughly equivalent to 12% of the academic school year. However, some offerings only covered about 30 hours, while others made up nearly 350 total hours.”
• “School leaders estimated that 18-20% of their students enrolled, compared to 13-16% during a typical year.”

…And on a Lighter Note

It’s Back to School: .

This is our weekly briefing on the pandemic, vetted by John Bailey. . For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

• Education Week explains a third, lesser-known fund of federal dollars being used to help schools recover from the pandemic in an explainer posted this week. Governor鈥檚 Emergency Education Relief Funds represent about $7 billion in resources available for education and to be directed by state governors. 
• After federal officials recently found examples of , more communities and educators are asking questions about their use. Education Week notes that there are no national efforts to track the specific spending and use of these funds, with which governors enjoy large latitude in directing to a wide range of education expenses. 
• In most states, the Governor鈥檚 Emergency Relief Funds dollars appear to have been used largely to address schools鈥� immediate needs 鈥� technology and internet access, mental health services and professionals and teacher stipends for classroom supplies. 

The Big Three 鈥� August 19, 2022

• The Biden administration announced roughly $300 million in federal grant funding for states and districts seeking to strengthen their mental health services and supports. 
• Two grant programs, each comprised of about $150 million, will support states in recruiting mental health professionals to school-based programs while also expanding lists of qualified providers for school services. 
• In the announcement, the White House also spotlighted millions in mental health funding available for schools through the Department of Health and Human Services and the administration鈥檚 expanded funding of 鈥渃ommunity schools鈥� that aim to bring together critical health and wellness services in local school campuses.

Despite Urgency, New National Tutoring Effort Could Take 6 Months to Ramp Up 

• Some education experts are seeing 鈥渓ost opportunities鈥� after the Biden administration announced a national effort to recruit 250,000 tutors and mentors nationwide as students enter a third pandemic summer. 
• Others, however, note that the platform of the White House and AmeriCorps 鈥� the federal program that has recruited volunteers for decades for a wide array of community services 鈥� could be a game changer in terms of helping states and districts overcome sharp staffing shortages that have persisted throughout the pandemic. 
• And though some states have already begun to successfully use large-scale tutoring initiatives as key parts of their recovery plans, some worry that rapid deployment of an army of tutors could stumble without clear systems of support, a foundation in evidence-based materials, and intentional alignment of instructional and assessment systems. 

• Experienced, well-equipped principals will be key to ensuring schools successfully navigate the coming years as historic amounts of federal funding expire and education leaders face deepening worries around and staff shortages, say experts in a new published in the Journal of Educational Administration. 
• According to the study, principals who have led their first school for five or more years are able to attract and retain teachers more successfully 鈥� a scarce achievement as the average principal stays in a school for an average of four years. 
• Experts recommend district leaders invest in high-quality professional development for principals, disseminate experienced principals across all districts and develop standards for state licensing and principal PD programs to help ensure a strong pipeline of school leaders in the years ahead.

City & State Updates

HAWAII: in 10% of classrooms

INDIANA: after spring tutoring program 

ARIZONA: program benefits 100K Arizona kids

MICHIGAN: special education guidance

OKLAHOMA: in online math tutoring program

PENNSYLVANIA: in grants for early childhood education

NEW YORK: on restarting school accountability system

CALIFORNIA: , urging chronically absent students to return

COLORADO: on students heading to college

Viewpoints

• Katherine J. Wu in The Atlantic
• 鈥淎mericans have been given the all clear to dispense with most of the pandemic-centric behaviors that have defined the past two-plus years鈥攑art and parcel of the narrative the Biden administration is building around the 鈥榯riumphant return to normalcy,鈥� says Joshua Salomon, a health-policy researcher at Stanford.鈥�
• 鈥淭he main COVID guardrail left is a request for people to stay up to date on their vaccines, which most in the U.S. are not; most kids under 5 who have opted for the Pfizer vaccine won鈥檛 even have had enough time to finish their three-dose primary series by the time the school year starts.鈥�

• Jay Matthews in The Washington Post
• 鈥淢any think the disastrous educational effects of the pandemic mean we should let up on our kids, at least for a while鈥�. Could that be the wrong approach?鈥�
• 鈥淭he College Board has compiled data indicating that students should be given more of a challenge, rather than less. Results suggest that students who were required to commit early in an AP course to the difficult final exam did better than those allowed to decide later whether they would take the big test.鈥�
• 鈥淚 have interviewed hundreds of students who said their worries about taking the difficult AP exams made them work harder in the classes than they would have done otherwise.鈥�

On a Lighter Note 鈥� 

When Both of Your Parents Are News Anchors: .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

New CDC Guidance Loosens Restrictions, Removes 鈥楾est to Stay鈥� Recommendation

• : 鈥淭he revised guidance 鈥� released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday 鈥� lifts the requirement to quarantine if exposed to the virus, deemphasizes screening people with no symptoms and updates COVID-19 protocols in schools, eliminating a recommendation for test-to-stay after potential exposure.鈥�
• In place of test-to-stay, people exposed to COVID should mask for 10 days following the exposure and get tested after 5 days, .
• 鈥淭he update isn’t necessarily a huge overhaul of the existing guidance, but it does represent an increasing focus on individuals making their own decisions about their level of risk and how they want to mitigate that risk, said Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.鈥�
• and .
• The Washington Post has .

The Big Three 

School Vaccine Mandates for COVID-19 Are (Mostly) Not Happening

• “No state in the country is planning to require student vaccinations, a marked turnaround from where things seemed to be headed last winter, when multiple states and school districts suggested vaccine mandates were coming soon. Only Washington, D.C., has announced a mandatory school vaccine policy this fall, for students 12 and older.”
• “A state lawmaker in California who had introduced a bill to require COVID-19 vaccines for K-12 students withdrew it in April. 鈥� The same week, the California Department of Public Health announced it would no longer add the COVID-19 vaccine to its list of mandated childhood vaccines for public schools because they had not all yet received full FDA approval.”
• “The U.S. Supreme Court has endorsed states鈥� authority to require student vaccines, but many policymakers were wary of testing that legal authority for COVID-19 shots that had only received emergency use authorization. ( last summer saying schools could legally do this, but the threat of defending those decisions in court was both real and unappealing.)”

COVID Vaccine Mandates Heighten School Inequity

• “Most COVID restrictions in the U.S. have long since ended, but the school districts in New Orleans and the District of Columbia are mandating COVID vaccines for children to attend school in person this fall. In the capital, the mandate applies to students 12 and older and requires a booster in addition to the initial two-shot course, while in the Crescent City it kicks in at age 5 and requires only two shots.”
• “These mandates raise serious questions about racial inequity.鈥�
• 鈥淚n Washington, 36% of children 12 to 15 and 43% of 16- and 17-year-olds have received three shots of a COVID vaccine. For Black children, those rates are only 23% and 31%, respectively. Roughly 60% of school enrollment is black.”
• “If school began today and the mandates were strictly enforced, at least two-thirds of Black adolescents in Washington and almost half of all children in New Orleans wouldn鈥檛 be allowed in the classroom.”

COVID Grads Face College 

• “Angel Hope looked at the math test and felt lost. He had just graduated near the top of his high school class, winning scholarships from prestigious colleges. But on this test 鈥� a University of Wisconsin exam that measures what new students learned in high school 鈥� all he could do was guess.”
• “Nearly a third of Hope鈥檚 high school career was spent at home, in virtual classes that were hard to follow and easy to brush aside. Some days he skipped school to work extra hours at his job. Some days he played games with his brother and sister. Other days he just stayed in bed.”
• “Colleges could see a surge in students unprepared for the demands of college-level work, education experts say. Starting a step behind can raise the risk of dropping out. And that can hurt everything from a person鈥檚 long-term earnings to the health of the country鈥檚 workforce.”

City & State News

California

is affecting school transportation in Santa Maria.

Illinois

without COVID-19 restrictions.

2022-23 COVID guidelines.

Maryland

tutoring program.

Ohio

10-day strike notice.

COVID-19 Research

Pfizer COVID Vaccine Efficacy Wanes 27 Days After Dose 2 in Teens

• “We found waning vaccine protection of BNT162b2 against symptomatic COVID-19 infection among adolescents in Brazil and Scotland from 27 days after the second dose. However, protection against severe COVID-19 outcomes remained high at 98 days or more after the second dose in the Omicron-dominant period. Booster doses for adolescents need to be considered.”

Despite Awareness of COVID-19 Risks, Many Americans Say They鈥檙e Back to 鈥楴ormal鈥�

• Over half of Americans (54%) personally know at least one person who has died of COVID-19.
• Nearly 1 in 3 (31%) know someone who has experienced long COVID.
• A majority of Americans (54%) say they rarely or never wear a mask indoors when with people from outside their household 鈥� more than double the proportion in January.
• 4 in 10 (41%) say they have already returned to their 鈥渘ormal, pre-COVID-19 life鈥� 鈥� up from 16% in January.

A Plan for the Upcoming School Year

• “We need strong, universal vaccine campaigns at schools.”
• “Schools need to upgrade their ventilation and filtration systems. This is one of the most powerful tools we have to curb COVID-19 and other viruses because it happens in the background 鈥� it鈥檚 an institutional-level intervention that doesn鈥檛 require the teachers, parents or students to do anything.”
• “Attending school far outweighs benefits of quarantining for a respiratory virus that is out of control in the community. It鈥檚 reasonable (and overdue) to remove quarantine requirements.”
• “Masks are effective to the wearer. They are even more effective if everyone is masking. If a school is in an area of high transmission, it鈥檚 certainly reasonable to mask to reduce transmission and, thus, reduce missing school. However, for that strategy to work, the wearer must mask everywhere else in the community. I don鈥檛 think it makes sense for a school to mandate masks if the larger community does not do so either. We shouldn鈥檛 ask students to hold down the fort if the larger community hasn鈥檛 also committed either.”

Viewpoints and Reports

Catching Up and Moving Forward: Accelerating Math Learning

• Using two years of pandemic-era data from more than 600,000 students, . Researchers found: 
  • 鈥淎 student struggled 17% less in math when they experienced learning acceleration [compared to] when they were remediated.鈥� 
  • 鈥淎 student that experienced consistent learning acceleration completed twice as many grade-level lessons over the course of the year when compared to a student who was frequently remediated.鈥� 
  • 鈥淎 student enrolled in a majority Black, Latino or low-income school was more likely to be remediated when compared with their white and high-income peers 鈥� even when they already demonstrated the same level of success with grade-level work.鈥� 
  • 鈥淎 student enrolled in a majority Black, Latino or low-income schools struggled 19% less in math when they experienced learning acceleration.鈥�

2022 Kids Count: Rising Anxiety

• . More via .
• “In 2020, 11.8% of children experienced anxiety or depression, up from 9.4% [in] 2016.”
• “The increase of reported anxiety among youth was highest in South Dakota (102%) and California (70%).”

A Three-Prong Strategy for a Better Education for All

• Via in EdNext
• “First, fix the existing system. It鈥檚 important to improve today鈥檚 public systems, which serve the majority of students who are educated in traditional schools.”
• “Second, create alternatives to the current system to expand options for all families. Educational opportunity acknowledges every child鈥檚 uniqueness, rooted in the belief that all students are deserving of access to the option that best meets their needs.”
• “Third, reimagine the system. The future of education requires work today that can pave the way to new learning models, new education pathways and expanded student experiences for years to come.”

Early Data: Outcomes from High-Impact Tutoring

• “Students in grades K-5 who scored well below benchmark at the beginning of [the] year and received tutoring three times per week for 30 minutes per day were more likely to make outsized literacy gains and narrow their skills gap on a nationally normed reading assessment than their peers who did not attend tutoring or attended less frequently.”
• “The data comes from more than 160,000 students in more than 150 districts or Local Education Agencies that Amplify supported over the last school year.”

鈥� And on a Lighter Note

“Hey, You’re Doing Just Great”: gets hit in the head and then comforts the pitcher who is shaken up afterward.

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to , and serves on the board of Zearn. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Overdeck Foundation and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation provide financial support to Zearn and 蜜桃影视. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative provide financial support to Opportunity Insights and 蜜桃影视.