COVID-19 Policy Update
THURSDAY 8/20
In the words of Kanye West's campaign manager - this will be short. Brief update tonight due to stalled negotiations, the convention, and most of DC out on August vacations.
STATE
Arizona: ASU Prep Digital:
- Will go from serving 30,000 enrollments last year to 400,000 enrollments this school year.
- Created the Arizona Virtual Teacher Institute to help teachers across the state with preparing for online the learning. Funding was provided by the Arizona Department of Education, the Governor’s Office, Helios Education Foundation and Arizona State University.
- In California, ASU Prep Digital is supporting 5 school districts in the LA County area with a ‘powered by’ model representing 23,000 students and 1,500 teachers.
Colorado: Denver Public Schools faces a nationwide shortage of devices.
New Jersey: Fair Lawn parents protest schools opening remotely. Parent Alina Shumilenko said in a press release, "...simply because they failed to prepare and provide necessary equipment to ensure the safe environment on time. Our belief is there was plenty of time to do so. We will demand to have at least a hybrid model and have our kids go back to schools in small learning pods or sequentially - whatever is safer and feasible. If they don't have masks, we'll buy masks. We also do not believe that the announced date of 'back-to-normal' - October-19 - is achievable because they already failed with planning, and we do not trust their professionalism to plan."
Tennessee: Parents of students who attend Rutherford County Schools (RCS) must agree not to monitor their child’s online classroom sessions.
INTERNATIONAL
Africa:
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Rise in Jobless Claims: First time claims for state unemployment benefits rose above 1 million again, a sign to some economists that the economy’s rebound could be decelerating.
LEARNING PODS
Do Pods Violate CA's AB5 Law? Never considered this but it's thought provoking:
- "California’s AB 5, which became effective Jan. 1, 2020, codifies a 2018 California Supreme Court decision that used a three-prong “ABC” test to determine whether workers were properly classified as independent contractors, rather than employees."
- "Notably, AB 5 does not exempt teachers and tutors hired by parents – an issue that has recently gained attention in light of the pandemic’s impact on school openings. Although some are calling for Gov. Newsom to suspend the application of AB 5 to at-home teachers and tutors, he has yet to do so."
How Companies Are Supporting Working Parents:
Real Simple: Has an article on how to create a pod.
Teachers Resigning to Become Pods Instructors: Stories from several FL teachers.
High School Pod: Powered by Sora.
Massachusetts Churches: Look to open their doors to students as schools go to remote
Facebook Groups:
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Changing Consumer Spending: EdTech investor and entrepreneur John Danner:
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RESOURCES
New Transmission Study: Researchers tested 192 children COVID-19 at MGH and Mass General Hospital for Children - 49 tested positive for the virus and 18 had late-onset, coronavirus-related illness. The infected children were shown to have a significantly higher level of virus in their airways than hospitalized adults in ICUs for COVID-19 treatment.
Phantom Risk: Thought provoking piece from Tyler Cowen exploring the idea of risk aversion:
- "If, say, 20 Covid-19 cases were identified within a high school today, there is a very real risk that those infected students would carry the virus home and infect older and more vulnerable people. There is also a small risk that the students would sustain damage themselves. Not surprisingly, most schools won’t reopen because they cannot deal with the burden — institutionally, legally or otherwise — of being connected to significant numbers of Covid-19 cases. The question is how this stigma ends. If rates of death and possible long-term damage fell to half of their current levels? One-third? Less? I strongly suspect these same schools still would be unwilling to reopen, due in part to phantom risk."
- "If rates of death and damage fell to one-fifth of their current level, perhaps, there would be more reopenings — but there would still be a lot of reluctance to restore previous levels of attendance. How about one-tenth the level of mortality? It is hard to say when people will feel comfortable once again."
- "This kind of risk aversion will harm schools most of all, because it is relatively easy to figure out that a cluster of cases among the young came from their school interactions."
We're in for a Marathon Not a Sprint: "As schools consider whether it’s safe to reopen this fall, medical experts warn it could take years before students and teachers can return to in-person education safely without masks, social distancing and other measures intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus. ... Experts say it may take a couple of years before students can resume classes without the risk of an outbreak, especially among grade-school children."
Templates: For class schedules, lesson plans, and more via NIET.
17 Million Students Lack Home Internet: With no relief from Congress, schools deploy an awkward mix of buses, mobile hotspots.
Bill Gates: How to help students get to college in the COVID era,
What's Poppin' We're virtual so gotta take it up a notch... and more poppin.
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