WEDNESDAY 8/12
FEDERAL
White House: The administration held a Kids First: Getting America’s Children Safely Back to School event today with the President, Vice President, Secretary DeVos along with some parents and education leaders. The President reiterated his belief that schools should be opened and that funding should be tied to their reopening. The White House released additional guidance/recommendations with the event.
STATE
Florida: Miami-Dade County public schools released an updated reopening plan and website. The first day of school is August 31 with an orientation period between August 24-28 to allow parents, students and teachers to familiarize themselves with the online learning portal, My School Online. On September 30, the district will reevaluate if they can open schools. Their criteria is a community positivity rate of 10% with a trend toward 5% oer a 14 day period. Every bus will have a hand sanitizer station that students must use before boarding.
Massachusetts: Governor Baker unveiled a new color code for measuring community spread. The Department of Education also released updated guidance as to the type of school model each risk category allows.
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New Jersey:
North Carolina: Thoughtful reopening plan from Guilford County Schools that includes dedicated time to pre recorded video lectures from some of their best teachers, diagnostic learning assessments, SEL supports, purchased devices for their students, and have a number of parent guides including this "day in the life" of a remote learner.
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Ohio: How districts are planning to reopen:
- 325 districts representing about 38% of students are holding classes in-person
- 55 districts representing 25.6% of students are holding classes online.
- 154 districts representing 24.5% of students are using a hybrid model.
- 78 districts haven't submitted a plan or decided yet.
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INTERNATIONAL
Germany: Schools have reopened and masks have been a challenge.
UK: England is set to begin piloting the Google / Apple contact tracing app.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Addressing the Unemployed: The Markle Foundation announced the Rework America Alliance to move millions of unemployed and low wage workers into good jobs, regardless of formal education, by accelerating the development of a more effective system of worker training aligned to jobs that employers will need to fill. Partners include Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the African American Mayor's Association, National Urban League, NAACP and UnidosUS, Google, IBM, Microsoft, McKinsey & Company, and Workday, and Arizona State University.
Small Business Loans: Howard Schultz led a joint letter of more than 100 current and former corporate and trade group executives urged Congress this morning to create a more robust loan program to support small businesses. The proposal calls for federally guaranteed loans to last into 2021, flexibility in how that money is used, partial loan forgiveness for the hardest-hit companies, and targeting the funds to the businesses most in need, particularly those run by people of color. The proposal is similar to the RESTART Act, which was introduced by Senators Bennet and Young back in May.
LEARNING PODS
A Safe Haven: The Boys & Girls Clubs and Cleveland Clergy Coalition are working closely with the Cleveland school district to reach families that might need help the most. They estimate they will be able to serve 700 students at their standalone centers.
Denver: Black leaders are setting up spaces to keep kids safe and learning as school begins online.
Pods For All? Some districts and nonprofits are reimagining the remote learning trend. "We’re not interested in criticizing people who do that. You’re going to take care of your child and do what it takes — rich, poor, whatever,” Evangelista said. “We can spread ideas, and we can be coordinators, and share information, and tap into the power of our families. Our families are just as equipped and just as savvy and can be — and have been — incredible partners in remote learning.”
RESOURCES
School Reopenings Bring Wave of COVID-19 Student-Data-Privacy Concerns: Article from EdWeek.
Lifting Kids Out of The Pandemic Slide: Article from the Hechinger Report on tutoring. Couple of highlights:
- Experts say making tutors available to more kids — especially those least able to afford to hire one themselves — could be vital to combating learning losses that resulted when the coronavirus forced schools to shut down and transition to online-only instruction.
- The tutoring doesn’t need to be airtight for it to pay dividends, experts say; it doesn’t need a perfect structure, a particular pedagogical approach, or even a certified teacher.
- “The need for this outweighs having something perfect that is rolled out … months from now.” said Jayme Simmons, the executive director of the Bill & Crissy Haslam Foundation.
- The United Kingdom announced a national $440 million tutoring program to help provide “catch-up support” for public school students
The Black-White Wealth Gap Will Widen Educational Disparities: Via CAP, "the flipside of under resourced schools is that parents will have to provide more of the resources themselves as schools transition to remote learning."
POLITICO/Morning Consult Poll: In the survey of nearly 2,000 registered voters, 59% said they oppose fully reopening K-12 schools for the beginning of the academic year. Toplines. Crosstabs.
World Mask Week: The Pandemic Action Network has been promoting face coverings (via the Masking for A Friend campaign). They've launched a social media campaign for #WorldMaskWeek from August 7-14. Partner toolkit and Graphic assets.
Data and the Recovery: New reports from DQC:
Half of Students Starting Online: A Burbio study suggests 52% of students will start school online, while 44% will attend some form of in-person learning in the fall, and 4% of school districts remain undecided as of Aug. 11. The Burbio looked at more than 80,000 K-12 school calendars across 12,000 school districts, actively monitored more than 35,000 schools, and reviewed district plans every 72 hours to account for changes.
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OpEds:
I Can Feel It: Coming in the Air Tonight. Two twins hearing the song for the first time.
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