Covid-19 changed education in America — permanently - POLITICO

Covid-19 changed education in America — permanently - POLITICO

Covid-19 changed education in America — permanently

It’s been a school year like no other. Here’s what we learned.

There was a moment last spring when every parent and employer in America suddenly realized how deeply their lives and livelihoods depended on an institution too often in the background and taken for granted: the nation’s schools.

With almost no notice, adults and children found themselves in the middle of a massive national experiment in new ways of teaching and learning, and new ways of dividing responsibilities between home, school and work.

A year later, it’s clear that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed education in America in lasting ways, and glimpses of that transformed system are already emerging. School districts are developing permanent virtual options in the expectation that after the pandemic, some families will stick with remote learning — even for elementary school kids. Hundreds of colleges have, for the first time, admitted a freshman class without requiring SAT or ACT scores, potentially opening admissions to the most selective colleges to more low-income students. And thousands of educators across the country, from preschool to college, are finding new ways to spark their students’ creativity, harness technology and provide the services they need to succeed.

The pandemic has unleashed a wave of innovation in education that has accelerated change and prompted blue-sky thinking throughout the system. What if more schools could enhance learning and nutrition by offering their students not just a free breakfast and lunch, but dinner and a snack? What if schools delivered books during the summer? What if high school art students had access to graphic design and architecture software?

It’s not all upside, of course; the pandemic has been a tragedy for many CONTINUE READING: Covid-19 changed education in America — permanently - POLITICO

Three Feet or Six? Distancing Guideline for Schools Stirs Debate - The New York Times

Three Feet or Six? Distancing Guideline for Schools Stirs Debate - The New York Times

Three Feet or Six? Distancing Guideline for Schools Stirs Debate

Some public health officials say it’s time for the C.D.C. to loosen its social distancing guidelines for classrooms, but the idea has detractors.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is clear and consistent in its social distancing recommendation: To reduce the risk of contracting the coronavirus, people should remain at least six feet away from others who are not in their households. The guideline holds whether you are eating in a restaurant, lifting weights at a gym or learning long division in a fourth-grade classroom.

The guideline has been especially consequential for schools, many of which have not fully reopened because they do not have enough space to keep students six feet apart.

Now, spurred by a better understanding of how the virus spreads and a growing concern about the harms of keeping children out of school, some public health experts are calling on the agency to reduce the recommended distance in schools from six feet to three.

“It never struck me that six feet was particularly sensical in the context of mitigation,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. “I wish the C.D.C. would just come out and say this is not a major issue.”

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN that the C.D.C. was reviewing the matter.

The idea remains contentious, in part because few studies have directly compared different distancing strategies. But the issue also boils down to a devilishly difficult and often personal question: How safe is safe enough?

“There’s no magic threshold for any distance,” said Dr. Benjamin Linas, a specialist in infectious diseases at Boston University. “There’s risk at six feet, there’s risk at three feet, there’s risk at nine feet. There’s risk always.” He added, “The question is just how much of a risk? And what do you give up in exchange?”

The origins of six feet CONTINUE READING: Three Feet or Six? Distancing Guideline for Schools Stirs Debate - The New York Times

Photos on Schooling during the Pandemic | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Photos on Schooling during the Pandemic | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Photos on Schooling during the Pandemic

Meghan Gallagher at The 74 Million gathered photos that capture some of the effects of the pandemic year when schools were shuttered and then slowly reopened. I have selected a few of them for this post. All 52 can be seen here.

Children play in front of a school in Orlando, Florida on March 20, 2020 that was closed due to the coronavirus but will begin distance learning on March 30. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

A teacher from P.S. 124 in New York City conducts remote classes on her laptop from her roof. (Getty Images)

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – APRIL 1: High School language arts teacher Emily Olin held her three-year-old daughter Genevieve on her lap as she distance taught her classes from her home in Minneapolis, Minn., on Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Olin never imagined life like this “u2013 teaching her students virtually while tending to her own kids at the same time. There is joy, but also great anxiety in making sure everybody gets what they need daily. (Photo by Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

SEE MORE PHOTOS: Photos on Schooling during the Pandemic | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Marie Corfield: The 'New' Normal Post-Covid - Are YOU Ready?

Marie Corfield: The 'New' Normal Post-Covid - Are YOU Ready?

The 'New' Normal Post-Covid - Are YOU Ready?

If you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. If you put a frog in tepid water and slowly raise the heat, it will boil to death. - Unknown

Photo Credit: Nick Fewings

Covid-19 has been raising the heat on all of us for a year. Stress, depression and anxiety have paralyzed millions. Personally, I've battled all three. As someone who lived much of my life in a state of chronic stress, I very quickly became that frog again and didn't realize it until I was almost ready to be served as an appetizer. I was sleeping either too much or too little, watching the same ten pounds turn my bathroom scale into a seesaw, and despite having almost twenty years of teaching experience under my belt, there were days when I just burst into tears because virtual teaching is just. so. hard. Even though I had Covid-19 and its accompanying brain fog, I've also had what Ellen Cushing, writing in The Atlantic, calls the Covid "fog of forgetting" that has crept into our brains simply from living in quasi-isolation for so long:

Everywhere I turn, the fog of forgetting has crept in. A friend of mine recently confessed that the morning routine he’d comfortably maintained for a decade—wake up before 7, shower, dress, get on the subway—now feels unimaginable on a literal level: He cannot put himself back there. Another has CONTINUE READING: Marie Corfield: The 'New' Normal Post-Covid - Are YOU Ready?

Newsom strikes school reopening deal with California lawmakers - POLITICO

Newsom strikes school reopening deal with California lawmakers

Newsom strikes school reopening deal with California lawmakers

SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers struck a deal Sunday that would push school districts to open classrooms to the youngest students by the end of March while stopping short of new requirements regarding vaccines and collective bargaining.

The deal more closely aligns with what the governor originally proposed in December than what Democratic lawmakers detailed in a bill in February. It does not require schools to open but instead offers financial incentives for those that do, according to sources close to the deal who asked not to be named because it had not yet been made public.

The new proposal would offer $2 billion in grants to schools that open transitional kindergarten through second grade by the end of March and bring back at-risk students in all grades. That includes districts in counties that are still in the state's purple tier, with infection rates higher than what teachers unions previously said are too unsafe for reopening.

Under the plan, once counties move into the red tier — with daily case rates below 7 per 100,000 residents — schools eligible for the grant funding must open to all elementary grades, plus at least one grade in middle and high school.

The deal speeds up the clock and more strictly ties the grants to in-person instruction than what the Legislature proposed. If schools do not open by the end of March, they will start to lose a percentage of money for each day they remain closed starting April 1.

Most of California's 6 million public schoolchildren have been out of classrooms for almost a year. The state's deference to local school decision-making, along with union resistance and high winter case rates, have made it difficult for California to bring students back. While a Capitol deal may propel districts toward reopening, local school boards and their labor unions still have final say — and many want CONTINUE READING: Newsom strikes school reopening deal with California lawmakers

NOONAN | Teachers between rock and a hard place | Opinion | coloradopolitics com

NOONAN | Teachers between rock and a hard place | Opinion | coloradopolitics.com

Teachers between rock and a hard place

K-12 education in Colorado is a big fat mess. No question. Schools are caught in COVID limbo, with some schools returning to full time, others keeping to a hybrid schedule, and many students continuing online. Teachers are trying to get their vaccinations, which puts to rest complaints from some that they’re resisting returning to the classroom.

That claim about teachers is particularly pernicious. Talk about working between a rock and a hard place. Public school teachers catch derision for their caution, with the deriders accusing teacher unions of blocking classroom returns. But very recently, 1,500 Jeffco middle and high school students petitioned the school board to not resume full-time classes because of COVID insecurity.

Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers says that New York City offers a model for returning to classrooms. That’s a district with a strong union presence. How has the district moved forward? New York City schools benefit from a much larger budget than any Colorado schools. Elementary schools returned to full time in December upon receipt of parent consent forms for COVID testing.

For students to return to school full time in grades 6-8 starting Feb. 25, parents must agree to in-school COVID testing. The random testing occurs weekly for students and staff. The city has improved its CONTINUE READING: NOONAN | Teachers between rock and a hard place | Opinion | coloradopolitics.com

Back To School Covid Myths (Doug Green) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Back To School Covid Myths (Doug Green) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Back To School Covid Myths (Doug Green)

I have had a hard time locating actual classroom observations of hybrid teaching and learning. I did find that The New York Times sent journalists to visit seven different urban and rural districts that provided some evidence of what occurs in schools during the pandemic.

Doug Green emailed me that he had visited a small district near where he lives. I asked him to send me the results of his observations. Dr. Doug Green is a former teacher and principal in upstate New York. He blogs at https://DrDougGreen.Com

Since March of 2020, I have read countless articles about remote schooling. I have yet to see a convincing study on the relative quality of remote and in-person schooling, but I have seen many authors make unequivocal statements in favor of the in-person model. Whenever I see people stating hypotheses as facts I try to come up with reasons why they might be wrong, so here are the problems I find with the general consensus.

As part of my post-retirement professional life, I am the independent observer for a local school district. There I get to observe 120 teachers from K to12 thanks to the fact that our government doesn’t trust our principals to fairly evaluate CONTINUE READING: Back To School Covid Myths (Doug Green) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

NANCY BAILEY: 26 Reasons to Love Teachers During the Pandemic

26 Reasons to Love Teachers During the Pandemic

26 Reasons to Love Teachers During the Pandemic

Let teachers know how much they’re cared for on Valentine’s Day! Their mental health is important during this troubling time, so reach out and say something kind. No matter what anyone thinks about school reopenings it’s important to express love and appreciation for all that teachers do and have done during the pandemic.

While Covid-19 has been a tragedy and schooling is a concern for parents, another tragedy is unfolding in this country. It’s the loss of qualified, experienced teachers. The most important person in a child’s life next to their parents and family is their teacher.

Here are 26 examples pulled from social media and through discussions with teachers during this trying time. They’re in no particular order and provide a small example of what all teachers do. But they show a beautiful profession and teachers who always make it so, especially during Covid-19. Feel free to share your story or provide additional examples of the good that teachers do.

1. Teachers take food and supplies to students. Here they rode school buses 150 miles a day traversing gravel and dirt roads to hand out food and homework to children.
2. Teaching in frigid weather outside or in chilly rooms with windows open must not be easy, but here teachers mean to keep students safe and protest unsafe school reopening plans.
3. These teachers make home visits where they connect with families and children. 
4. Some teachers show up for in-person schooling even though they’re pregnant. CONTINUE READING: 26 Reasons to Love Teachers During the Pandemic

Frontline Dispatches: The struggle for Racial Justice in the Schools during the time of COVID–A conversation with Gerald Lenoir and Jesse Hagopian – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Frontline Dispatches: The struggle for Racial Justice in the Schools during the time of COVID–A conversation with Gerald Lenoir and Jesse Hagopian – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Frontline Dispatches: The struggle for Racial Justice in the Schools during the time of COVID–A conversation with Gerald Lenoir and Jesse Hagopian

I am beyond excited to join my dad, Gerald Lenoir, in an online conversation about the struggle for racial justice in the schools during the COVID era on Wednesday, February 10th, at 7pm EST/4pm PST. From racial justice in schools during COVID, to the fight led by teachers’ unions to ensure safe school re-openings, and the role unions can play in broader social justice struggles, will will have a lot to talk about.

We will be joining the Frontline Dispatches program, an Organizing Upgrade show intended to amplify the voices of organizers and activists who are engaged in important, lesson filled, on-the-ground organizing, protest, or activism. Whatever the work, these talks engage with those on the frontlines of the most current and urgent work facing our movements. 

My dad is a life long organizer for racial and social justice and recently came out with fire book of protest poetry. As a young college student, Gerald was part of the student strike at University of Wisconsin–Madison that shut the campus down to demand Black Studies. I’m excited to see what questions he has in store for me about how we build the Black Lives Matter at School movement and organize for racial justice in these times.

Join us for this conversation at this link–then join the BLM at School movement!

Gerald Lenoir is the Strategy Analyst at the Othering & Belonging Institute. He works with community, advocacy, labor and faith partners to organize the research, development and promotion of a strategic narrative that fosters structural inclusion and addresses marginalization and structural racialization. Gerald was the founding Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the Executive Director of the San Francisco Black Coalition on AIDS and a co-founder of the HIV Education and Prevention Project of Alameda County. He serves on the board of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Priority Africa Network.

Jesse Hagopain is a high school teacher in Seattle and a co-founder of Black Lives Matter at School, a national initiative. He is the co-editor of four books: Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice, Teaching for Black Lives, Teacher Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities Our Students Deserve, and More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing. 

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Frontline Dispatches: The struggle for Racial Justice in the Schools during the time of COVID–A conversation with Gerald Lenoir and Jesse Hagopian – I AM AN EDUCATOR

In the Absence of COVID Safety Plans, Teachers Are Resigning and Retiring Early

In the Absence of COVID Safety Plans, Teachers Are Resigning and Retiring Early

In the Absence of COVID Safety Plans, Teachers Are Resigning and Retiring Early

This should have been Cheryl Dubberly’s 40th year as a music teacher, but in August 2020, she resigned from her position with the Duval County Board of Education in Jacksonville, Florida.

“It was dreadful to think about continuing,” Dubberly told Truthout. “I would not have been able to stay safe because I was responsible for teaching music to the entire school — 500 to 600 kids.” The job, she says, required her to go from classroom to classroom even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that singing with others can spread COVID-19.

“The job was not worth my life,” she says.

Like Dubberly, Christine Vehar, also a music teacher, left her position in the metro Atlanta area this fall. She had taught for just three and a half years. “When the schools closed in March, I had a great remote teaching experience,” she says. “The students were very engaged and despite some initial disorganization, it worked well, and I ended up loving teaching from home.” But when Vehar’s district decided to move to a hybrid schedule in October — holding in-person classes from 7:15 am to 2:15 pm four days a week, with Wednesdays as a remote teaching and learning day — she resigned.

The reason was fear of catching and spreading the virus.

“My mom is 63, and she lives with me,” Vehar told Truthout. “She is a three-time cancer survivor and an amputee with a compromised immune system, so there was absolutely no way for me to give her the care she deserves and continue to teach in-person.”

A fall 2020 survey conducted by the National Education Association (NEA) confirms that neither Dubberly nor Vehar are unusual. “Teachers with less than 10 years in are leaving the profession,” NEA President Becky Pringle told Truthout. “And 40 percent of mid-range teachers — CONTINUE READING: In the Absence of COVID Safety Plans, Teachers Are Resigning and Retiring Early

NANCY BAILEY: The 12 Point Covid-19 DISCONNECT Between Teachers and Those Who Want Schools Open Now!

The 12 Point Covid-19 DISCONNECT Between Teachers and Those Who Want Schools Open Now!

The 12 Point Covid-19 DISCONNECT Between Teachers and Those Who Want Schools Open Now!

Pressure is being placed on teachers to return to in-person classes. Here’s why that’s a problem.

1. Precautions

The CDC  and Dr. Fauci and President Biden want all schools to return to in-person learning with precautions in place. But precautions are exactly what many schools often lack.

Teachers know best whether or not precautions are in place at their schools. Their views should be heard and respected.

Schools have classrooms with no windows or windows glued shut. They still have lousy ventilation systems and maintenance problems. Some schools are overcrowded. School districts may face shortages of qualified teachers, school staff, and substitute teachers.

2. Vaccines

Americans are repeatedly told about the importance of getting vaccinated and to remain cautious afterward.

Some Americans have trepidation about getting vaccines that have been rolled out quickly, but most teachers have been eager to get vaccinated to return to the classroom safely. Some states have worked to get teachers vaccinated, and others have not.

Yesterday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters during a White House news briefing that teachers don’t need vaccinations to return to classrooms. This sounds disingenuous.

3. Funding

States and school boards should seriously consider how Covid-19 money will be spent CONTINUE READING: The 12 Point Covid-19 DISCONNECT Between Teachers and Those Who Want Schools Open Now!

The Whole Truth about Kids, Schools, and Covid-19 (Derek Thompson) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Whole Truth about Kids, Schools, and Covid-19 (Derek Thompson) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Whole Truth about Kids, Schools, and Covid-19 (Derek Thompson)

The following article comes from The Atlantic, January 2021. “Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he writes about economics, technology, and the media. He is the author of Hit Makers and the host of the podcast Crazy/Genius.”

Those school boards and superintendents who continue to keep schools closed in light of this evidence have the duty of explaining to their patrons why district schools have not re-opened. Perhaps the rates of infection among adults in the geographical area are very high and they are waiting for rates to come down. Or maybe there are insufficient funds to prepare buildings to meet Center for Disease Control guidelines. Or there are too many teachers refusing to enter schools because of underlying medical condition. Or there is a lack of phase-in plans for younger children and then older ones attending.

Whatever the reasons are, district policymakers need to explain clearly and coherently why their schools have not re-opened in light of the preponderance of evidence for opening classrooms to in-person instruction. That is task number one.

Federal health officials at the CDC this week called for children to return to American classrooms as soon as possible. In an essay in the Journal of the CONTINUE READING; The Whole Truth about Kids, Schools, and Covid-19 (Derek Thompson) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

MITCHELL ROBINSON: The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers | Eclectablog

The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers | Eclectablog

The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers

The following post was written by an elementary school teacher. This person could be your neighbor…a friend…a family member…or just someone you know on social media. This teacher hasn’t shared how they feel with anyone outside of their family, because there is so much pushback from persons in their community, and angry demands that teachers “get back to work!”

As if teachers haven’t been working all this time.

As if teachers don’t care about their students, or miss their colleagues.

As if teachers aren’t suffering in this pandemic in the same ways that those parents demanding an immediate reopening of the schools are suffering.

So here, with a few of my own thoughts interspersed below, are the unfiltered thoughts of a public school teacher about to return to their school for the first time in nearly a year…in the hopes that persons demanding those schools reopen consider the thoughts of teachers as they grapple with this decision…

“Feeling so distraught and angry and frustrated and scared today about everything…I hope you CONTINUE READING: The Forgotten Voices in the School Reopening Debate: Teachers | Eclectablog

Dr. Fauci has conversation with teachers' union about reopening schools in President Joe Biden's first 100 days - ABC7 San Francisco

Dr. Fauci has conversation with teachers' union about reopening schools in President Joe Biden's first 100 days - ABC7 San Francisco

Dr. Fauci has conversation with teachers' union about reopening schools in Biden's first 100 days

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Reopening most schools within President Biden's first 100 days is a big commitment. Many, including teacher unions, are questioning whether or not that is even possible.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had a livestream conversation with unions about this goal.

RELATED: In-person learning during pandemic is possible with right precautions, CDC says

Back in July, Dr. Anthony Fauci said we should try to get children back to school for their psychological welfare and for the good of working families but safety, he said, was paramount.

Today, six months later, the Biden administration is counting on Dr. Fauci's expertise to make sure the necessary school safety standards are in place.

This is what he told the big teachers unions:
"The American Rescue Plan is something that hopefully will provide the resources for masking, for better ventilation, for whatever resources the schools might need to protect students and the teachers.""We need the CDC guidance, we need these rapid tests, we need to make sure we have the accommodations and the vaccine. I hear that a lot," expressed Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers.

Fauci then said his daughter is constantly reminding him of what teachers need to stay safe.

"As you know, I have a personal interest in this because my daughter is a teaching science in the 3rd CONTINUE READING: Dr. Fauci has conversation with teachers' union about reopening schools in President Joe Biden's first 100 days - ABC7 San Francisco