The national conversation over K-12 schooling in the context of the pandemic continues fervently, including then President-Elect Joe Biden’s December pledge to reopen most school buildings for in-person instruction as swiftly as possible. New evidence from parent surveys provides an
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As school district leaders and educators worry about the ramifications of pandemic-induced disruptions for children’s learning and development, practitioners and policymakers are increasingly focused on interventions that could address disparities and help remediate and catch up lagging skills. Two popular
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Health Care Workers This study by Yang et al. assesses whether health care workers (HCWs) are at risk of worse outcomes associated with COVID-19 (mechanical ventilation or death) compared to patients who are not HCWs. The target of the study
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Resource Allocation This preprint article by Sarkar et al. assesses the performance of three severity scoring systems (SOFA, OASIS, and APACHE IVa) across race/ethnicity. While developed for other purposes, such scoring systems (in particular SOFA) are also used in many
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To date in the COVID-19 pandemic, there has not been reliable, nationwide data on parent experiences with their children’s schooling. Last week, however, researchers released results from a large, nationally representative parent survey, conducted from November to early December 2020.
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Supplies The new administration under President Biden has issued a large number of executive orders in its first days, including several related to pandemic response. Among other actions are orders: Invoking various emergency authorities, including the Defense Production Act, to
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This week’s post focuses on employment effects of pandemic-induced school closures, a topic covered previously in October and December posts. COVID-19 disruptions have created a difficult balancing act for working parents, and evidence shows that the challenges are particularly acute
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Resource Allocation and Social Inequities This article by Schmidt, Roberts & Eneanya critiques the use of facially neutral (or “colorblind”) criteria for the allocation of scarce resources such as ventilators. Such neutral frameworks are designed to maximize utility, typically lives
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Researchers very recently released two studies—both generating a lot of attention—providing new evidence on the role of in-person schooling in community spread of COVID-19. This emerging research advances our collective understanding of schools and COVID-19 spread as the most rigorous
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Resource Allocation This article by Kerr & Schmidt provides a review of existing literature related to ventilator rationing protocols with a focus on disadvantaged populations’ views on appropriate principles. While the authors identified a large number of ventilator triage guidelines
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