#CoveringCOVID19, a daily update to help education journalists cover the massive impact of the shutdown of the nation’s schools.
ALL EYES ON CHICAGO
On Monday, Chicago public school students finally head back to class, albeit remotely.
Chicago will join other big cities like New York and Los Angeles that have been at it for two weeks or more now.
In Chicago, the downtime has been almost a month.
It’s a long time, but not the longest. A Sacramento-area school district shut down March 7 and isn’t scheduled to begin remote instruction until the 16th.
The offerings will vary widely from school to school, notes WBEZ’s Sarah Karp. The differences — paper packets vs. laptops — aren’t entirely because of money.
Check out Karp’s story and the new WBEZ Education page.
THE TOP FIVE
Here are five great education stories about how schools are responding to the COVID-19 crisis:
🏫 4 In 10 U.S. Teens Report Not Doing Online Learning – NPR
🏫 When the State Shifted to E-learning, This Rural School Superintendent Shifted to the Copy Machine – ProPublica
🏫 A School on Navajo Nation Stayed Open. Then People Started Showing Symptoms. – ProPublica
🏫 Achievement Could Drop In D.C. Schools During Coronavirus Closures, Study Finds | – WAMU
🏫 Some Denver-area school districts aren’t tracking how many students have failed to start remote learning – The Denver Post
3 NEW RESOURCES
EdBuild’s Rebecca Sibelia tells us that there are 191 school districts with a higher COVID incidence rate than New York City.
An updated version of ERN’s state-level report reveals that 13 states including California aren’t actually requiring districts to provide instruction during the shutdown, and that states are doing lots more to provide Internet access than to deliver devices.
A new report from Common Sense Media finds that private schools are doing much better than public ones in terms of remote learning, and that black and Latino students are much more concerned about keeping up with school than white kids. As NPR’s Anya Kamenetz reports, 41%-47% of teens say that they haven’t done any learning since schools closed. (However, according to Gallup, 80% of parents say their child is learning remotely.)
DISPARATE IMPACT
Monday and Tuesday, several news outlets noted the disparate health effect of the COVID-19 disease on black communities. Given the preexisting condition of the education system and the highly uneven rollout of remote learning that we’re seeing across the nation, it doesn’t seem hard to imagine that the crisis is also having negative effects on African American students who have experienced systemic inequality.
TIDBITS
via Alberto Cairo
😷 What are newsrooms doing that’s new or different in response to the COVID-19 crisis? As described in a new piece from The Grade, lots of reader callouts, special sections, and delayed publication of non-COVID stories.
😷 In case you missed it like I did, check out this interview with WNYC’s education editor Patricia Willens, one of the smartest and most knowledgeable education editors out there.
😷 “Two extremely easy, very satisfying things I’ve done this week that you might want to consider, too: mailed my unlimited Metrocard to an essential worker, delivered groceries to an elderly neighbor,” tweeted the NYT’s Eliza Shapiro earlier this week. “Being useful feels good!!!” What are you doing to feel useful during the COVID-19 crisis, in addition to your job and your family? I’m giving blood and trying to tutor some refugee kids remotely.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexander Russo
Alexander Russo is founder and editor of The Grade, an award-winning effort to help improve media coverage of education issues. He’s also a Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship winner and a book author. You can reach him at @alexanderrusso.
Visit their website at: https://the-grade.org/
