This article is widely circulating, what people want to hear and, unfortunately, it is dangerously misleading. A (very long) thread:
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https://twitter.com/ProfEmilyOster/status/1314572214621143040

She cites a .13% infection rate in her own study and one of less than 1/2 a percent "even in high-risk areas". However, there is no large-scale, randomized testing of students happening in schools. These #'s are students who voluntarily tested & were reported in schools. 2/

It is utterly disingenuous to describe the US as having implemented a lockdown strategy. It was tried briefly & then abandoned in much of the US - the same parts that experienced the 2nd wave & doubled our deaths from June-Sep. Sweden should be ashamed to be in our company. Sweden is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, w/ a social democratic state, world-class healthcare system, & a major portion of its population living alone yet still ranks in the 11 highest deaths per capita. Its neighbors have per capita rates of 50-100 vs their 577.

This is so bad & terribly wrong, I'm not even sure where to begin. It's disappointing that @jacobinmag, which has run wonderful pieces by & about teachers fighting for their own lives & those of their students, would run a piece arguing *for* opening schools & economy. 1/

https://twitter.com/jacobinmag/status/1307560120117653504

There's so much to say, but just a few major things for now:

The idea that Covid only targets the old is false. Young people die & Black people age 25-34 have a 10x greater chance of dying from it than white people their age. Our health inequalities mean more vulnerabilities. 2/

@NYCMayor says it's safe to open school. However, the modeling projections developed by Columbia's School of Public Health in order to advise NYC on school & Phase 4 reopening plans shows that he knows it is not. A thread (h/t @Incindery1 who shared this with me): 1/ They modeled projections for 3 policies: a) open all biz (incl ph4) at 50% & schools at 100% capacity; b) open all biz (incl ph4) % schools at 50%; c) open ph1-3 biz 50%; ph4 biz 25%; schools 100%.

Notably, they did NOT model a policy of keeping schools & ph4 biz closed. 2/

One thing I think is getting lost in the mass of confusing & horrifying details about NYC's school reopening plans: attempting to recreate "normal" school in the context of a pandemic is educationally & developmentally inappropriate &, by definition, cannot be trauma-informed. 1/ Trying to open in-person stresses teachers & reduces their ability to be there for students the way they need. It requires strict safety measures that tilt the balance towards discipline & control. It puts the burden of virus control on very young children. 2/

Oh my god, this is brilliant and beautiful - captures so perfectly the determination & collective spirt, and justified rage, of this city's working-class majority as we have been left behind by our leaders & business elite. Crying. I needed this.

https://twitter.com/MaraGay/status/1306733639317716995

"Do the chattering classes from City Hall to Wall Street who so richly enjoy thinking of themselves as civic leaders have any idea what the past six months have been like here? The terror of wailing ambulance sirens followed by a terrible silence."

Based on our 1st day experience today, I'm guessing a lot of parents are going to be frustrated & upset. From tech to social-emotional aspects to communication styles & schedules, there's room for a lot of disappointment. A thread w/ some initial thoughts: 1/ Teachers spent the last weeks tracking cases in their schools, trying to get windows to open, monitoring ventilation reports, trying to get childcare for their own kids, getting tested & going over safety procedures. There's a lot of fear & it's founded & rational. 2/

A good follow up from epidemiologists to my post about why we should take the rise in infections amongst young people seriously. Many subthreads here worth reading to really understand the slow burn as infections spread to older age groups & deaths & hospitalizations rise.

https://twitter.com/AdamJKucharski/status/1303246679727116288

Data from France & Florida, which is replicated in other regions as well. Bottom-line is that we are identifying transmission & could be using these as a warning to take action. Instead, most places taking a "wait & see" approach that will be deadly.

My friend teaches at a school that decided in early August to go 100% remote. Teachers have been planning since last week; parents have received support & communications re what to expect; kids have been sent backpacks loaded with high-quality materials & start school next week. All kids have their own devices. Supplies include things like manipulatives, books & art materials. Each family has a person assigned to connect every two weeks (in addition to classroom teachers) to ask about health, food or other non-academic needs & general well-being.

So for all those who kept insisting that it was only privileged white parents pushing remote, here's some preliminary data showing - just like all the national trends - that white parents had the lowest #'s opting into 100% remote. 1/

https://twitter.com/AGZimmerman/status/1295439397492531202

These numbers translate to 47% of Asian, 27% each of Black and Latinx & 23% of white parents choosing now to lock into 100% remote through November. B/c poorer districts & ones w/ more students of color had lower response rates, I think it is likely those #'s will rise. 2/

"The education department scrambled to scale up a centralized online platform called iLearn, which contained pre-packaged digital lessons..Many students may not have felt incentivized to log on since they had no pre-existing relationship with their assigned teachers"
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https://twitter.com/SusanBEdelman/status/1293332999392710663

This is a really great article that we should learn from. The move towards multiple-choice tests & centralized instruction removes the personal connections w/ teachers that helps students progress. Kids were disengaged from the content. 2/

Red flags for opening schools contained in this piece:
-20% of new COVID-19 cases in New York City are from out-of-state visitors. Fordham, NYU & Columbia will all be bringing students to campus from all over the country.
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nymag.com/intelligencer/… Students live & socialize off-campus, including in areas w/ higher infection rates (North Bx, Chinatown/LES, Wash Heights, Harlem). I live in one of these areas (along w/ the majority Latinx parents whose kids attend our local school). The outdoor bars & delis will be packed. 2/

Clear statement from the NY Nurses' Association on the public health risks of opening schools. A union that saw too many of its members die & had to fight for PPE to keep them safe, they know a thing or two about how much to trust the city's promises.
nysna.org/press/2020/sta… "Without the robust public health infrastructure nurses have called for since the beginning of this pandemic... Opening in-person schooling could easily erase the progress New York has made, and spark a resurgence of COVID-19."

It's scary to me to see how low teacher morale is right now. One of the worst things is seeing teachers make permanent decisions (quitting/retiring) when plans are so likely to fall apart (see below). A couple of ideas/resources: 1/

savannahnow.com/news/20200806/… Obviously, joining organizing efforts to stop schools from reopening and ensuring safety is the top priority. Don't give up! If you're in NYC, join @MOREcaucusUFT to be part of a powerful fighting community. 2/

Here's a thread pulling out the statements in the article that contradict or undermine the headline's claim. There's a lot of if's & but's in this piece that need to be considered & I thought it would be helpful to have them for easy reference: 1/

https://twitter.com/elizashapiro/status/1291900133420994563

"DeBlasio has said schools in the city would not open if the metric rises above 3 percent...Harvard’s Global Health Institute also recommended opening schools only when the daily infection rate is less than 3 percent."

For July, 41 zip codes had an infection rate > 3%.
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We are losing too many teachers right now. People like to talk about long term consequences of lost learning time. But what about long-term consequences of losing up to 1/4 of our teachers - disproportionately our most experienced?

https://twitter.com/LadyOfSardines/status/1289172544084303872

Teacher turnover is destabilizing and it affects high-poverty schools the most. We know that in the midst of trauma kids need stability. Opening schools doesn’t provide that. It guarantees that schools will experience long-term instability beyond this year

According to @ProfEmilyOster, "Schools need to face reality now, make a plan and then stick to it."

I agree. The reality is that we are in the midst of a rising pandemic that no state is immune to. The plan should be 100% remote until our curve looks like the countries she cites

https://twitter.com/leoniehaimson/status/1288299441569529857

Also, this is an understatement: "If 5 percent of adults in a community have Covid-19, we expect 5 percent of school employees to have it" - the incidence will be higher than the community as a whole b/c infection risk rises with prolonged exposure & contact.

@NYGovCuomo likes to act like NY is a beacon of pandemic response, but this episode of the Daily suggests otherwise. The evisceration of our healthcare system had deadly effects that took the highest toll on Black, Latinx & low-income pple. Some facts: 1/

nytimes.com/2020/07/27/pod… While public hospitals were being crushed, there were less than 50 transfers from public to private hospitals during the crisis. 2/

@NYCMayor - these are photos of my son's school that is supposed to open 9/10. This is not temp construction. It's been up for over a year for ongoing asbestos removal. Can you please look at the following photos & questions and tell me why you think this is safe? 1/ This is the corridor where kids enter and where parents of the elementary kids (starting in pre-K) drop off. I was just able to stretch my arms from side to side in it - about 6 feet. This funnel stretches for almost half a block between avenues. 2/

I've been thinking about why paid parental leave & direct cash payments to parents during school closures are so absent from the discussion. And I'm starting to think it has a lot to do with the ideological legacy of the war on welfare. A thread: 1/ The idea of work as essential for women, the pathologizing of the mothering of poor women, and Black women in particular, and claims about a "culture of dependency" were central to the campaign to end welfare. 2/

I've seen a lot of (mostly white) teachers & parents saying schools have to open b/c kids of color are "falling behind". People will have a diverse range of views dictated by many factors, but I'm getting tired of the speaking on behalf of "poor families without resources" 1/ What polls show is that parents of color have higher concerns about and opposition to returning to school.

Parents who feel safe or confident about opening schools:
Nat'l Parents' Union: 34% of white vs 19% parents of color

MA: 69% of white vs 48% Black & 44% Latinx
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