School absences 🧵

In light of ongoing discussions about student absences, I'm searching around for data to try to distinguish increases driven by illness from those resulting from cultural shifts, as @natmalkus & others have suggested. Feedback needed & welcome.

1/ To recap the general pattern: large increases in kids' chronic abs & smaller declines in ADA.

Measurement Hypothesis: the distribution has shifted to the right & pushed a large fraction of kids has crossed the 90% chronic abs category.

2/

https://x.com/eduwonkette_jen/status/1786013326289354917

1. A voucher can only be used at private schools if the student has been accepted

By giving high income NC families 90% of the voucher amt, those fams fill seats at better schools & poor kids end up in storefronts

A portrait of 1 fly-by-night school paid for w NC tax$🧵 2. Meet Mitchener University Academy, which claimed twice as many vouchers as kids in 22 & offers both on-site & online classes.

Located in a strip mall, it sits btw a unisex salon & a barber shop. 72 students are enrolled in this school.

https://twitter.com/KrisNordstrom/status/1669704380340224001?s=20

🧵Statewide voucher programs have caused pandemic-sized learning loss. Christian schools' textbooks provide useful insights into what's supplanting academic skills.

Let's review history & algebra textbooks by a major Christian school textbook publisher, Abeka.

1/7 "History truly is His story...we must study history from God's perspective, considering the beginning, middle, & end revealed to us in His Word, the Bible"

"For the beginning of history, the Bible is our only reliable record"

2

🧵May the Power of the Free Market Flow Through You

Go on now, ChatGPT. Make #edutwitter great again.

1/10 In a grand office above the skyline, billionaire heiress Betsy DeVos sat with a cashmere black cloak draped over her head and her face barely showing.

Suddenly, the door burst open.

Her operative Corey DeAngelis swaggered in, clad in a black suit, helmet, and Gucci loafers.

2

🧵The Moral Panic Over Reading

Many are incorrectly deploying NAEP proficiency scores to argue American schools are failing.

Let's take a look at some NAEP items and see what US kids can do

First, go ahead and read this passage, The Bell of Atri

1/





Now, read this poem: Birdfoot's Grampa 2/

Good morning beautiful people
And a special tip of my hat
To the long-suffering CH press corps

Gather all ye salty snacks
and chocolate
and get cozied up

for our daytime Emmy-nominated talk show
Dropping the Ball, hosted by Bill DeBlasio!

1/

And top of the morning
to the folks eagerly awaiting @NYCMayor's
courageous plan to do something
anything, really
about that sly dog, Omicron
aka
the holiday
you planned to have
but didn't

1/

If a tree falls in a forest, schools edition:

🌳20% NYC schools had <62% attendance yesterday
🌳25% NYC schools had <73% attendance yesterday
🌳Average NYC school: 77% attendance yesterday

If a school is open & so many kids (& staff) are missing: are they really open?

1/ Quick refresher on box plots: bottom box end is 25th percentile; line in box is median; top end is 75th

🌳1 in 4 schools in Manhattan & Brooklyn had <=70% attendance on Monday

2/

Here we go, @NYCMayor presser

"Staring today, we're sending out supervisors to our private vendors," per @MaraGay's suggestions

Maybe you could you just hire @MaraGay?

1/ Going back to the beginning

"Surge in cases for a few weeks...The answer is vaccination" - I would love to see the evidence for this projection

Also, you cannot vaccinate your way out of a surge; see @celinegounder
2/

I❤️NY: the city twice as good as Phoenix

🧵12/20 Morning Update, NYC kids & schools
with a review of @NYCSchools mitigation failures
all of which can be improved by a willing administration

1/

https://twitter.com/eduwonkette_jen/status/1472640365236826123?s=20

Despite testing bottlenecks, NYC kids' cases continued to grow: 1,669 yesterday

In 2021, the previous 1 week total (Monday-Monday) was 4,757 in the week ending 1/24

Last wk's total, which I'll post tomorrow, is on track to double that 😥

2/

https://twitter.com/eduwonkette_jen/status/1470736152030285828?s=20

"We are doing twice as much per-capita testing as Phoenix" has never made anyone in NYC feel better about anything.

#NYC They haven't even enforced 2 shots for @NYCSchools staff months later, and @NYCMayor's answer is that NYC city workers are "94% vaccinated."

Bless you, @katie_honan, for listening to this mess

#NYC

Per the genetics & social science convo: 🧵

The most fascinating normative debates in my ed policy course come from reading Jencks (1988), "Who Must We Treat Equally for Educational Opportunity to Be Equal?"

He describes 5 ways of thinking about equal ed opportunity 1/ - Democratic equality: equal time/attention to all

- Moralistic justice: reward those making the most effort

- Weak human justice: compensate for disadvantages related to prior home & school environments, but not those relating to genetics

2/

Kids' case rates in NYC are 10 times larger this week than in the same week of 2020 for kids 0-12, and 7 times larger for kids 13-17.

In light of these data, let's evaluate the argument against offering families a remote schooling option this fall. 1/ In cities that have refused to offer remote, elected officials have staked their claims on what is in children’s “best interests.”

As Bill DeBlasio’s press secretary @BNeidhardt said, “If schools are safer, then why rob kids of the better education?” 2/

In the opening episode of @Princeton's spring season: I received a panicked email from a neighbor on Fri night concerned there was a break-in at my house in #Trenton. No broken glass, but front blinds amiss. 1/ NYC-->Trenton -->The Most Evil Animal in the World taunting us from the window: see lineup.

Not my first rodeo. I lost 3 wars @Princeton with dorm-intruding squirrels. Still bitter about the one who ate my pralines.

Per Trenton history, it was General Mercer. (upper left) 2/

Social isolation creates mental health challenges for everyone. Young people are especially vulnerable.

How might we process @EricaLG's piece about the role of school closings in generating mental health challenges?

🛑What can be done to better support youth? 🛑

1/ Hazel Grace, @johngreen:"Whenever you read a cancer booklet..they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying....Everything is, really."

↪️Covid=dark times all around. 2/

Educators: Here are some useful mental health resources from @CrisisTextLine, where I volunteer as a crisis text counselor. 1/ @CrisisTextLine is available 24/7; for kids (& everyone), it's a way to get help in situations they experience as crisis. Crisis can range from anything from an argument with a parent or friend to suicidal ideation. 2/

For NYC Teachers, who are begging for PPE on the internet. We can build a better city. Living NYC values = taking care of front-line workers. @NYGovCuomo @NYCMayor @MarkLevineNYC @NYCSchools @UFT @ChalkbeatNY @elizashapiro @katetaylornyt @KalaRamaTV 1/ Ms. Feeley, Flushing: "My students need some basic PPE that can be used to keep the students safe while they are in school, and we can focus on learning, instead of worrying about safety." 2/

donorschoose.org/project/ppe-fo…

Mrs. Kopp, FL: "The face masks will be used as a backup for students who come to school without face masks or whose face masks get lost or damaged, which happens quite often." 2/ donorschoose.org/project/safety… Mrs. Minor, MS: "Sometimes face masks get wet or dirty during the day and need to be replaced...When face masks are clean and fit properly, students are more comfortable and able to focus and learn." 3/

donorschoose.org/project/help-u…

NYCDOE staff Covid data: Soundcheck on examples of individual schools with cumulative % staff Covid👇.
Examples drawn from schools with 200%+ increase in staff cases btw 1/11-1/25; 44 of the 54 are elementaries.

Thx in advance for any insights. 1/ Important: Both on & off site staff cases are being reported as onsite, as HS have >0 new staff cases reported in Jan. No offsite student or staff cases (total for year=0). Implication is I'll use total staff as denominator, not onsite staff. @SarahCohodes, thoughts?
2/

On the sound & fury of the school reopening debate: A thread in which I argue we are asking the wrong questions, and lay out the questions I wish we were asking. 1/ All parties deserve some empathy after this monstrous year. Parents are exhausted by uncertainty & the stops & starts of closing/re-opening. Women are carrying an impossible load, with long-term impacts for their careers & well-being. 2/

Why are positivity rates in/outside of NYC schools so different? My conclusion: though multi-causal, main driver is that in-school tests are less sensitive, which produces divergence in + rates over & above differences in pop sampled. We are missing a lot of + cases. 1/ Let’s start with an example we know all too well: standardized reading and math tests. Decisions about what counts as “proficient” are arbitrary, and can lead to widespread confusion when tests use wildly different thresholds for passing. (Think NAEP/state; pre- and post-CC.) 2/