scholarly journals The effect of school closures and reopening strategies on COVID-19 infection dynamics in the San Francisco Bay Area: a cross-sectional survey and modeling analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer R Head ◽  
Kristin Andrejko ◽  
Qu Cheng ◽  
Philip A Collender ◽  
Sophie Phillips ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Middle School ◽  
School Intervention ◽  
School Closure ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
Community Transmission ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

Background Large-scale school closures have been implemented worldwide to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, the impact of school closures and re-opening on epidemic dynamics remains unclear. Methods We simulated COVID-19 transmission dynamics using an individual-based stochastic model, incorporating social-contact data of school-aged children during shelter-in-place orders derived from Bay Area (California) household surveys. We simulated transmission under observed conditions and counterfactual intervention scenarios between March 17-June 1, and evaluated various fall 2020 K-12 reopening strategies. Findings Between March 17-June 1, assuming children <10 were half as susceptible to infection as older children and adults, we estimated school closures averted a similar number of infections (13,842 cases; 95% CI: 6,290, 23,040) as workplace closures (15,813; 95% CI: 9,963, 22,617) and social distancing measures (7,030; 95% CI: 3,118, 11,676). School closure effects were driven by high school and middle school closures. Under assumptions of moderate community transmission, we estimate that fall 2020 school reopenings will increase symptomatic illness among high school teachers (an additional 40.7% expected to experience symptomatic infection, 95% CI: 1.9, 61.1), middle school teachers (37.2%, 95% CI: 4.6, 58.1), and elementary school teachers (4.1%, 95% CI: -1.7, 12.0). Results are highly dependent on uncertain parameters, notably the relative susceptibility and infectiousness of children, and extent of community transmission amid re-opening. The school-based interventions needed to reduce the risk to fewer than an additional 1% of teachers infected varies by grade level. A hybrid-learning approach with halved class sizes of 10 students may be needed in high schools, while maintaining small cohorts of 20 students may be needed for elementary schools. Interpretation Multiple in-school intervention strategies and community transmission reductions, beyond the extent achieved to date, will be necessary to avoid undue excess risk associated with school reopening. Policymakers must urgently enact policies that curb community transmission and implement within-school control measures to simultaneously address the tandem health crises posed by COVID-19 and adverse child health and development consequences of long-term school closures.

scholarly journals School closures reduced social mixing of children during COVID-19 with implications for transmission risk and school reopening policies

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (177) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Head ◽  
Kristin L. Andrejko ◽  
Qu Cheng ◽  
Philip A. Collender ◽  
Sophie Phillips ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Transmission Risk ◽  
Hispanic Children ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
Community Transmission ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

School closures may reduce the size of social networks among children, potentially limiting infectious disease transmission. To estimate the impact of K–12 closures and reopening policies on children's social interactions and COVID-19 incidence in California's Bay Area, we collected data on children's social contacts and assessed implications for transmission using an individual-based model. Elementary and Hispanic children had more contacts during closures than high school and non-Hispanic children, respectively. We estimated that spring 2020 closures of elementary schools averted 2167 cases in the Bay Area (95% CI: −985, 5572), fewer than middle (5884; 95% CI: 1478, 11.550), high school (8650; 95% CI: 3054, 15 940) and workplace (15 813; 95% CI: 9963, 22 617) closures. Under assumptions of moderate community transmission, we estimated that reopening for a four-month semester without any precautions will increase symptomatic illness among high school teachers (an additional 40.7% expected to experience symptomatic infection, 95% CI: 1.9, 61.1), middle school teachers (37.2%, 95% CI: 4.6, 58.1) and elementary school teachers (4.1%, 95% CI: −1.7, 12.0). However, we found that reopening policies for elementary schools that combine universal masking with classroom cohorts could result in few within-school transmissions, while high schools may require masking plus a staggered hybrid schedule. Stronger community interventions (e.g. remote work, social distancing) decreased the risk of within-school transmission across all measures studied, with the influence of community transmission minimized as the effectiveness of the within-school measures increased.

Industrial/Academic Internships at IBM-Almaden Under NSF Programs

2001 ◽  
Vol 684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles G. Wade ◽  
Dolores Miller ◽  
Joseph Pesek ◽  
Maureen Scharberg ◽  
Brenda Waller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Teachers ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Educational Outreach ◽  
State University ◽  
San Jose ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
San Jose State University ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTIndustrial experience can be a significant factor in materials science education, and internships at our laboratory under two NSF programs directly impact undergraduates and high school teachers. In these programs, the participants become a member of individual, existing research groups under a mentor on a technical project relevant to IBM. The research is publishable but closely related to a technical area important to IBM. During the summer the participants become members of the research group, attending departmental meetings and informal discussions. In addition, they attend a special seminar series on industrial research frontiers, receive career-training discussions, and participate in a variety of other programs sponsored for summer interns by IBM. Every participant presents a poster at an internal technical meeting at IBM or a technical meeting at Stanford (or both) at the end of the summer. One of the programs, an NSF MRSEC “Center for Polymer Interfaces and Macromolecular Interfaces” (CPIMA), involves a partnership with Stanford University and the University of California at Davis. The CPIMA program has an active group of postdoctoral scientists, graduate students, undergraduate (summer) students and (summer) high school teachers. In addition to IBM, summer students in CPIMA may work with other industrial firms who are industrial affiliates of CPIMA. In addition, CPIMA has a public science and K-12 component in materials science in educational outreach with the The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. The other program, an NSF GOALI grant on “Surface and Analytical Chemistry of Materials” with San Jose State University, involves undergraduate and graduate (masters) San Jose State University students during the academic year who work on collaborative research projects between IBM scientists and San Jose State University professors. In addition, this project also has a large summer program with undergraduates from across the US and with high school teachers. The impact of the programs on the students, teachers, and institutions will be reviewed, with a special emphasis on the impact on the industrial partner.

scholarly journals The Impact of COVID-19 School Closure on Child and Adolescent Health: A Rapid Systematic Review

Children ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 415
Author(s):  
Sonia Chaabane ◽  
Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy ◽  
Karima Chaabna ◽  
Ravinder Mamtani ◽  
Sohaila Cheema
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Adolescent Health ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Child And Adolescent ◽  
Emergency Department Visits ◽  
School Closure ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Child And Adolescent Health ◽  
The Impact

School closures during pandemics raise important concerns for children and adolescents. Our aim is synthesizing available data on the impact of school closure during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on child and adolescent health globally. We conducted a rapid systematic review by searching PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar for any study published between January and September 2020. We included a total of ten primary studies. COVID-19-related school closure was associated with a significant decline in the number of hospital admissions and pediatric emergency department visits. However, a number of children and adolescents lost access to school-based healthcare services, special services for children with disabilities, and nutrition programs. A greater risk of widening educational disparities due to lack of support and resources for remote learning were also reported among poorer families and children with disabilities. School closure also contributed to increased anxiety and loneliness in young people and child stress, sadness, frustration, indiscipline, and hyperactivity. The longer the duration of school closure and reduction of daily physical activity, the higher was the predicted increase of Body Mass Index and childhood obesity prevalence. There is a need to identify children and adolescents at higher risk of learning and mental health impairments and support them during school closures.

scholarly journals Reopening schools safely in the face of COVID-19: Can cluster randomized trials help?

2021 ◽  
pp. 174077452098486
Author(s):  
Charles Weijer ◽  
Karla Hemming ◽  
Spencer Phillips Hey ◽  
Holly Fernandez Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Trials ◽  
Cluster Randomized Trial ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
School Closures ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
The Face ◽  
Community Transmission ◽  
Cluster Randomized ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Health Policymaking

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the challenges of evidence-based health policymaking, as critical precautionary decisions, such as school closures, had to be made urgently on the basis of little evidence. As primary and secondary schools once again close in the face of surging infections, there is an opportunity to rigorously study their reopening. School-aged children appear to be less affected by COVID-19 than adults, yet schools may drive community transmission of the virus. Given the impact of school closures on both education and the economy, schools cannot remain closed indefinitely. But when and how can they be reopened safely? We argue that a cluster randomized trial is a rigorous and ethical way to resolve these uncertainties. We discuss key scientific, ethical, and resource considerations both to inform trial design of school reopenings and to prompt discussion of the merits and feasibility of conducting such a trial.

scholarly journals Modeling the impact of school reopening and contact tracing strategies on Covid-19 dynamics in different epidemiologic settings in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Eduardo Borges ◽  
Leonardo Souto Ferreira ◽  
Silas Poloni ◽  
Ângela Maria Bagattini ◽  
Caroline Franco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Disease Incidence ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Infection Transmission ◽  
The Impact

Among the various non–pharmaceutical interventions implemented in response to the Covid–19 pandemic during 2020, school closures have been in place in several countries to reduce infection transmission. Nonetheless, the significant short and long–term impacts of prolonged suspension of in–person classes is a major concern. There is still considerable debate around the best timing for school closure and reopening, its impact on the dynamics of disease transmission, and its effectiveness when considered in association with other mitigation measures. Despite the erratic implementation of mitigation measures in Brazil, school closures were among the first measures taken early in the pandemic in most of the 27 states in the country. Further, Brazil delayed the reopening of schools and stands among the countries in which schools remained closed for the most prolonged period in 2020. To assess the impact of school reopening and the effect of contact tracing strategies in rates of Covid–19 cases and deaths, we model the epidemiological dynamics of disease transmission in 3 large urban centers in Brazil under different epidemiological contexts. We implement an extended SEIR model stratified by age and considering contact networks in different settings – school, home, work, and elsewhere, in which the infection transmission rate is affected by various intervention measures. After fitting epidemiological and demographic data, we simulate scenarios with increasing school transmission due to school reopening. Our model shows that reopening schools results in a non–linear increase of reported Covid-19 cases and deaths, which is highly dependent on infection and disease incidence at the time of reopening. While low rates of within[&ndash]school transmission resulted in small effects on disease incidence (cases/100,000 pop), intermediate or high rates can severely impact disease trends resulting in escalating rates of new cases even if other interventions remain unchanged. When contact tracing and quarantining are restricted to school and home settings, a large number of daily tests is required to produce significant effects of reducing the total number of hospitalizations and deaths. Our results suggest that policymakers should carefully consider the epidemiological context and timing regarding the implementation of school closure and return of in-person school activities. Also, although contact tracing strategies are essential to prevent new infections and outbreaks within school environments, our data suggest that they are alone not sufficient to avoid significant impacts on community transmission in the context of school reopening in settings with high and sustained transmission rates.

scholarly journals Exploring the Relationships Between High School Course Enrollment, Achievement, and First-Semester College GPA

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M Warren ◽  
Camille L Goins
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Advanced Placement ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Course Enrollment ◽  
Honors Courses ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
First Semester ◽  
College Gpa ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

This study explored the impact of Advanced Placement and honors course enrollment and high school grade point average (GPA) on first-semester college GPA. Data were collected from 131 college freshmen enrolled at a minority-serving institution who graduated from a public school during the previous academic year. A four-step hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that family structure, college status, enrollment in one or more Advanced Placement courses, and enrollment in five or more honors courses accounted for a significant amount of variance explained in first-semester college GPA, both individually and in combination. High school GPA intervened in these variables relationships with first-semester college GPA accounting for a significant amount of variance. Based on these findings, opportunities for future research and implications for K–12 schools and colleges are provided.

How did Autistic Children, and their Parents, Experience School Transition during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aimee Code ◽  
Umar Toseeb ◽  
Kathryn Asbury ◽  
Laura Fox
Keyword(s):  
School Transition ◽  
School Closure ◽  
School Transitions ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
New School ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant school closures, social distancing measures, and restrictions placed on routine activities, the start of the academic year in September 2020 was a unique time for those transitioning to a new school. This study aimed to explore the experiences of parents who supported autistic children making a school transition in 2020, and to examine what impact parents perceived the COVID-19 pandemic had on their child’s school transition. Emphasis was placed on identifying facilitating factors that had benefitted school transitions, and barriers, which had negatively impacted these experiences. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 parents of autistic children in the UK. Reflexive thematic analysis was carried out to identify themes in interview data. Parents reported a variety of experiences, and factors that were perceived as facilitatory to some were observed to be barriers by others. For some parents, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted aspects of school transitions. For example, school closure in March 2020, being unable to visit their child’s new school, and social distancing measures were discussed as being barriers to an easy transition. However, other parents identified these factors as being facilitatory for their child or reported that these circumstances created opportunities to approach the school transition in a unique, improved manner. This paper sheds light on the heterogeneity of experiences and perceptions of parents of autistic children, and highlights the need to examine the impact of COVID-19 on school transitions, including practices which may be advantageous to retain.

Mass School Closures and the Politics of Race, Value, and Disposability in Philadelphia

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Julia A. McWilliams ◽  
Erika M. Kitzmiller
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Urban District ◽  
School Closures ◽  
School Communities ◽  
State And Local

Background With the expansion of charter school networks, population losses in urban district schools and stretched budgets have encouraged struggling districts to adopt closure-as-reform. School closings have received considerable attention in the media as a controversial reform, reconfiguring the educational landscapes of over 70 post-industrial cities like Chicago, Detroit, and New Orleans. However, in the last decade, few scholars have considered the project of examining closures—their process and their effects—empirically. Purpose In this article, we examine the rollout of 30 school closures in Philadelphia in 2012 and 2013 to explain how school closures have become yet another policy technology of Black community and school devaluation in the United States. Moving beyond educational studies that have focused on the outcomes of mass school closures like student achievement and cost savings, we argue that a thorough theorization of how race, violence, and community values relate to school closure as process could help to explain the ways in which contemporary educational policy reforms are creating new modes of communal disposability in cities’ poorest zip codes. Setting/Participants Data collection occurred in two comprehensive high schools in Philadelphia slated for closure in 2012 and 2013: Johnson High and Franklin High. Participants at both schools included students, teachers, parents, community members, and district officials. Research Design The authors spent several years in their respective schools recording observations of instructional practice, community meetings, and district events and interviewing key informants such as students, teachers, administrators, and district officials. The first author spent three years at Johnson High School, from September 2011 to June 2013. The second author spent five years at Franklin High School, from September 2008 to June 2013. She also spent hundreds of hours at the high school examining archival materials and interviewing students, teachers, and alumni about their experiences in the school and community. In addition to their individual case studies, the authors jointly transcribed and coded over two dozen community and district meetings’ video recordings during the 2012 and 2013 closures. In the aftermath of the school closures process, we used a comparative ethnographic method to compare and contrast the events that occurred at these two schools. Findings Suturing anthropologies of violence and education to frame the analysis, we explore moments of collision between policy discourses deployed by state and local officials that crafted closures as inevitable and threatened school communities’ articulations of the racialized implications of the closures. We further localize our analysis to demonstrate how two school communities—one majority Asian and another majority Black—with similar performances and characteristics met dramatically different fates. Given the lack of transparency in how decisions were made around which schools to close, the ways in which these communities read and responded to the closure threat offer a window into the ways in which race informed the valuation process across schools. Conclusions/Recommendations We conclude with a plea to state and federal policymakers to consider the long-term ramifications of school choice expansion and state disinvestment for the health and stability of traditional public schools. We encourage policymakers to move in a more reparative direction, prioritizing the needs of those “unchosen” by choice and imagining a system that might serve all students more equitably.

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