What a phenomenally cool and powerful writing project for students: “dear future me.”
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According to Groundwork Ohio’s new report, “The Workforce Behind the Workforce”, the average hourly wage for child care workers in FY 19 was $10.67, compared to the state’s average hourly wage of $24.65.
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COVID and its challenges
Schools
Ohio’s rising (and record-setting) case counts have resulted in delays to some districts that had hoped to gets students back to in-person classes, even a few days a week. This includes Cleveland and Columbus, who’ve both just announced that learning will remain fully virtual until 2021. The options ahead for schools are so very tough, and should prompt us to expand our own “yes, and...” thinking. The truth is that so many interests are being inadvertently pitted against each other. What about working parents who can’t sustain learning at home? Yes... and what about teacher safety? What about growing opportunity gaps and dire learning loss for the most in-need learners? Yes, and what about very basic health and food needs, which are arguably even more dire at this moment in time (and are maybe receiving less air time in general)? What about the need to follow the health science and data, and to reopen safely? Yes, and what about the money it’s going to take for schools to implement those new safeguards, and that fact that state revenues are dwindling? Our heads spin every time we read on this topic, and we truly feel for Ohio’s educators, families, and all children being impacted. At the same time, there is a tremendous amount of inequity in a system that was already inexcusably inequitable. For instance, higher percentages of Black and Hispanic parents (in a national survey) said their children were learning fully online, 75% and 68% respectively, compared to 48% of white parents. Families of color are bearing the brunt of the pandemic disproportionately, just like they do in health, housing, the workforce, and every other facet of American society.
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Evictions
Columbus residents were featured in two different national articles about the eviction crisis and the struggle facing many families to meet basic needs. The first, from CNN, looks at Columbus residents including one mother of young children facing eviction after a COVID diagnosis and lost work. It provides useful background information about a temporary federal moratorium on evictions as well as research showing that neighborhoods where residents have elevated rates of medical conditions (and risks for serious COVID-19 related illness) have also seen high rates of eviction filings. Columbus, Ohio, which has a notoriously high eviction rate, is among the communities named in the analysis. The second article, published in USA Today and reported by the Hechinger Report, provides a snapshot into just how hard it has been for families living at the edge of poverty, through the sobering story of one Columbus family.
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On the ballot in Colorado is a sin tax on tobacco and vaping products, the funds from which would go toward preschool expansion. It’s estimated that the tax could raise as much as $276 million annually by 2027.
North Carolina is providing an “extra credit grant” program for parents to apply to in order to cover costs associated with child care and virtual learning.
A new study led by the University of Chicago found that policy changes made to Chicago’s preschool program led to more equitable enrollment, with more Black children and students from low-income families enrolling in full-day pre-K.
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New America released findings from a working group convened last year on supporting degree attainment for early childhood educators. The findings in the report center around five pressing barriers institutions of higher education face to serving and preparing early educators, practices to address these barriers, and what levers are needed for reform.
This piece in The Atlantic from Emily Oster, an economist at Brown University, argues that reopening schools has not caused spikes in COVID cases. By collecting data on over 200,000 kids in 47 states, Dr. Oster found low rates of positive tests in schools, specifically about 1.3 infections over two weeks in a school of 1,000 kids. Dr. Oster approaches this issue from an economic perspective, acknowledging risks to opening schools but also identifying the costs to children when schools are closed.
Education Dive lists 3 COVID-19 education trends set to persist post-pandemic: remote learning being utilized in lieu of emergency school closures, creative ways to increase school model flexibility, and growing the connections between parents, schools, and the community. Meanwhile, this Hechinger Report opinion piece argues that we need a new pedagogy for education post-COVID that goes beyond the rigidity of current frameworks with traditional subjects and grade divisions. The author pushes for more student-driven learning and community problem solving.
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A study by researchers at Yale University offers promise that when safety regulations are followed, child care environments may not contribute to the spread of COVID. Read more about the findings here, or find the Pediatrics-published study here. Child Care Aware also offers a write-up on it.
A new study by OSU assistant professor of psychology Zeynep Saygin examined brain scans of newborn babies to find that they lack the brain circuitry to connect what they see to specific emotions. In other words, according to Dr. Saygin, “newborns analyze the emotional content of their surroundings at only a very basic level.” Read more in Plos One here.
This Edutopia article looks at research on the infamous “30 million word gap” for children from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as more current research that has “inspired a growing debate around whether biases about race and class influenced the original study’s methodology—and distorted the takeaways.”
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This edition written by: Jamie Davies O'Leary, Associate Director of Policy and Caitlin Lennon, Communications & Policy Specialist |
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