This has been a tough week to be in education. It's always a tough field. Everything we do is under a microscope, and often people assume they know the "right" answers because they went to school. Add the fact that ed research is complicated doesn't help; you really have to read the whole study not just the headlines.
This week, the CDC posted new guidelines for opening schools. The headline read schools can open. Gah. The guidelines are based on data from 17 rural schools in Wisconsin because the previous administration didn't keep national data. Anything we have is based on ed researchers or voluntary reports--also know as junk data.
What's killing me is how few people read the whole report. The guidelines suggest that we can open schools under very specific circumstances. Kids have to eat outside; not ideal in freezing temperatures. Teachers have to be vaccinated; there is a backlog to get that done. And here is the kicker: the rest of the community has to close--no restaurant dining, no gyms, no non-essential businesses. Essentially, communities have to make hard choices on that one.
The aggravation is that people don't look at those details; they just see the headline. When I was talking to a state senator yesterday, he was unwilling to make that call. He just wants kids in schools and communities open. It's too hard.
Believe me. I want to be back in schools. Every teacher does. But our first responsibility is keeping kids safe...and so we hold the line.
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