“There is an urgent need to understand the evidence that would support how students could safely return to school.” – The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

Most elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools across the United States have been closed since March in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Schools that are able to do so have replaced classroom education with remote learning, using a range of tools and approaches. As of the publication of this report, governors from most US states have recommended or ordered that schools remain closed for the remainder of this academic year, affecting more than 50 million public school students. While a few schools may reopen before the end of the current school year, most schools, students, and their families in the United States are now facing uncertainty about whether or how schools will resume for in-class learning in the fall.

A host of guidance documents related to COVID-19 mitigation strategies for schools have recently been issued by various government and nongovernment organizations at the national and international levels. And a number of countries in Europe and Asia are now implementing a variety of approaches for returning K-12 schoolchildren to school. This report includes a summary and detailed Appendix on a selection of country approaches to school reopening. It is important to track these efforts and the implementation of the various guidances closely. Still, it will be difficult to tease out lessons learned absent rigorous study, since many adults will be returning to work, and physical distancing restrictions will be eased contemporaneously with schools reopening.

Researchers at Rutgers University find Spanish autocompletes are more likely to yield harmful, negative results

“Little attention has been paid to the ways computer search algorithms present unequal access to health information across languages,” according to lead author Vivek Singh, an assistant professor at Rutgers-New Brunswick’s School of Communication and Information.

His team found that online autocomplete results for coronavirus related information are more likely to yield misleading results if the user types in Spanish than in English.

This difference may harm Spanish speakers by connecting them with misinformation about basic precautions or the disease itself.

 “The autocomplete function, while convenient, may contribute to bias that has the potential to lead to health inequality experienced by marginalized and racial minority groups by providing different results for similar inquiries,” said Pamela Valera, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and affiliated faculty member at School of Social Work.

Researchers at the University of Arkansas track  behaviors in the age of COVID-19

To learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, Azat Sadyrov, a research assistant at the Behavioral Business Research Lab within the Sam M. Walton College of Business, is teaming up with Samantha Robinson,teaching assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences within the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, to study the behavior of people and how the coronavirus has altered that behavior.

“The fight against the spread of the virus is not only intended to reduce the total number of cases,but also to slow down their rate of increase,” said Sadyrov, a junior majoring in economics at Fulbright College. “Individual behavior is critical to controlling the spread of the virus. How much people listen to recommendations is just as important as actions by governments, if not more.”

UC Berkeley team publishes new study showing that a global catastrophe was averted by the implementation of emergency public health measures in 6 key countries

Emergency health measures implemented in China, France, Iran, Italy, South Korea, and the US have “significantly and substantially slowed” the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to UC Berkley research team lead author Solomon Hsiang. Their study was published June 8 in the journal Nature. The findings come as leaders worldwide struggle to balance the enormous and highly visible economic costs of emergency health measures against their public health benefits, which are difficult to see.

Van Andel Institute for Education is helping teachers and students keep curiosity and a love of  learning alive amid COVID-19 related K-12 school closures by providing open access to at-home learning resources and a relevant Blue Apple™ project.

The Institute has launched a free, virtual version of “Prevent the Spread,” a project where  students learn about their unique power to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The virtual project, which is geared toward students in grades 3-8, can be found here.

“Teachers are making heroic efforts to adjust to distance learning on the fly,” said VAI Chief Education Officer Terra Tarango. “They want to continue with authentic, meaningful learning experiences, and we want to help them do that.”

Western Michigan University research supports effectiveness of telehealth

Using technology to provide real-time communication between patients to health care providers could be a cost-effective solution to increase the quality of services and number of trained professionals in underserved areas, recent research shows.

Delivering health care, information or education at a distance using video conferencing, telephone calls or remote patient monitoring is especially relevant given the outbreak of COVID-19 and concerns about in-person contact.

Dr. Stephanie Peterson, chair and professor for WMU’s Department of Psychology, is the principal investigator of the lab responsible for publishing the study which investigated the effectiveness of delivering behavior skills training via telehealth to evaluate function of severe problem behavior.   

 “Telehealth is effective over miles and miles, and it’s exciting because you can increase accessibility to services to those who can actually benefit from it. For example, if you think about those who live in the rural areas of Michigan, or even the upper peninsula, telehealth allows you set up a virtual clinic to act as a station of experts who can help people access state-of-the-art interventions.”