More Penn GSE COVID-19 Coverage



Six takeaways from two years of online learning
Ryan Baker shares some best practices and which practices to avoid after two years of virtual learning. Virtual learning should focus on ensuring that students experience as little disruption to their education as possible. The key to that is creating a discourse around the use of technology.

As COVID thins school staffing, who’s teaching kids?
Richard Ingersoll expressed concern about lowering the bar for teachers. “Remote sometimes might be much more preferable to getting some substitute in there who’s basically babysitting,” he said.


Fall Back
Michael Gottfried said COVID-19-related school absences may disrupt all students’ learning. “Part of me is just like let’s just go back to Zoom for everyone,” he said. “I want to be in person more than anyone else. That is, the last thing I want to do is sit on Zoom and teach. So I feel for these kids. But what kind of learning is it going to be without a real fallback plan in place?”

Understanding the pandemic classroom
Caroline Watts discusses educators’ experiences during the early days of the pandemic, lessons learned and how the classroom might be different in the coming months.

Teachers are leaving the profession due to COVID-19 stresses
Richard Ingersoll comments on teachers leaving the profession if the economy continues to improve and they continue to feel stress. “Typically we find that employees across the economy tend to quit less during economic downtimes,” he said. “There’s a lot of indications that in fact, during the pandemic, teacher turnover and teacher retirements may have even gone down.”

Thousands of kindergartners didn’t show up for school last year. Here’s what that means for the school year to come.
Brooks Bowden comments on the amount of work that needs to be done before and after school reopen for the fall. “We’ve all got a lot of work to do,” she said. Bowden thinks “educator coaches, tutoring services, and supports for families can go a long way.”

COVID-19 pandemic hasn't led to massive teacher exodus, but concerns remain
"There might be a whole lot of pent up frustration and the retiring, quitting can go up dramatically starting this summer." — Richard Ingersoll



New survey: 1 in 4 U.S. teachers may quit
Richard Ingersoll said that it will take year or two to determine if the pandemic drove teachers to quit the profession. “Everything I have seen on this is anecdotal, or conjecture, or for specific school districts,” he said.

5 strategies to cope with your return to the office
Annie McKee offered tips for adjusting to the return to in-person work, such as reconnecting with coworkers. “We've all changed as a result of the pandemic,” she said. “Get to know people again and give yourself the permission to … care about each other.”
Inaugural Projects for Progress recipients announced
Caroline Watts, Diane Waff, Zachary Herrmann, Marsha Richardson, and Regina Bynum were selected to implement their initiative “Bridging Gaps and Building Capacity: Student and Educator Supports for School Reopening in Learning Network 2.” The initative will provide evidence-based programming and professional development at one to two summer learning sites in West Philadelphia, followed by network-wide professional learning supports throughout the 2021-22 academic year.


Temple’s business school sees virtual reality as future of online learning
Ryan Baker is quoted on how the pandemic has necessitated innovation in remote learning, noting that, “There’s been a move to using high-quality interactive online learning environments.”


Want to improve learning outcomes? Give students more time
Pam Grossman proposes rethinking schooling to give students more time to learn. “Let’s use the pandemic to rethink how we expand and enrich learning time for children, especially those most impacted by COVID-19-related disruption.”

Virtual Virus Helps Students Cope with COVID-19
Yasmin Kafai and professors across several departments at Utah State University have partnered to create an imaginary virus, allowing students to virtually explore many aspects of living in a pandemic. Children can play in this risk-free environment with more control than they often have in the real world.

Early data shows hopeful signs for pandemic learning in Philly, but huge questions remain
Michael Gottfried said it’s difficult to quantify how school is going for students amid the pandemic. “We’re sort of building the plane as we fly it,” he said. “Everything’s up in the air now. Everything’s been disrupted just from the measurement side.”


Research universities must act as engines of optimism
Peter Eckel and Aida Sagintayeva virtually brought together higher ed leaders from across 15 time zones to talk about a way forward.







Will teacher concerns over COVID cause more of them to flee classroom?
Richard Ingersoll said it’s too early to know if the pandemic will worsen teacher shortages. “Traditionally, employees in general across industries and occupations quit at higher rates in good economic times and at lower rates in bad economic times," he said. "The reason is simple—even if someone dislikes their job, they are loath to quit if there is financial uncertainty, or if there are not other jobs available.”


Despite COVID concerns, economics still driving teacher retirement decisions
“Even if you don’t like your job, if there aren’t other options out there, you’re going to be loath to leave. There aren’t a lot of options out there,” said Richard Ingersoll.

How are teens and young adults coping?
Howard Stevenson and Frances Jensen spoke about how young people view the threat of COVID-19 and the effects of police violence on their mental health.

Many private schools are planning to open in person as public schools are stuck online
Steve Piltch said private school enrollment has declined during the last decade. “Whatever the classes were there to begin with, they were smaller than most of the public schools are,” he said.

Why Teaching Through Crisis Requires a Radical New Mindset
“The more we consider this new reality and the new rules it brings into our curriculum and pedagogy, the more grounded, humanizing, and transformational our teaching and courses will become,” Ravitch said.


Wanted: A Civilian Coronavirus Corps
Jonathan Zimmerman advocated for a program that would enlist college students and other young adults to support school-aged children with online learning and extracurricular activities in exchange for a small stipend during the pandemic.

Report: One of the biggest obstacles too remote learning? Finding a quiet place to work
Ryan Baker led a team that analyzed the results of a survey about the challenges of remote learning. “School districts’ IT were never prepared for this to happen,” Baker said.


Mid-major conferences brace for inevitable cuts in sports budgets because of pandemic
Karen Weaver discussed how enrollment totals may impact sports budgets for colleges and universities.

Big questions about COVID-19 and athletics before college sports come back
Karen Weaver discussed the college sports landscape and the big questions universities and athletics programs are tackling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Kids need to talk about George Floyd, protests and racism. With coronavirus school closures, it's hard to do.
Howard Stevenson said, "Teachers can be incredibly powerful in teaching young people to engage in these conversations rather than avoid them."


Why many Philly students aren’t logging on for school, and what that could mean for September
Caroline Watts commented on the six weeks it took for the Philadelphia school district to distribute laptops to its students after Gov. Wolf ordered schools to close. “The greater the lag in the time off, the harder it is to engage students,” said Watts.

Cut sports? Trim coaches’ pay? A look at Gophers’ financial solutions amid coronavirus
Karen Weaver said she has seen some ideas to address the crisis, but real strategies are still lacking.

Online programs used for coronavirus-era school promise results. The claims are misleading
Ryan Baker said “A lot of these companies, it’s a matter of life or death if they get some evidence up on their page. No one is trying to be deceitful. (They’re) all kind of out of their depth and all trying to do it cheaply and quickly.”

Can college athletes really play in the fall without a vaccine? One big 10 coaching vet thinks it’s crazy talk
Karen Weaver is interviewed about the issues surrounding college athletics returning in the fall in the face of coronavirus pandemic.

Overtime: College athletic programs will have to operate differently due to COVID-19
Karen Weaver talks about the importance of college sports on campuses and the impact on college athletics from the pandemic.

Campus life in the fall? A test with no clear answer
Laura Perna said of colleges’ approaches to the fall 2020 semester, “I think we are going to see a lot of variation.”


Living and Teaching in Flux: A Conversation with Sharon Ravitch
Sharon Ravitch joins host Rob van Nood of Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon to discuss the current crisis as an opportunity to rebuild learning experiences based on a world in flux and from ideas and visions that put students at the center. "As educators, we have to find active ways to nourish ourselves, connect with each other, and really think about this moment," said Ravitch.

Philly Colleges Planning for In-Person Classes This Fall: What We Know
Peter Eckel said, “Part of the challenge is the complexity of the issues that university boards are facing. There is also a degree of unpredictability regarding short-term challenges, like enrollment and finances, endowments and financial resources, but also safety and security in the future. We don’t know if there’s going to be a new normal, a next normal, or return to normal.”

Public and private measures of colleges' financial strength spark more discussion Inside Higher Ed
Robert Zemsky said, in the face of the pandemic, colleges with 1,500 or fewer students are facing the question of how much they can shrink and continue to function.

Paranoia about cheating is making online education terrible for everyone
Ryan Baker discussed adaptive learning, which can use algorithms to adapt lessons to individual students, as well as other computer-based learning tools.


College students want answers about fall, but schools may not have them for months
Robert Zemsky said, “It’s revenue pressure, and the sense that ‘if we’re the one that doesn’t open, we lose our share of the market permanently.’”

With football in flux, how Michigan could weather a financial downturn
Karen Weaver discussed some issues that colleges athletics programs are facing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus pushes colleges to the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education
In his book The College Stress Test, Robert Zemsky predicted that 10% of private, liberal arts colleges in the U.S. were likely to close within the next five years. Now, with the pandemic’s damaging effects on school finances, his prediction has changed to 200 schools in the next year alone.

Coronavirus pandemic brings staggering losses to colleges and universities
Robert Zemsky, in his new book, The College Stress Test, estimates that 10 percent of the nation’s colleges – smaller schools with poor retention rates – were already at risk of closing. Now, he said, “we think another 10 percent is at risk because of the virus.”


4 Guiding Questions for Effective Remote Collaboration
"Teamwork has traditionally played a critical role in schools, and while many of us find ourselves physically isolated, our collaborative work with one another may be more important now than ever," Zachary Herrmann writes.



Colleges Can Help Win the War Against COVID-19
Peter Eckel and Turab Rizvi write that higher education institutions are well positioned to lead efforts beyond campus borders by advancing experts and their expertise, sharing excess capacity, and supporting community needs.

The bailout is just the start: Why higher ed needs to build a sustainable model
Robert Zemsky said that “dislodging events,” such as COVID-19, can force needed changes in education.



College sports will be hit hard, and will not be the same economically after the coronavirus
Karen Weaver talks through the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic on college athletics departments.


QS IGAUGE: COVID-19, second wind for higher education in India
Alan Ruby said, “There will be a deterrent effect, especially on international students. The choice of destination for study abroad is influenced by perceptions about personal safety. The virus, and the response to it, is a reminder that health services and hygiene standards are not what some students are familiar with.”

When Schools Shut Down, We All Lose
Jonathan Zimmerman writes, “Schools are always implicated in national crises, always,” pointing to schools’ role selling war bonds during World War I and cultivating victory gardens in World War II. “But in prior crises, they were engaged in the struggle, because it was a struggle against a human enemy rather than a biological one. This is a struggle against a biological one that requires schools not to step up, but to stand down.”

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