The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Mid-Atlantic and Mathematica, a social policy research firm, authored a new report prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The report examined current data and research on COVID-19, conducted interviews with public health experts, education leaders, and other stakeholders, and ran predictive modeling of disease transmission under different reopening approaches.
The predictive modeling looked at seven different reopening scenarios — the first a “business as usual” baseline, the next three envisioning daily attendance with precautions and changes to the flow of students, and the final three dividing students into groups that alternate between in-person and remote learning to reduce the number people in buildings at once.
Those strategies reducing the number of students in school at once were found to be most effective, although the report emphasized that the modeling is imperfect, and that infection spread could vary greatly depending on community infection rates and other factors.
The report is intended to help inform school leaders as they create plans to reopen. Read it at ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/midatlantic/pdf/ReopeningPASchools.pdf.
