Annette C. Anderson: Build trust with consistent messaging
Last spring, as President Joe Biden urged states to prioritize COVID-19 vaccinations for teachers, a new Johns Hopkins tracking tool revealed the massive disconnect between that priority and states’ actual school reopening plans.
The eSchool+ Teacher & School Staff COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard provides state-by-state information on reopening status, teacher vaccination policies, and other vital data—including if a state is monitoring uptake of vaccines by teachers and school staff as well as acceptance and refusal rates—data that is not currently being tracked anywhere else.
That information really matters to school families, says Annette C. Anderson, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools and co-founder of the eSchool+ Initiative, a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins Consortium for School-Based Health Solutions, Berman Institute of Bioethics, and schools of Education, Medicine, and Public Health.
“While many well-resourced parents are trusting the reopening process, other families are saying, ‘We’re not sure our children will be safe in schools,’” says Anderson. “This dashboard provides data that can help rebuild trust among all families and play an important role in having children back in schools.”
The eSchool+ Initiative has built a suite of datasets that provide educators with detailed information on how school districts have responded to pandemic-related issues. In partnership with the World Bank and UNICEF, it also recently launched the COVID-19 Global Education Recovery Tracker, which monitors the pandemic’s impact on response and recovery for students around the world.
This dashboard provides data that can help rebuild trust among all families and play an important role in having children back in schools.
Annette C. Anderson, PhD
Deputy director, Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools
Co-founder, eSchool+ Initiative
NEWS
SCHOOLS NEED BETTER DATA TO GRADE COVID-19 IMPACT AND RISK, EXPERTS SAY
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center aims to provide vital, localized views of the pandemic to help school leaders make difficult decisions
IT’S COMPLICATED: COVID-19 AND THE RETURN TO SCHOOL FOR K-12 STUDENTS
Many parents are frustrated by the ambiguous, sometimes contradictory messaging that informs their education decisions, Anderson said. “There is continually this question of where to go for solid information they can trust.”
NEW GLOBAL TRACKER MEASURES IMPACT ON EDUCATION
A new COVID-19 Global Education Recovery Tracker, developed by Johns Hopkins, the World Bank, and UNICEF, shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education for 1.6 billion children worldwide.
MENTIONS
WHAT LIES AHEAD
Annette Anderson, deputy director of the Center for Safe and Healthy Schools, talks to C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” about COVID-19 and the start of the new school year.
NOT SO FAST, SAY BALTIMORE CITY SCHOOLS
The Baltimore Sun asked Annette Anderson about the city’s wariness in implementing new CDC guidelines. It’s a matter of trust, she says, especially for the city’s Black, Latino, and Asian families who’ve been reluctant to return to in-person classes.
A “NUANCED” RETURN TO CLASSROOMS
Annette Anderson tells CNN it’s important to keep in mind that the CDC has encouraged but not mandated a return to classrooms. What’s needed now is not a rushed return, she says, but a “nuanced” process that should have most kids back “by fall.”
RESEARCH
INSIGHTS ON VACCINATION STATUS FOR SCHOOL REOPENING
The School of Education’s eSchool+ Initiative launches a one-stop, state-by-state dashboard of COVID-19 policies and vaccination progress to guide school policymakers, teachers, staff, and parents as they navigate a return to classroom education.
CENTER FOR SAFE AND HEALTHY SCHOOLS
Driven by the belief that all students deserve to go to school in environments where they can learn and thrive, the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools takes on the complex, urgent issue of school safety with comprehensive, evidence-based solutions focused on student well-being and learning success.
eSCHOOLS+ INITIATIVE
At the forefront of the conversation in the midst of the ongoing pandemic, schools need not only to reopen in a way that protects safety and health, but also to find new ways to help students make up for losses of learning and support systems. eSchool+ resources can help.
Bold Ideas
At the Johns Hopkins School of Education, our research builds on evidence in new and dynamic ways to bring practical, scalable ideas to education’s foremost challenges.
