thesis title for education during pandemic

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Paul Reville says COVID-19 school closures have turned a spotlight on inequities and other shortcomings

This is part of our Coronavirus Update series in which Harvard specialists in epidemiology, infectious disease, economics, politics, and other disciplines offer insights into what the latest developments in the COVID-19 outbreak may bring.

As former secretary of education for Massachusetts, Paul Reville is keenly aware of the financial and resource disparities between districts, schools, and individual students. The school closings due to coronavirus concerns have turned a spotlight on those problems and how they contribute to educational and income inequality in the nation. The Gazette talked to Reville, the Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at Harvard Graduate School of Education , about the effects of the pandemic on schools and how the experience may inspire an overhaul of the American education system.

Paul Reville

GAZETTE: Schools around the country have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Do these massive school closures have any precedent in the history of the United States?

REVILLE: We’ve certainly had school closures in particular jurisdictions after a natural disaster, like in New Orleans after the hurricane. But on this scale? No, certainly not in my lifetime. There were substantial closings in many places during the 1918 Spanish Flu, some as long as four months, but not as widespread as those we’re seeing today. We’re in uncharted territory.

GAZETTE: What lessons did school districts around the country learn from school closures in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and other similar school closings?

REVILLE:   I think the lessons we’ve learned are that it’s good [for school districts] to have a backup system, if they can afford it. I was talking recently with folks in a district in New Hampshire where, because of all the snow days they have in the wintertime, they had already developed a backup online learning system. That made the transition, in this period of school closure, a relatively easy one for them to undertake. They moved seamlessly to online instruction.

Most of our big systems don’t have this sort of backup. Now, however, we’re not only going to have to construct a backup to get through this crisis, but we’re going to have to develop new, permanent systems, redesigned to meet the needs which have been so glaringly exposed in this crisis. For example, we have always had large gaps in students’ learning opportunities after school, weekends, and in the summer. Disadvantaged students suffer the consequences of those gaps more than affluent children, who typically have lots of opportunities to fill in those gaps. I’m hoping that we can learn some things through this crisis about online delivery of not only instruction, but an array of opportunities for learning and support. In this way, we can make the most of the crisis to help redesign better systems of education and child development.

GAZETTE: Is that one of the silver linings of this public health crisis?

REVILLE: In politics we say, “Never lose the opportunity of a crisis.” And in this situation, we don’t simply want to frantically struggle to restore the status quo because the status quo wasn’t operating at an effective level and certainly wasn’t serving all of our children fairly. There are things we can learn in the messiness of adapting through this crisis, which has revealed profound disparities in children’s access to support and opportunities. We should be asking: How do we make our school, education, and child-development systems more individually responsive to the needs of our students? Why not construct a system that meets children where they are and gives them what they need inside and outside of school in order to be successful? Let’s take this opportunity to end the “one size fits all” factory model of education.

GAZETTE: How seriously are students going to be set back by not having formal instruction for at least two months, if not more?

“The best that can come of this is a new paradigm shift in terms of the way in which we look at education, because children’s well-being and success depend on more than just schooling,” Paul Reville said of the current situation. “We need to look holistically, at the entirety of children’s lives.”

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard file photo

REVILLE: The first thing to consider is that it’s going to be a variable effect. We tend to regard our school systems uniformly, but actually schools are widely different in their operations and impact on children, just as our students themselves are very different from one another. Children come from very different backgrounds and have very different resources, opportunities, and support outside of school. Now that their entire learning lives, as well as their actual physical lives, are outside of school, those differences and disparities come into vivid view. Some students will be fine during this crisis because they’ll have high-quality learning opportunities, whether it’s formal schooling or informal homeschooling of some kind coupled with various enrichment opportunities. Conversely, other students won’t have access to anything of quality, and as a result will be at an enormous disadvantage. Generally speaking, the most economically challenged in our society will be the most vulnerable in this crisis, and the most advantaged are most likely to survive it without losing too much ground.

GAZETTE: Schools in Massachusetts are closed until May 4. Some people are saying they should remain closed through the end of the school year. What’s your take on this?

REVILLE: That should be a medically based judgment call that will be best made several weeks from now. If there’s evidence to suggest that students and teachers can safely return to school, then I’d say by all means. However, that seems unlikely.

GAZETTE: The digital divide between students has become apparent as schools have increasingly turned to online instruction. What can school systems do to address that gap?

REVILLE: Arguably, this is something that schools should have been doing a long time ago, opening up the whole frontier of out-of-school learning by virtue of making sure that all students have access to the technology and the internet they need in order to be connected in out-of-school hours. Students in certain school districts don’t have those affordances right now because often the school districts don’t have the budget to do this, but federal, state, and local taxpayers are starting to see the imperative for coming together to meet this need.

Twenty-first century learning absolutely requires technology and internet. We can’t leave this to chance or the accident of birth. All of our children should have the technology they need to learn outside of school. Some communities can take it for granted that their children will have such tools. Others who have been unable to afford to level the playing field are now finding ways to step up. Boston, for example, has bought 20,000 Chromebooks and is creating hotspots around the city where children and families can go to get internet access. That’s a great start but, in the long run, I think we can do better than that. At the same time, many communities still need help just to do what Boston has done for its students.

Communities and school districts are going to have to adapt to get students on a level playing field. Otherwise, many students will continue to be at a huge disadvantage. We can see this playing out now as our lower-income and more heterogeneous school districts struggle over whether to proceed with online instruction when not everyone can access it. Shutting down should not be an option. We have to find some middle ground, and that means the state and local school districts are going to have to act urgently and nimbly to fill in the gaps in technology and internet access.

GAZETTE : What can parents can do to help with the homeschooling of their children in the current crisis?

“In this situation, we don’t simply want to frantically struggle to restore the status quo because the status quo wasn’t operating at an effective level and certainly wasn’t serving all of our children fairly.”

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REVILLE: School districts can be helpful by giving parents guidance about how to constructively use this time. The default in our education system is now homeschooling. Virtually all parents are doing some form of homeschooling, whether they want to or not. And the question is: What resources, support, or capacity do they have to do homeschooling effectively? A lot of parents are struggling with that.

And again, we have widely variable capacity in our families and school systems. Some families have parents home all day, while other parents have to go to work. Some school systems are doing online classes all day long, and the students are fully engaged and have lots of homework, and the parents don’t need to do much. In other cases, there is virtually nothing going on at the school level, and everything falls to the parents. In the meantime, lots of organizations are springing up, offering different kinds of resources such as handbooks and curriculum outlines, while many school systems are coming up with guidance documents to help parents create a positive learning environment in their homes by engaging children in challenging activities so they keep learning.

There are lots of creative things that can be done at home. But the challenge, of course, for parents is that they are contending with working from home, and in other cases, having to leave home to do their jobs. We have to be aware that families are facing myriad challenges right now. If we’re not careful, we risk overloading families. We have to strike a balance between what children need and what families can do, and how you maintain some kind of work-life balance in the home environment. Finally, we must recognize the equity issues in the forced overreliance on homeschooling so that we avoid further disadvantaging the already disadvantaged.

GAZETTE: What has been the biggest surprise for you thus far?

REVILLE: One that’s most striking to me is that because schools are closed, parents and the general public have become more aware than at any time in my memory of the inequities in children’s lives outside of school. Suddenly we see front-page coverage about food deficits, inadequate access to health and mental health, problems with housing stability, and access to educational technology and internet. Those of us in education know these problems have existed forever. What has happened is like a giant tidal wave that came and sucked the water off the ocean floor, revealing all these uncomfortable realities that had been beneath the water from time immemorial. This newfound public awareness of pervasive inequities, I hope, will create a sense of urgency in the public domain. We need to correct for these inequities in order for education to realize its ambitious goals. We need to redesign our systems of child development and education. The most obvious place to start for schools is working on equitable access to educational technology as a way to close the digital-learning gap.

GAZETTE: You’ve talked about some concrete changes that should be considered to level the playing field. But should we be thinking broadly about education in some new way?

REVILLE: The best that can come of this is a new paradigm shift in terms of the way in which we look at education, because children’s well-being and success depend on more than just schooling. We need to look holistically, at the entirety of children’s lives. In order for children to come to school ready to learn, they need a wide array of essential supports and opportunities outside of school. And we haven’t done a very good job of providing these. These education prerequisites go far beyond the purview of school systems, but rather are the responsibility of communities and society at large. In order to learn, children need equal access to health care, food, clean water, stable housing, and out-of-school enrichment opportunities, to name just a few preconditions. We have to reconceptualize the whole job of child development and education, and construct systems that meet children where they are and give them what they need, both inside and outside of school, in order for all of them to have a genuine opportunity to be successful.

Within this coronavirus crisis there is an opportunity to reshape American education. The only precedent in our field was when the Sputnik went up in 1957, and suddenly, Americans became very worried that their educational system wasn’t competitive with that of the Soviet Union. We felt vulnerable, like our defenses were down, like a nation at risk. And we decided to dramatically boost the involvement of the federal government in schooling and to increase and improve our scientific curriculum. We decided to look at education as an important factor in human capital development in this country. Again, in 1983, the report “Nation at Risk” warned of a similar risk: Our education system wasn’t up to the demands of a high-skills/high-knowledge economy.

We tried with our education reforms to build a 21st-century education system, but the results of that movement have been modest. We are still a nation at risk. We need another paradigm shift, where we look at our goals and aspirations for education, which are summed up in phrases like “No Child Left Behind,” “Every Student Succeeds,” and “All Means All,” and figure out how to build a system that has the capacity to deliver on that promise of equity and excellence in education for all of our students, and all means all. We’ve got that opportunity now. I hope we don’t fail to take advantage of it in a misguided rush to restore the status quo.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

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Writing a thesis during a pandemic: 4 Lessons

As I enter the last 2 months of my PhD and prepare to hand in my thesis (as you read this I will be editing my final draft) it’s hard not to reflect on the ups and downs of the last 4 years. These last few months have been the hardest; I have been forced to piece together 3 chapters using half-finished data and fill in the gaps as best I can. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic I lost a total of 6 months of lab time and during the last 10 months, I have only had partial access to the lab. All of this has been mentally taxing, and I know I’m not the only one who has suffered.

As I reflect on my time as a PhD student I can’t help but evaluate how I think I performed and handled events. As I write up my thesis and do some self-reflection there are a few ideas that keep cropping up, and make me think “I wish I had known that earlier.” Even so I can’t help but think that even if someone had told me these things earlier I wouldn’t have listened; sometimes you have to live through something to learn from it. Either way, to those who are either just starting their PhD or are starting to write their own thesis, here are some tips that writing my thesis has taught me.

95% of things are out of your control

The pandemic put a stop to lots of things; weddings were postponed, visits with family cancelled, and, worst of all, mourning loved ones was put on hold. In the modern age we like to imagine we have control over the world – in reality, we still control very little of what happens to us. During any PhD, unforeseen circumstances will prevent you from doing what you planned; broken equipment, unreliable collaborators, or a shortage of key materials – and that’s on a good day. At the start of my PhD, I assumed I would control what went into my thesis and how good the final product would be. Then comes a global pandemic that halts my ability to gather data (no lab = no experiments). It’s hard to accept but fortune has a habit of doing what it wants. This means it’s up to you to focus on the little you do control. Get upset and angry but then, once that initial reaction passes, figure out what you control and where you can put your energy so it can actually make an impact.

Be the tortoise, not the hare

Writing can be an incredibly dull process, especially in science. You might spend 2 hours reading publications from the last decade only to write two sentences. It can feel like wading through quicksand. The trick is not to put too much pressure on yourself; easier said than done, I know. But when you’re writing any large body of work (the average PhD thesis is 100+ pages) you have to accept that you can’t cram it all in the week before the deadline. Instead, set small goals and set them early. The goal isn’t to write a 100-page masterpiece, the goal is to write 100 words today for 3 months. When we first went into lockdown this was the goal I set for myself. Some days I wrote more, but I always made sure that I wrote 100 words a day. Any progress is progress, no matter how small. Find a goal you can achieve each day and do it.

Guard your time

When the lab eventually reopened (at 50% capacity) writing fell to the bottom of my priority list. It was replaced with lab time, experimental planning, and data analysis. I have realised that this was a huge mistake and I was ignoring my own advice; rather than doing a little every day I did no writing for weeks. As my deadline began to loom closer I realised I needed to re-dedicate time each day to writing. I had to say to push back against my supervisor who wanted me in the lab all day every day that “I’m going to be spending less time in the lab, so I can spend more time writing – sorry.” If you have a thesis to submit writing is as much a priority as lab work. Set some time aside each day or each week, whatever works for you, and spend it dedicated to writing.

Never underestimate the power of editing

Anyone can write words on a page, but telling a good story – that is a challenge. If you want your writing to be more than just words on a page then editing is your best friend. Some people will say the only important part of a thesis is the data. But if the story around the data, how you got it, what it means, why it’s important, is bad then what use is the data? That’s what a thesis does – tells your examiners the story of your PhD. To make that story the best it can be you’re going to need to do a lot of editing, not just for spelling and grammar, but getting the flow and structure right. This has been especially important for me; thanks to the pandemic my data is a bit thin so I need to make sure the story I tell is impressive.  As a rule I try to accomplish two full edits of any work I write, depending on time. I also recommend getting friends and family to read your work (you may need to bribe them if they hate science) to spot any obvious mistakes that you will no doubt have missed. 

These are just some of the ideas that I have kept in mind when writing up my thesis over the last few months. I hope there is something here you can use when it’s your turn to write up (and hopefully you won’t be doing it during a global pandemic).

Photo by  Edwin Hooper  on  Unsplash under Unsplash License

Steve is currently a member of the EPSRC CDT in Advanced Therapeutics and Nanomedicines at the University of Nottingham. He uses bioelectronics to design new treatments and diagnostic devices. When he's away from the lab he can usually be found lost in the woods or up a mountain. Twitter: @Steve_Gibney

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Reopening K-12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prioritizing Health, Equity, and Communities (2020)

Chapter: 6 recommendations and urgent research, 6 recommendations and urgent research.

Whether to reopen school buildings for the 2020–2021 school year is one of the most consequential and complex decisions many education leaders will ever have to make. While the benefits of reopening for students, families, and communities are clear, leaders must also take into account the health risks to school personnel and students’ families, as well as the practicality and cost of the mitigation strategies that will be needed to operate safely. These decisions are made more difficult by the lack of definitive evidence about transmission in children or about which mitigation measures are most effective for limiting the spread of the virus in schools.

Recognizing these challenges and the difficult choices faced by education leaders, the committee offers a set of eight recommendations intended both to provide guidance as leaders make these choices and to serve as a call to action for other stakeholders to provide support for educators in this difficult time. We also offer a ninth recommendation identifying four areas of research we believe need urgent attention so that decision-makers can soon have the evidence base they need for making more informed choices.

Recommendation 1: The Decision to Reopen

Districts should weigh the relative health risks of reopening against the educational risks of providing no in-person instruction in Fall 2020. Given the importance of in-person interaction for learning and development, districts should prioritize reopening with an emphasis on providing full-time, in-person instruction in grades K – 5 and for students with special needs who would be best served by in-person instruction.

A complex set of risks and trade-offs surrounds decisions about reopening school buildings. Reopening schools for in-person learning will necessarily bring a number of risks related to health and safety. Not reopening schools, however, also carries a number of risks that need to be considered. Distance learning, while an essential tool for ensuring continuity of instruction when school buildings are closed, cannot fully take the place of in-person interaction. Moreover, disparities in access to reliable Internet and appropriate electronic devices could compound already existing educational inequities. The risks of not having face-to-face learning are especially high for young children, who may suffer long-term consequences academically if they fall behind in the early grades.

Recommendation 2: Precautions for Reopening

To reopen during the pandemic, schools and districts should provide surgical masks for all teachers and staff, as well as supplies for effective hand hygiene for all people who enter school buildings.

In order to open for in-person learning, schools and districts will need to leverage the strengths and talents of teachers and school staff by attending to their health and safety concerns. As discussed in Chapter 3 , a significant portion of the teacher workforce is over the age of 65, signaling that these individuals are both at increased risk related to COVID-19, and eligible for retirement. This reality, combined with the fact that many schools and districts may choose to limit interaction among students by assigning students to smaller cohorts or pods, poses a serious human capital challenge for education stakeholders to consider. To make returning to work a safe and desirable option, stakeholders will need to take the health and safety concerns of teachers and staff seriously.

Recommendation 3: Partnerships Between School Districts and Public Health Officials

Local public health officials should partner with districts to

• assess the readiness of school facilities to ensure that they meet the minimum health and safety standards necessary to support COVID-19 mitigation strategies;
• consult on proposed plans for mitigating the spread of COVID-19;
• develop a protocol for monitoring data on the virus in order to (a) track community spread and (b) make decisions about changes to the mitigation strategies in place in schools and when future full school closures might be necessary;
• participate in shared decision-making about when it is necessary to initiate closure of schools for in-person learning; and
• design and deliver COVID-19–related prevention and health promotion training to staff, community, and students.

Not only will decisions related to when and how to reopen schools for in-person learning need to reflect a school district’s priorities and constraints, but also plans for reopening will need to include careful monitoring of the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community. In light of the rapidly changing circumstances surrounding what is known about COVID-19, the committee emphasizes that it is unreasonable to expect school districts to have the requisite in-house public health expertise to make ongoing decisions about reopening and operating schools.

Recommendation 4: Access to Public Health Expertise

States should ensure that, in portions of the state where public health offices are short staffed or lack personnel with expertise in infectious disease, districts have access to the ongoing support from public health officials that is needed to monitor and maintain the health of students and staff.

Not all school districts will be able to immediately access the appropriate public health expertise locally. In many parts of the United States, especially rural areas, public health offices may be short staffed or may lack staff with deep expertise in infectious disease. Yet public health expertise is necessary for making the myriad ongoing decisions described in this report, and it is incumbent upon states to ensure that this need is addressed.

Recommendation 5: Decision-Making Coalitions

State and local decision-makers and education leaders should develop a mechanism, such as a local task force, that allows for input from representatives of school staff, families, local health officials, and other community interests to inform decisions related to reopening schools. Such a cross-sector task force should

• determine educational priorities and community values related to opening schools;
• be explicit about financial, staffing, and facilities-related constraints;
• determine a plan for informing ongoing decisions about schools;
• establish a plan for communication; and
• liaise with communities to advocate for needed resources.

While public health expertise is a critical component of making smart decisions related to reopening schools, it is just one perspective necessary for outlining a plan that reflects the needs and priorities of a community. As discussed in Chapter 4 , many different stakeholders are invested in K–12

education. In order to approach reopening schools in ways that reflect a community’s collective values, it is critical that state and local decision makers engage a range of different constituencies in the process of delineating a plan for reopening schools and monitoring their ongoing safety.

Recommendation 6: Equity in Reopening

In developing plans for reopening schools and implementing mitigation strategies, districts should take into account existing disparities within and across schools. Across schools, plans need to address disparities in school facilities, staffing shortages, overcrowding, and remote learning infrastructures. Within schools, plans should address disparities in resources for students and families. These issues might include access to technology, health care services, ability to provide masks for students, and other considerations.

As this report discusses throughout, decisions around reopening schools are occurring in the context of a deeply inequitable public school system. Unless school districts directly address equity in their planning process, reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic will undoubtedly exacerbate existing disparities in educational access and outcomes. As part of the planning process, districts will need to understand how existing inequities (in school facilities, staffing, access to resources, etc.) are likely to interact with the lived realities of communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19, so that the plans can identify where additional resources or special considerations are necessary.

Recommendation 7: Addressing Financial Burdens for Schools and Districts

Schools will not be able to take on the entire financial burden of implementing the mitigation strategies. Federal and state governments should provide significant resources to districts and schools to enable them to implement the suite of measures required to maintain individual and community health and allow schools to remain open. Under-resourced districts with aging facilities in poor condition will need additional financial support to bring facilities to basic health and safety standards. In addition, state departments of education should not penalize schools by withholding statewide school funding formula monies for student absences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The various strategies for mitigating the transmission of COVID-19 reviewed in Chapter 5 will be the primary tools used by schools to support the health of their staff and students as they reopen school buildings. This list of strategies is long and complex, and implementing them will require a substantial investment of financial and human capital resources. These considerable expenditures are coming at a time when many districts are

looking at uncertain financial futures as a result of the pandemic. While the size of the funding shortfall will depend on how well resourced a school district is, many districts will be unable to afford implementing the entire suite of mitigation measures, potentially leaving students and staff in those districts at greater risk of infection. In the absence of substantial financial support from the federal government and state governments, it is likely that the communities most impacted by COVID-19 will see even worse health outcomes in the wake of reopening schools.

As noted throughout this report, districts within the same state are likely to have significantly different resources (financial, human capital, etc.) to put toward reopening schools. States will need to have a role in ensuring an equitable distribution of resources so that districts can implement the measures required for a strategic reopening in their local contexts. Further, in order to equitably support districts and schools, states should not withhold funds or otherwise penalize districts if families choose remote or distance learning options for their children in Fall 2020.

Recommendation 8: High-Priority Mitigation Strategies

Based on what is currently known about the spread of COVID-19, districts should prioritize mask wearing, providing healthy hand hygiene solutions, physical distancing, and limiting large gatherings. Cleaning, ventilation, and air filtration are also important, but attending to those strategies alone will not sufficiently lower the risk of transmission. Creating small cohorts of students is another promising strategy.

Although it is impossible to eliminate the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in schools completely, the mitigation strategies recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and described in this report are showing promise for reducing transmission when implemented effectively. The lack of evidence about the relative effectiveness of different strategies, especially given the considerable costs involved in implementing them all, is a challenge for districts and schools, which are left largely on their own to prioritize which of the mitigation strategies to implement and how to make judgments about any necessary modifications due to practical constraints. The committee drew on its collective expertise and the limited available evidence to identify a few mitigation strategies that appear to show promise for districts looking to leverage limited resources.

Recommendation 9: Urgent Research

The research community should immediately conduct research that will provide the evidence needed to make informed decisions about school reopening and safe operation. The most urgent areas for inquiry are

• children and transmission of COVID-19 ,
• the role of reopening schools in contributing to the spread of COVID-19 in communities ,
• the role of airborne transmission of COVID-19, and
• the effectiveness of mitigation strategies.

Children and Transmission of COVID-19

The fact that as of this writing there was no scientific consensus on the role of children in transmitting COVID-19—to one another or to adults—poses a serious challenge for decision-makers. Although it is known that children are less likely both to contract COVID-19 and to experience significant consequences if they do, it is simply impossible to ascertain how likely children are to transmit the disease to school staff or adults at home. Clarity on this point would offer much-needed guidance for decision-makers regarding the necessity of various mitigation measures, and could potentially alleviate considerable anxiety for adults in proximity to students slated to attend school in person. Therefore, research is urgently needed to help understand the role of children in transmitting COVID-19.

The Role of Reopening Schools in Contributing to the Spread of COVID-19 in Communities

In addition to uncertainty around the role of children in transmitting COVID-19, much of the anxiety around reopening schools relates to how schools as a large gathering place for individuals will factor into the spread of COVID-19 in a community. To date, research on this question has produced mixed results ( Hsiang et al., 2020 ). Clarity in this area could provide further insight into what kinds of mitigation strategies might be of the highest priority for schools. As a result, research is urgently needed that looks specifically at how the reopening of schools matters (or does not) for the prevalence of COVID-19.

The Role of Airborne Transmission of COVID-19

In the process of writing this report, the committee repeatedly returned to conversations around the role of airborne transmission of COVID-19. As described in Chapter 3 , indoor air quality in U.S. public schools is notoriously poor, which can have innumerable deleterious health impacts on students and staff. However, because there is not yet scientific consensus on the role of airborne transmission in the spread of the virus, it is also unclear how the indoor air quality of schools matters in the spread of COVID-19. Given the considerable cost associated with updating aging

facilities, it is particularly important to understand the exact role of airborne transmission such that stakeholders can assess the relative value and utility of that investment.

Effectiveness of Mitigation Strategies

Although this committee was expressly tasked with assessing the effectiveness and practicality of the various mitigation strategies intended to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, we were repeatedly thwarted in that endeavor by the lack of clarifying evidence. If this committee of experts was unable to reach consensus on the best direction for schools, it is likely to be extremely challenging for education stakeholders to navigate the plethora of guidance documents to determine what is best for their schools and district. Research on the effectiveness of mitigation strategies and their specific utility in school settings is needed immediately. The committee also suggests that as schools reopen to in-person learning in Fall 2020, researchers leverage the occasion to conduct research in real time, and provide guidance as soon as it becomes available.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to the nation's K-12 education system. The rush to slow the spread of the virus led to closures of schools across the country, with little time to ensure continuity of instruction or to create a framework for deciding when and how to reopen schools. States, districts, and schools are now grappling with the complex and high-stakes questions of whether to reopen school buildings and how to operate them safely if they do reopen. These decisions need to be informed by the most up-to-date evidence about the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19; about the impacts of school closures on students and families; and about the complexities of operating school buildings as the pandemic persists.

Reopening K-12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prioritizing Health, Equity, and Communities provides guidance on the reopening and operation of elementary and secondary schools for the 2020-2021 school year. The recommendations of this report are designed to help districts and schools successfully navigate the complex decisions around reopening school buildings, keeping them open, and operating them safely.

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20 Thesis ideas concerning Pandemics_Epidemics

The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed everything globally and has affected the smallest parts of the remotest countries as well. There has been no way yet to put a cap on to this, and scientists and doctors across the world are trying hard to come up with any kind of solution. This pandemic being airborne, the risk is multi-fold and is increasing like wildfire with every passing day. Looking at its effects, the pandemic does not seem to be coming down in the coming immediate years. We thus need to alter our lives and lifestyles to fight it and for that, we need severe changes in our surroundings; our public spaces, markets, eating joints, shopping malls, etc. all need to strictly follow social distancing norms, hygiene, etc.

Below are a few ideas for a thesis concerning the global pandemic.

1. Public spaces and hygiene

There is a sheer need to make people aware of the importance of hygiene while being in public spaces. Certain manners in us need to change and for a better tomorrow, this is just a small step. Especially in a country like ours, with the nerve breaking densities, we need to be careful with these smaller steps to be safe and clean.

2. Changes in public spaces after the pandemic

Our public spaces and their character is going to change and be pretty different than what it is now. Social distancing, use of sanitizers, face masks, etc. are going to turn these spaces into a new ball game altogether. New norms and guidelines will have to be in place to maintain these spaces in a civilized form.

3. Development Control Regulations (DCR) as a medium to fight the pandemic

There is going to be a need to substantially change the formulation of the DCRs, the way we look at them, and the basis of their formulation. Norms like social distancing are going to be a vital part of the DCRs. Density control through urban form, ensuring clean and hygiene city level infrastructure, clean and safe public spaces, etc. will be new aspects to detail out while framing the DCRs.

4. Housing typologies and their characters

We have to be extra careful and cautious while inviting people over to our place henceforth. You never know where they come from, how they travel, the things they have touched on the way to your place, etc. Thus the design of our housing apartments will have to be revised. Restricting certain groups of people at a particular point in the building premise, making sure they clean or sanitize themselves before entering the building, restricting the number of guests at a time for a family, ensuring that no person enters or leaves the building premises without following the instructions, etc. are a few things to be kept in mind.

5. Staggering of working hours

This has been a need of the hour for a while and now the pandemic has just made it an urgency. The surge in densities across the globe has made it the only choice left. It is not the ultimate solution; just a means to reduce the danger and harm to life. Staggering in work timings will not only reduce the number of people at a time in the office space but also will drastically reflect in the public transportation system, roads, at cafeterias, at all other allied spaces.

6. Design of workspaces

Workspaces will have to function differently once the lockdown lifts and the routine begins; we need to be careful enough at our respective workspaces as well. Screening and primary sanitization will be a must. Recurring cleaning of self and the concept of distancing while being in the same space will have to be executed and made into a regular practice.

7. Design of play areas

Controlling kids and making them follow discipline is a mammoth task. But for their safety and health, we need to bring in definite rules and regulations to design the spaces they use daily. Cleanliness and sanitization of the spaces they use, the playing equipment, provision of hand wash, use of face masks, etc. There will have to be restrictions for timings for which the play areas would be open, to limit the number of people.

8. Sanitization of residential buildings, surroundings, and interior spaces

Sanitization of our immediate surroundings is an important precaution to be taken at this time of the pandemic. Keeping our own house clean and sanitized, our apartment, our building, and its surrounding, etc. matters a lot. People entering and leaving the building need to be thoroughly sanitized and screened. There has to be a means to cap the number of guests coming to visit us, and vice versa. Routine habits like washing of hands, wearing face masks while stepping out, etc, need to be strictly followed by everyone. Special care has to be taken with house helps and their sanitization. At the same time, we need to be human towards them while doing so.

9. Pedestrianization in the time of corona

The lockdown had forced us to stay back in our houses and it has tested our patience big time. Going out for a mere walk can be so refreshing, and help us be more productive at work. But people do not seem to understand the fact that the lockdown has been lifted to keep the economy in place, not because the danger of the pandemic has ceased. Social distancing needs to be strictly practiced and noncompliance to the same has to be severely penalized. There is a need to provide sanitation infrastructure at public plazas, promenades, and other walking/running tracks. There have to be some means to monitor people at these places. Pedestrian areas need to be safely barricaded from vehicular roads for better safety. Have timings for people to use these pedestrian walkways. People need to follow the same even on the streets and in their daily pedestrian commute.

10. Public transportation and its effects during the pandemic and ways to fight the same

The modes of public transport are most susceptible to the spread of such diseases. There is a dire need to keep all public transportation modes clean and well sanitized. Restricting the number of people, allowing only essential service people as a priority are few of the many possible means to reduce the risk of spread. Increasing the frequency, using more feeder systems, etc, can be more helpful. A lot of human behavior will have to be documented and reflected upon while working on this topic.

11. Reconceptualization of restaurants and street eateries

After lifting the lockdown, when the eateries and restaurants are open, people must be careful visiting the same. apart from the basic sanitization precautions, the restaurants will have to keep a basic check on expiry dates of food products, cleanliness in the kitchen, cleaning, and sanitization of the people working in the restaurants, screening, and sanitization of customers, distancing criteria, etc. On-street eateries will have to take the same efforts. Basic hand washing must be mandatory and must follow the social distancing norms.

12. Street shopping after the pandemic

Street shopping will never be the same experience post the pandemic times. There will have to be a lot of discipline and formalization in the process, which itself is contradictory to the activity. But for safety reasons, it will have to be done. New guidelines have to be in place to allow street shopping in designated areas only. Timings will have to be strictly followed. The vendors and customers both should be aware of the practices of sanitizing and social distancing and they should follow them sincerely.

13. Effect on commercial activities in slums and other dense neighborhoods

A lot of small scales of commercial and industrial activities happen in the densely populated and compact urban fabric of slums. These provide a substantial amount of employment to the people in these settlements. There has to be an adequate screening of goods coming out from the settlement and the raw materials entering in. There has to be the provision of hand sanitizers, hand wash, face masks, and other necessary safety equipment for the workers. Transportation of goods has to be done in a similar sanitized manner.

14. Re-emerging commerce through shopping malls and other enclosed public spaces and its effects on human life

As we know the shopping malls and other public spaces were shut down for over three months now, to curb the spread of the pandemic by limiting people in public areas. But with the reopening of the same, the chances of the disease spreading are going to be spiked up. So it has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Before they are set to open for the public, there should be rules and guidelines in place to be followed to reduce the risk of life. Opening shopping areas in different stages or phases might be a good idea, to begin with.

15. Social distancing in dense neighborhoods

As we are aware of the brawling densities in our country, we also know that it is difficult to practice social distancing in certain areas. The houses are so cramped up and tightly held together, it’s practically impossible to follow things like social distancing. Also, these neighborhoods are damp, crowded, unhygienic, and perfect breeding grounds for any disease. It will be a task to get things under control in these neighborhoods and at the city level as well.

16. Guidelines for the celebration of festivals and other public gatherings

No celebration or festival in India happens without a massive crowd. Festivals in India are just another definition of a public gathering. With the current situation around, any gathering of people is likely to be dangerous and risky. But we want to celebrate our festivals as well. Just a few days back there were articles about the Jagannath Rath yatra, and how it had to be canceled for the safety of the people. There is a need to have guidelines. There is a need to have a designated area for such celebrations, well barricaded, sanitized, clean, and allowing a limited number of people at a time only. There have to be regulations in place to manage situations like these. We also need to incorporate certain behavioral changes for the betterment of society. All of these have to be considered and addressed.

17. Segregation of essential and non-essential services and prioritization of the same

Essential services like medical healthcare, traffic department, the police, banks, etc. are trying their best to provide the best possible services to the people even in the time of the pandemic. It would be better to segregate the essential services from the nonessential ones. It will help in controlling the spread of the disease. Also, priority should be given to the ones working in the essential services as they are the heroes doing more than their bit for us all. They deserve their share of security and safety. For example, the Mumbai local trains have recently started service for the essential service workers, for their ease of commute, which is a good initiative.

18. Redesign of markets

Markets or bazaars in an Indian context are other public gatherings of a massive scale. With almost entire neighborhoods pouring in, there is a doubt of how it will function once it reopens post the lockdown. There have been images circulated showing circles marked in front of the stalls to demarcate the three feet distance to be kept between two people as a norm, which is a good start. Similar measures can be taken and the markets can be redesigned in a way to accommodate these norms and guidelines.

19. Affordable sanitizing equipment

It is observed that in a crisis like this, it is the lowermost sector of the society that gets affected the most. The daily wage workers, site workers, household helps, etc. The government will have to incentivize the supply of these basic sanitation facilities and make sure all the lower class gets it at an affordable rate. There could be regulations and policies for the distribution of the same in this class of people.

20. Primary health care during and after the pandemic

It has been observed that the primary healthcare that we have, is not at all adequate to take care of our population. This pandemic has exposed this ugly side to us right in the beginning. The shortage of beds in hospitals, a shortage of primary healthcare workers, shortage of medicines, etc. is something that our country needs to work on. It is not an overnight process and there will have to be long term planning to cope up with this need. Suitable policies and guidelines can help this happen smoothly and efficiently. Where to manufacture, how much to manufacture, at what cost to manufacture, and at what cost to sell the infrastructure, will all be important decisions to be taken by the authorities, sooner.

As the global pandemic is wreaking havoc in the world right outside our doors, we have been planning measures to fight it and ways to keep it at a distance. It’s not the job of one profession or fraternity to come forward and take the responsibility to do this. Every single person must contribute in whichever way possible. For example, if ordered to stay indoors, individuals must understand the seriousness of the situation and follow the orders. It would be a much simpler job for the authorities to deal with the actual issue if people behave sensibly and take care of themselves at an individual level.

The pandemic has affected every corner of the world, and having a solution to it is going to take time. Every profession or fraternity can come up with ideas and solutions that can be implemented, to curb the effects of the spread of this disease.

It is a humble request to all to be human to one another at this time.

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An architect from Bombay, after graduation, he further studied Sustainable Architecture. Since then, he has been associated with a research organisation, working on urban development policies of Mumbai, Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI). Here, he has worked on projects that have strengthened his knowledge about the city. He is inclined towards researching public transportation alternatives, policies and infrastructure for pedestrians in cities, affordable housing, urban recreational spaces and non-conventional construction techniques.

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