Teachers & COVID-19
Author: Katie Reilly
John B. Wright Elementary School teacher Sheree Garcia double-checks distance between desks in her classroom before the start of the school year
Photo: Arizona Daily Star, Josh GalemoreTeachers: Adapting Quickly During COVID-19
Many people have had a teacher who has impacted their life. Many of us know teachers, are related to them, or can point to an educator who influenced us. Teachers are the backbone of the American education system. As of 2018, there are 3.2 million teachers in the United States1. This spring, as the country began to lock down due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, teachers were asked to quickly pivot to an online learning model for the remainder of the school year.
As summer ended and the hopes for a COVID freefall were dashed, districts had to decide what the 2020-2021 school year would look like. In a vast majority of the US this meant remote learning for some amount of time. The major exceptions being Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, and Florida; all of which, required schools to provide at least some in-person instruction2.
As the school year has continued, learning environments have changed and changed again. This has put the unprecedented flexibility of teachers and educators on display. However, we must ask, how are we keeping teachers safe and healthy during this pandemic and what part does their work environment play in their safety?
Occupational Health
The WHO defines the factors that contribute to occupational health as, "all determinants of workers' health, including risks for disease and injury in the occupational environment, social and individual factors, and access to health services.4" There are jobs where this emphasis on safety is easier to see and interact with. The implications of occupational health for teachers, as with most office-based professions, are less obvious than in more blue-collar settings. However, the health and safety of teachers is important and contributes to overall community health.
Built Environments
The CDC defines a built environment as, “includes all of the physical parts of where we live and work.3" The environment in which we live our lives is linked to induvial and community health outcomes. Schools are where students and teachers spend the majority of their time when not at home. This makes schools an important consideration when looking at occupational health of teachers, student wellbeing, and environmental impacts to public health.
Teacher Health Prior to Coronavirus
Traditionally the study of occupational health of teachers has related mostly to mental health and physical health that can be attributed to stress. Likewise, school (environment) related health studies focused primarily on students and environmental factors such as lead pipes and asbestos exposure. With the development of Coronavirus, the focus of teacher health should be shifted to communicable disease and environmental/behavioral changes that can help reduce transmission.
Anxiety
Depression
Burnout
Musculoskeletal disorders
Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)
Air pollution
Stress
Pulmonary disease
Lead exposure
Vocal stress
2020-2021 School Year & COVID-19
With COVID-19 cases remaining high through out the summer, districts needed to determine how the 2020-2021 school year would move forward. During these discussions most of the focus was on student safety and risk to the community as a whole. As schools are large buildings filled with mostly children, this focus made sense. However, seldomly did studies looking at Coronavirus transmission among children consider the teachers or staff who work in the schools.
Overall, it appears that children are unlikely to be the primary drivers of infection and were much more likely to be asymptomatic, and typically had less severe symptoms with better outcomes. 5,6 One study even concluded that “school closures alone would prevent only 2%–4% of deaths.5” With these conclusions in tow, the debate over whether or not to open schools for in person instruction began.
In true American fashion, this decision was left up to local authorities (most often school districts). Considerations for the occupational and environmental health of teachers were not applied equally or consistently.
Schools around the country opened in a variety of ways:
Fully online with teachers working remotely
Fully online with teachers working from their classrooms
Hybrid online and in person learning (parents choice)
Typically following CDC/WHO guidelines for school reopening when able
Hybrid online and in person learning (covid-19 metric dependent)
Typically following CDC/WHO guidelines for school reopening able
Fully in person learning
Typically following CDC/WHO guidelines for school reopening when able
Fully in person learning with few to no changes from previous school years
Teaching Method by District
Impact Considerations
Remote Learning
Students of certain ages require a parent to help with online school, limiting the ability for parents to return to work fully
Decreased quality of teacher-student interactions, it can be more difficult to give students personalized attention
Not suited to all learning styles
Training required for teachers to be effective in an online environment
Equity issue of access to remote learning
Internet access, required equipment, parent participation
Rural/urban divide, socioeconomic status, low income schools cannot buy students equitment
Long-Term
Incomplete learning goals for 2020-21 school year will affect future years curriculums
Inconsistent learning method = inconsistent learning
Students feeling disconnected from teachers as well as fellow classmates
In-Person Learning
Children could expose teachers and staff to COVID-19
Sick teachers could cause teacher & substitute teacher shortages
Class sizes could increase with fewer teachers, reducing quality of teacher-student interactions
Difficult to ensure student compliance with safety protocols
Teachers may retire or leave profession for their own safety
Lack of PPE available and provided to teachers (and students)
Unequal application of CDC/WHO safety guidelines
Asymptomatic students could pass infection into community
Long-Term
Increased Coronavirus cases and associated long term health effects
Exasperating existing problems in teaching (teacher shortage, class size, job recruitment, teacher pay) which affect quality of education
Much about asymptomatic carriers and lasting effects of COVID-19 on children is still largely unknown
Teachers & Coronavirus: The Research
As COVID-19 shut schools down this spring the EdWeek Research Center sent out a survey to teachers, principals, and district administrators to gage education related opinions. This survey was sent out several times over the spring and summer. As schools began to reopen at the end of August they sent out the same survey once again.9 [Read more here]
Teacher morale has been steadily declining since the beginning of lockdown orders, nearly doubling since the first survey in March. This decline could impact the student’s ability to learn as well as engagement in the classroom setting. Furthermore, links between employee morale and occupational safety have been made. Workplaces that value worker safety have been shown to have higher employee morale.8
The percentage of teachers likely to leave their jobs has increased dramatically from spring. Many citing COVID-19 as a reason for their increased likelihood of leaving. This can be attributed in part to reduced morale, personal health, or health of a loved one.
District officials are seeing a steep decline in enrollment for students in pre-K through 5th grade. Some even showing similar decreases in secondary education.This shows that decisions related to teaching modality are influencing the decisions of both teachers and parents.
Another survey conducted this summer aimed to gauge views on reopening schools from both teachers and parents. This was performed by Hart Research Associates on the behalf of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Overall, personal safety appeared to be one of the most important factors for parents and teachers when considering reopening schools.10 [Read more here]
Recommendations to ensure teacher safety
adapted from CDC and WHO guidelines
Environmental
Use HVAC Systems
Ensure physical distancing
Frequent cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces
Enact remote learning when possible
Outdoor classrooms, if plausible
Consider adding additional filtration (e.g. HEPPA) where possible
Reduce the use of shared objects
Clear informative signs about safety
Behavioral
Frequent hand washing
Always accessible hand sanitizer
Suppling teachers with adequate PPE
Choose remote learning if given the choice
Wear a face covering regardless of local mask mandates
Stay home if sick or experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, or havind a know exposure
limit duration of content to maximum extent possible
Policy
Implement mask mandates
Clear policies on when in-person learning can resume, with remote learning being preferred
Allow flexible sick leave for teachers
Provide training on new learning strategies and methods
Educate teachers on how to reduce the spread of COVID-19
Routine testing for teachers
Frequent screening of students
In Summary
Teachers never signed up to put their lives on the line for their students. That was never part of the job description and it is not taught to them in college. Despite this, we see many teachers giving everything they have for their students. We have seen it in the past during school shootings. We see it every year as 20% of teachers work a second job just to get by.7 And now, we see it when teachers continue to show up to school everyday risking their own lives to teach the children of the community.
Teachers who leave the profession, get sick, or die because of COVID-19 has a domino effect on everyone, including the students. When class sizes increase due to the teacher shortage, it is more difficult to have an engaging lesson for all. This also increases the risk of the remaining teachers contracting coronavirus. If learning is remote these problems will not be as impactful on the community.
To ensure that we maintain a population of healthy teachers, who are able to do their jobs, we must treat them like essential workers. We must redirect funds to keep classrooms COVID-19 safe and maintain disease mitigation strategies. We must supply adequate PPE. We must consider “hero pay” for teachers. We must have adequate funding and education for remote learning technology.
Overall, we know the strategies that would help protect teachers and we must put them in place.
Opinions of Professionals
Teachers, Ethics Professors, American Academy of Pediatrics, Teachers Unions, & Principals
Interesting Links & Further Reading
References
1. Riser-Kositsky, M. (2020, June 16). Education Statistics: Facts About American Schools. Retrieved November 2020, from https://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/education-statistics/index.html
2. Ed Week. (2020) “Map: Where Has COVID-19 Closed Schools? Where Are They Open?” (https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/map-covid-19-schools-open-closed.html); archived at Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/web/20200731063405/https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/map-covid-19-schools-open-closed.html); capture date of July 31, 2020.
3. Centers for Disease Control. (June 2011). National Center for Enviormental Health [Fact Sheet]. Retrieved November 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/publications/factsheets/impactofthebuiltenvironmentonhealth.pdf
4. Occupational health. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2020, from https://www.who.int/health-topics/occupational-health
5. Rajmil L. (2020). Role of children in the transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic: a rapid scoping review. BMJ paediatrics open, 4(1), e000722. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2020-000722
6. He, J., Guo, Y., Mao, R., MD, PhD, & Zhang, J., MD, PhD. (2020). Proportion of asymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Journal of Medical Virology/EarlyView. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.26326
7. Will, M. (2020, April 27). To Make Ends Meet, 1 in 5 Teachers Have Second Jobs. Retrieved November 29, 2020, from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/06/19/to-make-ends-meet-1-in5.html?s_kwcid=AL%216416%213%21266402628866%21b%21%21g%21%21
8. Behm, M. (2009, January 1). The Relationship Between Occupational Safety And Health And Employee Morale. American Society of Safety Engineers. From https://aeasseincludes.assp.org/proceedings/2009/docs/736.pdf
9. Kurtz, H. (2020, September 16). Teacher Morale and Student Enrollment Declining Under COVID-19, Survey Shows. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/09/01/teacher-morale-and-student-enrollment-declining-under.html
10. Hart Research Associates, American Federation of Teachers (AFT),, Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools(AROS), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), & National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). (2020, August/September). Parents' and Teachers' Views on Reopening schools [Scholarly project]. In American Federation of Teachers - Reopening Schools. Retrieved November, 2020, from https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/survey_school-reopening_augsept2020.pdf