Tag: pandemic

There are 2 sides when it comes to extending the child care tax credit

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Oct. 8, Richard Alm and co-author Michael Davis, both attached to the Cox School of Business at SMU Dallas, for a piece explaining why an apparent spike in child poverty rates reported in U.S. Census data was actually related to pandemic and post-pandemic adjustments in the child care tax credit. Published in The Hill under the heading There are 2 sides when it comes to extending the child care tax credit: https://tinyurl.com/6w5zexdv 

When good economists meet for beers, they never argue about whether the pitcher is half empty or half full. That’s because they know that the same bit of data can often be described in different ways.

Consider the new Census data that showed the child poverty rate was 12.4 percent in 2022.

Shocking! Wasn’t 2022 at least an OK year for the economy? Wasn’t unemployment near record lows? Why can’t we keep kids from slipping into poverty?

Those are good questions. Child poverty is bad in the present and leaves long-term scars.

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COVID’s hidden victim: economic freedom

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Sept. 8, Robert Lawson, Fullinwider Chair in Economic Freedom at the SMU  Dallas Cox School of Business, for a piece measuring the impact of the pandemic on  economic freedom indicators. Published in the Orange County Register under the heading COVID’s hidden victim: economic freedom: https://bit.ly/3qmJooL

The COVID-19 pandemic swept over the planet in early 2020, resulting in more than a million deaths in the United States and many millions more around the world. Unfortunately, these lives weren’t the only casualties. The pandemic also walloped economic freedom – that is, our freedoms to buy, sell, move, hire, fire, invest and earn income and keep it.

Economic freedom took a big hit in the global financial crisis of 2007-09 – but this time the blow was three times worse. The potential impacts of economic freedom’s decline range from lower incomes and greater poverty to shorter life expectancies, fewer years of schooling, and less overall happiness.

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The way Texas teaches math just doesn’t add up

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July 20, Candace Walkington, an associate professor and Gerald J. Ford Research Fellow in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at SMU Dallas, for a piece advocating that math curriculum be more compelling and relevant to modern day applications and career needs. Published in the Austin American-Statesman under the heading The way Texas teaches math just doesn’t add up: https://bit.ly/3xWSn27

Recent headlines highlight the “deep learning loss” in Texas schools over the past school year, particularly in mathematics. Reports link this situation to students who attended school virtually all year – due to the pandemic – as those who “lost” the most. STAAR math results show many students in 5th and 8th grades are not meeting standards.

Why is engaging in virtual learning associated with a drop in math scores? There are a lot of complex issues surrounding why students score as they do on standardized tests, but the recent comparisons are useful for highlighting the incredibly problematic way in which math is taught in our schools in Texas.

Mathematics is typically taught in middle and high school as an endless series of demonstration and practice. Students are tasked with watching the teacher and copying what they do, often performing rote procedures that they do not understand. They are taught to sit quietly and follow instructions, as they solve sets of boring, decontextualized problems. Math is not taught in a compelling way, and students are expected to simply accept this.

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Rituals can guide us in our post-pandemic worlds

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May 29, Jill DeTemple, religious studies professor at SMU Dallas, for a piece advocating how rituals can help individuals and communities navigate their post-pandemic worlds. Published in the Austin American-Statesman: https://bit.ly/3yVA1zi

About a week ago, at the top of the stairs in the three-story building where I work on the SMU campus, two women were in lively conversation as they worked to remove markers and yards of tape laid down to keep us safely apart in the pandemic.

They scraped and scrubbed, and at the end of the day the blue line dividing our staircase and hallways, the directional arrows and X’s meant to prohibit sitting too closely to another, were gone. Despite their efforts, however, the sticky residue from the tape remains.  Looking down at the stripe still dividing our stairs neatly into two parts, darker than its surrounding material, I was struck by the analogy it offered.  As we think about emerging from lockdowns, hugely altered work lives, social distancing, hundreds of thousands of lives lost and irrevocably altered by COVID 19, and seemingly unshakeable social divides — we cannot simply “go back to normal.”  Even if we try to wash the experience away, stubborn stickiness remains.

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We sacrificed working moms to survive the pandemic; it’s time to share the burden

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April 7, Adria Richmond,  program specialist/lead designer at the Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility, SMU Dallas, for a commentary about the burden working moms weathered during the pandemic. Published in USA Today: https://bit.ly/3umM5qq

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I want to assert this from the get-go: All motherhood is full-time motherhood and full-time work. Some of us who work outside of the home just happen to have an additional full-time job as well.

As COVID-19 vaccinations continue and society begins reopening, our eyes will be drawn to the things we get to experience again, like kids in schools and our work colleagues at desks. But many of those long-empty desks will not be filled with the working mothers who were forced out of their jobs during the pandemic.

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Math Learning Loss During COVID-19: A Problem Can Be an Opportunity

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Feb. 11, Annie Wilhelm, associate professor of mathematics education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at SMU Dallas, for a piece offering solutions for Math Learning Loss and some outdated math teaching strategies. Published in Inside Sources with the heading Math Learning Loss During COVID-19: A Problem Can Be an Opportunity: http://bit.ly/3d4AeIg

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I am the parent of two children and an associate professor of math education. Like all parents, my husband and I scramble to figure out how to do our jobs, plus care for and educate our children. As a math educator, I know data indicate school math learning progress of most students has been adversely affected by the pandemic. However, this problem can also be an opportunity to tackle imperfections of traditional ways of engaging kids in math.

“Improvement science” can drive organizational change during great challenges. I’ve witnessed this while collaborating with Toyota and the Dallas Independent School District to design the West Dallas STEM School (opening this fall) and while participating in a Networked Improvement Community of Texas universities, dedicated to improving teacher preparation across the state.

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Contact tracing can stop COVID-19 — only if Americans allow government access to personal data

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Aug. 25, Jo Guldi and Macabe Keliher, history professors at SMU Dallas, for a piece advocating that the U.S. emulate Taiwan by devising a way for the government to access location data to alert citizens during emergencies or during efforts to mitigate infection spread during a pandemic. Published in The Hill and MSN: https://bit.ly/2QqGptt https://bit.ly/34A65w8

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Most Americans await a vaccine to end the pandemic and get us back to work. But the drama about vaccines and masks has obscured a practical answer to ending the pandemic that has already worked in other parts of the world, and which could end the pandemic across the U.S. in only a month, at minimal cost: contact tracing. Contact tracing means entrusting government representatives or corporations with intimate data about individuals’ locations and creating a potentially sensitive repository of information about citizens. That data can save lives — but it will only come into being if Americans trust the system for managing that data. 

American cities and states have mainly opted to avoid contact tracing and the shortcut out of the pandemic that it offers. The ostensible reason offered is American’s concern about data privacy, which is both legitimate and important. . .

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Don’t let the pandemic pause your career. Seize opportunities to network online

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Aug. 14, Liz Navarro, a communications consultant and adjunct professor of public speaking at SMU Dallas, for a commentary advocating for business professionals to keep networking during the pandemic.  Published in the Dallas Morning News: https://bit.ly/3izNp3c

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Networking is one of the most powerful ways for us to connect to new opportunities in our careers. For those of us who have traditionally relied on networking to find mentors or clients, learn new skills, or engage with people from our industry, 2020 may have felt isolating, lonely, and lacking in ways to create real connections.

Luckily, there are still ways to create meaningful connections and grow relationships in our virtual world. Platforms like LinkedIn, conferences that have gone digital, and online networking groups offer opportunities to meet the people who may become our next hire, partner, collaborator or advocate.

A caveat: Digital networking isn’t about sending cold LinkedIn sales messages or increasing the number of followers on our profiles. It’s about building real relationships with people who find value in our work and starting conversations that lead to mutually beneficial collaborations. . .

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Pandemic Prompts Class on Digitally Mediated Ministry

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July 6, Marcell Silva Steuernagel and Robert Hunt, professors at SMU Dallas Perkins School of Theology, for a piece outlining the circumstances that led them to collaborate on a class to teach best practices for digitally mediated ministry. Published in Inside Sources: https://bit.ly/2Z4GZlP

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Over a period of five days in March, Dallas-area churches, temples, gurdwaras, synagogues and mosques had an epiphany during a crisis that threatened their fundamental function to assemble.

So, faith leaders pivoted and embraced a new dimension of digital ministry.

The epiphany came from a mix of orders and guidance from community authorities who warned that worshiping in person was too dangerous during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The pivot came as worship communities scrambled to design pandemic-proof services delivered through technology platforms — some with steep learning curves and devoid of the traditional approaches of in-person visit to sanctuaries and close-proximity gatherings of the faithful. . .

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Technology Can’t Replace In-Person Jury Trials, but It May Help During a Pandemic

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May 28, Anna Offit, associate professor at Dedman School of Law, SMU Dallas, for a piece acknowledging the necessity of videoconferencing technology during a pandemic for jury trials, but voicing concerns about the level of justice that might be lost in the process. Published in Inside Sources and affiliates: https://bit.ly/3cipBgF

It is essential that courts develop plans to adapt jury trials to our current public health crisis.

Thousands of defendants are currently in limbo around the country awaiting trial as COVID-19 has kept jurors out of court. The use of video technology to facilitate remote jury trials, however, must be implemented with caution.

At a time when virtual court proceedings are becoming the norm in North Texas, Collin County became the first in the United States to experiment with virtual jury trials last week. The judge who oversaw the county’s first non-binding summary jury trial commented in an interview that its success “showed us jurors can appear remotely.”

A move to virtual jury trials in the criminal context, however, carries risks that cannot be overlooked. . .

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