challenges of education in the new normal

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Back to School and Back to Normal. Or at Least Close Enough.

As school began this year, we sent reporters to find out how much — or how little — has changed since the pandemic changed everything.

First graders at Vare-Washington Elementary School in Philadelphia. Credit... Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

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By The New York Times

• Published Oct. 6, 2022 Updated Oct. 19, 2022

This article is part of our Learning special report about how the pandemic has continued to change how we approach education.

For the last few years, each “back to school” has been radically different.

September 2019 was the last return to school before Covid-19 arrived and sent students home, teachers scrambling and classes fully online. In September 2020, back to school meant logging into virtual class as the world awaited a return to normal. In September 2021, after months of political infighting, students nationwide returned to classrooms, many for the first time since March 2020.

And this fall? Students and teachers are again returning to campus, but this time in a new environment — in which Covid remains an ever-present threat, but no longer frames our everyday lives — as the country collectively adjusts to a new normal.

Last year, in the first days of school, we sent reporters across the country to see how students were feeling about returning. This year, as school began, we sent reporters into the field again, to see how much — or how little — has changed, and to answer a simple yet pivotal question: Where are we now? — Megan McCrea

Zak Jokela for The New York Times

In Billings, Mont., Friday night football games are again drawing excited crowds, and the spectators — and musical instruments — have shed their Covid masks.

In a Chicago elementary school, reminders about mask wearing are now woven into orientation.

And at a high school in suburban Missouri, officials are considering holding the first homecoming parade in 24 years.

In short, our reporters’ findings have been as varied as the schools themselves. Below are scenes from 13 schools, spanning pre-K to college, captured over two weeks in early September.

Liberty Bell Junior-Senior High School, Winthrop, Wash.

Billings west high school, billings, mont., mca academy, miami, patrick henry high school, minneapolis, ohio state university, columbus, ohio, northwest high school, cedar hill, mo., brooklyn science and engineering academy, brooklyn, n.y., vare-washington elementary school, philadelphia, downey high school, downey, calif., southern methodist university, dallas, james shields elementary school, chicago, edgewood city schools, trenton, ohio, los angeles county high school for the arts, los angeles.

Fifteen seniors saunter into Room 126, where hand-painted mountains on a wall evoke the North Cascades outside. The teens are dressed up (it’s picture day), and sipping iced drinks. The teacher, Elyse Darwood, chats with a student about ranching — she and her husband own 85 horses and mules here in the Methow (pronounced MET-how) Valley — then strolls to the light switches.

“How do we feel about the mood lighting in here? Is it kind of nice? A little too sleepy?” she asks. The consensus: dim.

The class is “Current World Problems.” But Mrs. Darwood tells them, “I see this as kind of Adulting 101.”

“This is the last stop of your public education experience,” she continues. She wants them “empowered to ask questions and be curious and challenge the things people tell you.”

It’s the third day of school, and there are nods to Covid. A few students wear masks. At jazz band practice, the teacher, Eva Aneshansley, mindful of spittle, slides a trash can beside a trumpeter.

But mostly, the fizzle and fun of school is back. Angel Arellano, 17, brings in a watermelon he carved into a kind of bob with bangs for others to try on.

At lunch, arts kids sprawl in the open area where the main hallways converge, a favored socializing spot. A year ago, it was vacant except for fans circulating air. Now, students eat nachos and puzzle over the new Wednesday schedule (classes are 29 minutes long).

In other words, school is “freakishly uneventful,” says Crosby Carpenter, the principal, a cool presence in white-soled Nikes. He no longer frets about physical contact as he fist-bumps students entering the building.

Back in Room 126, Mrs. Darwood gives a brainstorming prompt: “What could be possible in our community, our state, in our country, in our world, in our galaxy? What if. …?”

“What if climate change didn’t exist?” says one student. “What if there weren’t different parties, Republican and Democrat?” says another. What if cost weren’t an issue for college? If there were no school shootings? No racism? No genders?

Ideas fly. But Mrs. Darwood wants to hear from everyone. She gazes at a student with a mop of auburn hair and a Scooby-Doo sticker on his tablet and asks, “Isaiah?”

Isaiah Stoothoff, 17, suddenly looks up, then offers, “What if the world was flat?” — Laura Pappano

It’s a half-hour before kickoff between the hometown Billings, Mont., West High Golden Bears and the Gallatin High Raptors from Bozeman. Knots of teens are milling around the outskirts of the football field at Daylis Stadium , an aging metal-bleacher venue shared by the three public high schools in Montana’s largest city.

While the players run final practice plays on this cool, late-summer evening, the 100-plus members of the West High pep band blast a brassy rendition of the Green Day hit “Holiday.” Three drum majors — Carly Jensen, 18; Hanna Wildin, 17; and Emily Pfeffer, 17 — direct the band with exaggerated arm movements and high energy.

For the first time since the pandemic began, the band is playing for an actual crowd at a football game. Last season, the pep washed over rows of empty seats. Each player and band member could invite two parents, but there were no faithful fans or students wearing face paint. Without a student section to cheer, the team “had to learn to be more peppy,” Emily says.

And last season, the brass and woodwind instruments sported cloth masks, a somewhat futile safety measure. Ms. Jensen, who plays baritone sax, explains that, in a woodwind instrument like hers, most of the air comes out through the keys, not the bell. The band members also spread out in the bleachers. “The distancing was a good idea,” she adds. “Spit does travel.”

When the Billings school superintendent dropped the local mask mandate in early February 2022 — weeks before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed its own guidelines — the instruments shed their masks, too. Tonight, the entire stadium looks like a scene from prepandemic times, with few masks in sight and no social distancing beyond the usual high school stratifications. “It feels like a normal football game,” Ms. Jensen says.

The Golden Bears beat the Raptors 16-15 , and the band played on. — Chris Woolston

After lunch, the sixth grade gathers in Adrienne Curson’s classroom for social studies. Laptops covered with stickers flip open; screens light up. As the children settle in, Ms. Curson lays out the day’s lesson: “The First Amendment” “Why would the government want to stop you from reading whatever you want?”

MCA is a private school in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. Exceptionally small, the student body includes native French, Spanish and Portuguese speakers. Ms. Curson, who has taught here for 13 years, loves middle school because the children are in a moment of in-betweenness.

“Have you ever read a book you loved?” she asks the 11-year-olds.

“‘Raid of No Return,’” says Grégoire Lacheteau, who sits at the head of the table, “I’m a history buff.”

Daisy Benz, blonde and freckled, shoots up her hand. “My favorite is ‘Bridge to Terabithia.’ It was magical,” she says.

Sebastian Roelandse fidgets with headphones and bashfully whispers, “‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid.’” A murmur of agreement goes around the room.

“Some of the most important books when you are growing up allow you to express emotions and understand yourself,” explains Ms. Curson. They might be “something that catches your imagination and makes you feel empowered or gives you a sense of confidence.”

Sebastian shifts in his seat.

Ms. Curson continues, “In school, you are exposed to a lot of different kinds of books that open your mind to different things. So I am very worried — and a lot of other people are worried, too — that somebody may take away our right to decide what books are available to us.”

Grégoire raises his hand again and says that it reminds him of the book burnings in Nazi Germany. “That is a lot of history disappearing.”

Ms. Curson smiles, “You guys blow me away with how much you know.” — Patricia Alfonso Tortolani

On a warm Tuesday afternoon, in a North Minneapolis neighborhood, four friends sit around a classroom table, nodding in agreement: Their last year of high school better be fun.

For these seniors — Vernon Andrews, Khristian Davis, Joshua Murff and Damiana Sharp, all 17 — this is their last first day at Patrick Henry High School, capping an experience shaped by the pandemic, protests and a teachers’ strike. Inside the red brick building, over 800 students stroll past cherry-red lockers and a freshly painted mural, where the words “Empowered. Joyful. Strong” hover above the Minneapolis skyline.

The four friends, along with a handful of classmates, are waiting for the bell marking the end of an advisory hour for the internship and project-based Community Connected Academy.

Khristian has one goal: “Just to finish with great memories.” For Damiana: “I just want to finish real bad.”

High school has been rough, they say. Joshua feels like he missed out on his “whole high school experience.” Damiana likens it to “the Great Depression.”

Since the spring of their freshman year in 2020, when Covid hit, the students have spent long stretches out of school — remote learning or quarantining — and weathered the cancellation of prom, homecoming and football games. This spring was the three-week teachers strike, sparked by demands including smaller class sizes and higher wages, along with calls for increased work force diversity and better student mental health resources, to address issues that came to the forefront after the police killing of George Floyd. After the strike, the students say, some teachers never came back.

Now, the teenagers want to build back the “vibe” that they had felt before the pandemic. “Everything was good freshman year,” Vernon says. “It felt like a real high school freshman year,” Joshua adds.

But the friends say they are happy to be back at school, and they have a plan: join the senior committee to help organize dances, pep rallies, and generally galvanize the morale of the class of 2023.

“So we can plan fun activities,” Joshua says. “Bring some school spirit.”

“Some life!” Vernon chimes in. — Alex V. Cipolle

Afternoon sunlight pours through large windows, glinting off dozens of instruments as a semicircle of students rehearse for Symphonic Band.

Many reported that last year meant practicing alone, attracting the ire of neighbors who weren’t keen on hearing, say, a bass trombone over and over.

But now, in their new building, the rehearsal hall walls are filled with angles to amplify even the softest sound.

Soon, the air is alive with the deep thump of the tuba, the tiny tinkle of the triangle and everything in between, melting into a soothing melody.

After a while, the conductor, Scott Jones, stops them, the thin point of his baton dropping below his wire-frame glasses.

Did you hear that? He asks. He explains what was off, and the band tries again.

For Alessandro Nocera, 20, a trumpeter, the class mirrors his own struggle to create harmony with so many moving pieces.

After this class, he will head to marching band. It’s a discipline that requires precision: Recently, while practicing a formation that requires band members to cross paths, he tried to give another player a fist bump. Instead, he got a face bump, and his trumpet chipped his tooth.

After practice, he will spend another hour memorizing new marching band music. Then he might have some time to do homework for his four other classes. On weekends, if kickoff is at noon, band members have to show up at 5:30 a.m.

“So far, this semester has been pretty ruthless. Everything is hitting me like a truck. It feels like I’m drowning a lot of the time,” he says. But he finds comfort in his strong friend group. “Even though marching band is so much, you build this community. It’s like a brotherhood.” — Lucia Walinchus

With homecoming in mid-October, planning is in high gear at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill, Mo., a St. Louis suburb where the Lions’ 0-3 record early in the school year doesn’t seem to have dampened enthusiasm in a recent student council session. The divider splitting a large classroom is pushed back, but dozens of students squeeze onto one side, abuzz with excitement.

“The question of the day is, give us a song for the court to dance to,” the student council adviser, Lana Romaine, calls over the crowd.

The council needs to choose music to play as candidates for homecoming king and queen walk down the red carpet, and a slower song for the king and queen’s first dance.

The theme is “Red Carpet Romance” (Hollywood, for short). Suggestions flood in fast. Soon, Ms. Romaine hands off D.J. duty to the student council vice president, Evelyn Bueter, who cycles rapid-fire through a varied discography including “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce, and “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper.

“It takes a whole class period just to get a song because they all have their own ideas,” Ms. Romaine says.

The energy is palpable as several students pair off to test the dance songs, while the rest debate their merits. Things largely seem back to prepandemic times here, though there are some residual effects, including an amplified sense of school spirit. Northwest High is considering holding its first homecoming parade in 24 years and will, like last year, host the dance outdoors.

“I think it was just a good experience for students,” says Evelyn, 17, a senior. “It was something new for them to try.”

And, thanks to a chaotic consensus near the end of class, they will have two songs cued up, “This Town” by Niall Horan for the red-carpet walk and, for the all-important first dance — Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” — Charlene Oldham

It’s Wednesday morning, and inside the science teacher Michelle Jennings’s classroom at Brooklyn Science and Engineering Academy in East Flatbush, 27 sixth graders are deep into ‘Circle’ class. They’re throwing a ball to one another, and thinking hard about the questions written on it.

One student catches the ball and reads the prompt: “What’s the nicest thing someone’s ever done for you?” He shares a story, remembering when his mother’s work hours were cut and money was “tight.” But when his birthday arrived, she bought him a game he had really wanted and he knew, he says, that it had been hard for her.

On the blackboard is a list of colors: red, yellow, purple, orange, pink, blue, black and green. Ms. Jennings asks the students to choose a color representing their current feeling, or a significant memory.

Tristan Cole, 11, pipes up, “I feel yellow because I am so happy to be back at school.” Many of the children smile and nod in agreement.

Later, Ms. Jennings asks everyone to write down five songs that have meaning to them. Thiandra Fordyce, 11, chooses “Happy Place” by Lyrikal, while a classmate picks a duet by Brandy Norwood and Monica Denise Arnold, “The Boy Is Mine,” because her mother plays it often. When she plays the song on Ms. Jennings’ computer, her classmates excitedly start singing in unison.

The Brooklyn Science principal Angela DeFilippis, explains that she and her staff work hard to make the school feel like a student’s second home . “We have built ‘Circles’ classes into the program so that students can make connections with one another,” she says.

The school has also set up programs, trips and activities to help the students make up for the experiences they had missed. For their part, the students are adjusting better than expected, showing up with an earnest desire to be present and learn.

As the guidance counselor Raina Mapp says, “they know how to school again.” — Pierre-Antoine Louis

In Jacqueline Bradshaw-Turner’s first-grade class, there’s a high priority placed on listening.

“You can be the brightest person in the world, but if you don’t listen, you won’t do well,” Ms. Bradshaw-Turner told 20 students sitting cross-legged on a colored mat in their first-floor classroom at Vare-Washington Elementary School in South Philadelphia.

But as they started the third week of their new school year, the 6- and 7-year-olds, all masked, were showing every sign of heeding their teacher’s insistence on paying attention. That morning, they had lined up neatly in the playground before the bell rang. Now, they listened attentively to a lesson on rhyming words, unconcerned by their now-familiar masks, which are no longer required by the Philadelphia school district, but encouraged here.

Ms. Bradshaw-Turner and her two assistants said this school year has started more positively than the last, when some students struggled to shift from all-online learning to in-person classes.

“When we were online, we had to depend on the parents a lot to make sure the kids were sitting down and paying attention,” she said. “When you’re online, it’s hard to focus on the computer all day. In person, you get a lot more from children, and you can help their needs more.”

Here in Room 101, the children seem as cheerful as their bright-colored surrounds, practicing addition at small clusters of desks. A sign reminds students to “always be nice and kind to each other.”

Jacob O’Brien, 6, said school was “awesome,” especially because of reading. His favorite book was “E.T.” which he said was about an alien whose spaceship left him on earth. Jacob said he didn’t mind wearing a mask in school even though it’s “the only place” where he wears one. — Jon Hurdle

More than a hundred kids are clustered around a boy standing on a table in the sunny quad during “nutrition,” the daily midmorning snack break. He’s playing hip-hop from a portable speaker, bouncing to the beat and holding a sign with glittery gold letters, asking a girl to be his date to the homecoming dance.

Looking on, Principal Tom Houts smiles. “This wouldn’t have happened last year,” he says.

In August 2021, the 4,000-plus students at this public high school 14 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles returned to school under a strict mask mandate. Hundreds of students were sent home for being exposed to Covid-19, and as a result, Mr. Houts says, kids kept a healthy distance from each other.

This year, he says, Covid’s grip has loosened, and everything is different. Sports teams and music programs are quickly rebuilding; clubs are recruiting.

“It’s like a breath of fresh air,” he says. “There’s a 180-degree difference in the kids’ attitudes.”

The renewed energy extends to the classrooms. Walking through the halls, Mr. Houts drops in on a math class where ninth graders are working together to graph survey results on construction paper, and on an English class where 11th graders in five-person pods are enthusiastically discussing the day’s prompt.

As he heads into the social sciences building, Mr. Houts is pulled aside by an administrator, who informs him that three kids have gone to the nurse that morning for a decidedly prepandemic reason: participating in the social media-famous hot chip challenge.

Mr. Houts waits for the bell to ring, then commandeers the intercom to discourage students from joining the TikTok trend. “You might throw up,” he says. “And if you think it feels bad going down, I promise you it feels worse coming up.” — Robin Jones

During lunch on the bustling campus, a seat in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center is a challenge to find, but a chair outside, beneath a sunny, cloudless sky? That’s a unicorn.

After months of indoor isolation Aidan Foley, now a senior at 21, appreciates being outside in any weather.

Even the 2021 snow-and-ice storm that took Texas’s power, water, warmth and food had its bright spots for Ms. Foley, who was grateful for snowball fights and laughter, cracked rib and all. (She injured herself after she tied a 9-foot unicorn floatie to a friend’s Jeep and went sledding in campus parking garages.)

Today, she soaks up every ray of sunshine.

“Feeling S.M.U. again, like a sense of community, was very foreign. I was 18 when I first came to S.M.U., I was 18 when I got sent home,” she says, referring to the period during which the school sent students home because of Covid. “I came back 21 years old. I’m a fully grown adult now at a campus that I haven’t really experienced like this since I was a child fresh out of high school.”

In a nearby studio, Michelle “Mz. G” Gibson, a visiting dance professor, urges students to “walk like you got a purpose.”

M’Shiari Gonzales, 20, wears relaxed red pants that swoosh as she power walks across the darkened studio.

Later, Ms. Gonzales and her classmates reunite in a semicircle, no longer breathing hard under protective masks like they did last fall, though still huffing.

It’s time for a legendary “Mz. G” talk. She explains that a boiled egg consists of three layers: yolk, white, shell.

Ms. Gonzales protests that a thin, filmy lining separates the white and the shell.

Ms. Gibson’s arms shoot up into the air with delight and she works the argument into her talk: the yolk is the narrative, the white is composition and Ms. Gonzales’s insistent lining is choreography.

And the shell?

“Crack it!” Ms. Gibson shouts. — Marina Trahan Martinez

Masks are optional at Chicago’s James Shields Elementary now, but reminders of the pandemic still hang in the hallways. “Please keep your distance,” reads one sign. “It’s always a good day to wear a mask,” reads another.

A class of second graders enter the cafeteria, where banana muffins scent the air.

The students fill two tables, ready for a refresher on lunchroom protocols as they start their second year of in-person learning since Covid upended their lives.

“I’m going to give you guys the lunchroom expectations,” said Jazmin Ortega, a cafeteria and recess supervisor, as some students swing their legs, the brush of their sneakers on the floor accompanying her voice. Most rules are familiar — don’t play with your food, use your utensils and clean up after yourself. The mask guidance is new, however.

Some students wear them, some don’t, and that’s fine, Mrs. Ortega says. If they lose their mask, they can get another from the school, she explains.

“I have multiple masks, just in case,” 8-year-old Leon Kiczula pipes up. Although he’s maskless now, he wants to be prepared, because he sometimes loses them.

This week, students are being reminded of proper school behavior — whether it’s walking in an orderly line to class or waiting for the bathroom.

Some students, like 4-year-old Renata Santizo, are learning these lessons for the first time. It’s her second year at Shields, a public school that runs from pre-K through 4th grade in Brighton Park, a majority Latino neighborhood on Chicago’s southwest side.

Walking from room to room in a line with her classmates, she says she’s excited to see her friends again. That’s why masking doesn’t bother her, she says in Spanish.

“I like masks. I don’t want my friends to get sick.” — Ivan Moreno

Head-high stalks of late-summer corn frame the Edgewood City Schools campus on a breezy, sun-splashed day.

Things feel strikingly prepandemic normal in this rural outpost north of Cincinnati, as if the coronavirus had never happened. But at the high school entrance there is a jarring reminder. A bench inscribed:

In Memory of Peg Smith.

Charles Richter, inventor of the seismic scale that bears his name, was born on a farm nearby, a local point of pride. And Covid was, in many ways, like an earthquake in this district of 3,707 students.

For three school years, the pandemic brought masks, remote learning, canceled homecomings, sky-high absences, and, finally, death, when Ms. Smith, a beloved school secretary, succumbed to the disease.

A year later, however, masks are rare, hallways are full of exuberant students and the Edgewood Cougars are packing the stands on Friday nights.

Perhaps no one’s job was transformed more by the pandemic than Pamela Theurer’s.

In 2020, Ms. Theurer, Edgewood’s director of communication and federal programs, became de facto Covid czar as waves of the virus surged through the school.

“Ninety-five percent of my job was Covid,” she remembers.

Ms. Theurer, a deeply religious wife and grandmother with schoolmarm charm, was an unlikely pandemic czar, but she leaped into the role head-on. Her usually-tidy office became a cyclone of clutter, as she spent 12-hour days contact tracing, coordinating quarantines, parsing data and keeping the entire district from buckling under the weight of the pandemic.

“There were some evenings when I’d get home exhausted,” Ms. Theurer says.

But in hindsight, she says Covid forced her, the teachers and the students to be more flexible and, perhaps, to connect with one another better.

“Covid made me, as a leader, feel like I need to dig deeper to understand and try to support people,” Ms. Theurer says.

So if Covid was Edgewood’s metaphorical earthquake, today, only the smallest aftershocks are felt. — Kevin Williams

In a dark rehearsal space at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts , or LACHSA, a cast of students belts out “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” a Stephen Sondheim number about grooming and gratuitous bloodshed.

The music stops abruptly as Allison Andreas, the co-director of the school’s musical theater department, praises one student for being “so present in his scariness,” relative to his size. They are rehearsing “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” after all.

“Hudson is the scariest and also the smallest little nugget,” she says. “We all need to be as scary as Hudson, OK?”

Over the last three school years, coronavirus-related disruptions have meant getting creative: Teachers coached acting over Zoom and provided students with costumes and green screens to film individual performances. This year, without the same requirements as years prior, most are grateful to return to in-person rehearsals, like this one.

“I just feel like I appreciate this year even more just because I knew what could be lost,” said Ava Broneer, 17, a senior who has gotten to perform only a handful of times during her four years at the school.

“Usually when you’re a freshman here, you don’t perform that much,” she says. “And then Covid happened. So my freshman and sophomore year, you know, I didn’t do that much.”

As the music swells in the rehearsal room, Ava reviews lines for her role as Johanna, Sweeney Todd’s daughter. It’s a speaking part and a step up from her role as a fork in last year’s production of “Beauty and the Beast.”

“I just think last year was so rewarding to get to perform,” she says, “and I didn’t realize how much I needed it, and how much happier it made me.”

“I think if anything,” she adds, “Covid kind of made me realize this is what I need to do.” — Lauren Messman

An earlier version of this article misstated the year in which many students across the country were last in classrooms before returning in September 2021. It was 2020, not 2021.

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Back to School amidst the New Normal: Ongoing Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Children’s Health and Well-Being

Elizabeth Williams Published: Aug 13, 2021

• Issue Brief

As millions of children across the nation prepare to go back to school this fall, many will face challenges due to ongoing health, economic, and social consequences of the pandemic. Children may be uniquely impacted by the pandemic, having experienced this crisis during important periods of physical, social, and emotional development, and some have experienced the loss of loved ones. Further, households with children have been particularly hard hit by loss of income, food and housing insecurity, and disruptions in health care coverage, which all affect health and well-being . Public health measures to reduce the spread of the disease also led to disruptions or changes in service utilization, difficulty accessing care, and increased mental health challenges for children. Young children are still not eligible for vaccination, and though children are likely to be asymptomatic or experience only mild symptoms, they can contract COVID-19. Children may face new risks due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant, and some children who contract COVID-19 experience long-term effects from the disease.  Many of these effects have disproportionately affected low-income children and children of color, who faced increased health and economic challenges even prior to the pandemic. This brief examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the health and well-being of children, explores recent policy responses, and considers what the findings means for the back-to-school season amidst new challenges due to the recent increase in cases and deaths. Key findings include:

• During the pandemic, some children experienced disruptions in routine vaccinations or preventive care appointments and difficultly accessing care, particularly dental and specialized care. Use of telemedicine has increased but not enough to offset declines in service utilization overall.
• Children’s mental health service utilization declined amid elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological stress for children and parents.
• Households with children have experienced significantly higher rates of economic hardships throughout the pandemic compared to households without children, leading to increased barriers to adequately addressing social determinants of health. Black, Hispanic, and other people of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic’s economic effects.
• Though the risk of severe illness from COVID-19 is lower for children than adults, over 43,000 children are estimated to have lost a parent due to COVID-19, with Black children being disproportionately impacted by parent death.
• Most children are likely to be back in the classroom this fall, but many still face health risks due to their or their teachers’ vaccination status. Some states and school districts are beginning to announce mask or vaccine requirements while others are banning vaccine or mask mandates for schools.

Recent policy developments, most notably the American Rescue Plan Act and the American Families Plan, attempt to alleviate some of the existing and pandemic-induced issues impacting children’s health and well-being. However, there is still uncertainty around what back to school will look like this fall, and the transition to “the new normal” may be more difficult for some. Schools, parents, and policymakers may face additional pressure to address the ongoing effects of the pandemic on children.

Children’s Health Care Disruptions and Mental Health Challenges

The pandemic has led to delays in child vaccinations and preventive care. KFF analysis of the Household Pulse Survey from June 23 – July 5, 2021 estimates 25% of households with children have a child who has missed, delayed, or skipped a preventive appointment in the past 12 months due to the pandemic (Figure 1). Preliminary Medicaid administrative data confirms this pattern, showing that when comparing March 2020 – October 2020 to the same months before the pandemic in 2019, there were approximately 9% fewer vaccinations for children under 2 and 21% fewer child screening services. Rates for primary and preventative care among Medicaid beneficiaries show signs of rebounding in more recent months with service use reflecting pent-up demand, but it is unclear whether this trend will continue and make up for the millions of services missed early in the pandemic. Another recent study similarly reports vaccinations for all children declined sharply after March 2020. The study also finds vaccinations have completely recovered for children under 2 but have only partially recovered for older children.

Figure 1: Children have missed or delayed preventive appointments and utilized telehealth during the pandemic

Children also experienced difficulty accessing and disruptions in specialty and dental care. Parents have reported delaying dental care or difficulty accessing dental care for their child, and there were 39% fewer dental services for Medicaid/CHIP beneficiaries under 19 when comparing the pandemic months March 2020 – October 2020 to the same months in 2019. Children with special health care needs experienced difficulties accessing specialized services , especially services that could not be conducted via telehealth.

Children’s utilization of telemedicine services has increased since the pandemic, but the increase has not offset the decreases in service utilization overall. Preliminary data suggest that telehealth utilization for Medicaid/CHIP beneficiaries under 19 increased rapidly in April 2020 and remains higher than before the pandemic. 23% of households with children surveyed by the Household Pulse Survey from June 23 – July 5, 2021 reported a child having a telehealth appointment in the past 4 weeks (Figure 1). Throughout the pandemic, the federal government and states have taken action to expand access to telehealth services. While telehealth utilization has increased, the increase has not offset the decreases in service utilization overall, and barriers to accessing health care via telehealth may remain, especially for low-income patients or patients in rural areas.

Children’s mental health and mental health service utilization has worsened since the start of the pandemic. The pandemic caused disruptions in routines and social isolation for children, which can be associated with anxiety and depression and can have implications for mental health later in life. Also, research has shown that as economic conditions worsen, children’s mental health is negatively impacted. Parents with young children reported in October and November of 2020 that their children showed elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological stress and 22% experienced overall worsened mental or emotional health. Recent studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) find children’s emergency department visits increased during the pandemic for mental health-related emergencies and suspected suicide attempts by children ages 12 to 17. At the same time, mental health service utilization has declined, with preliminary data for Medicaid/CHIP beneficiaries suggesting there have been approximately 34% fewer mental health services when comparing the pandemic months March 2020 – October 2020 to the same months in 2019. Private mental health care claims also decreased  from 2019 to 2020. There has been an increase in access to mental health care through telehealth, but there remain technological and privacy barriers to accessing mental health services via telehealth for some children.

Parental stress and poor mental health due to the pandemic can negatively affect children’s health. A previous KFF analysis finds economic uncertainty has led to increased mental health challenges, especially for adults in households with children and specifically mothers in those households. Further, 46% of mothers who reported a negative mental health impact due to the pandemic were not able to access needed mental health. Parental stress  can negatively affect  children’s emotional and mental health,  harm the parent-child bond , and have  long-term behavioral implications . Maternal depression can worsen child health status and lead to less preventative care. Additionally, parental stress and financial hardship can lead to an increased risk of child abuse and neglect. Early evidence shows declines in child abuse during the pandemic, though it is unclear if that is due to decreased reporting or due to social policy interventions during the pandemic. Children’s existing and pandemic-induced mental health challenges may have implications for the transition back to school and indicate children may need additional mental health support when they return to school.

Pandemic-related challenges in children’s access to health care built on a system that was sometimes not meeting needs even before the pandemic, especially for low-income children . In 2019, 23% of children living in households with incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL) were estimated to have not received a preventative check-up in the past 12 months and 26% did not see a dentist for a preventive visit during the past 12 months (Figure 2). Some children with mental health needs were not receiving care, with an estimated 29% of the lowest income children who needed mental health services not able to access care (Figure 2). The pandemic may have made it even more challenging for children already experiencing difficulties accessing care and likely worsened existing disparities in access to needed care for children of color, children with special health care needs, children in low-income households, and children living in rural areas.

Figure 2: Even before the pandemic, some children were not receiving preventive care or mental health care

The Economic Downturn and Children’s Well Being

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many families with children were faced with unemployment and income loss and continue to face economic hardship. Throughout the pandemic, households with children were consistently more likely to report job or income loss, with more than half of households with children reporting losing income between March 2020 and March 2021. 1 While national indicators signaling job and income loss have moderated in recent months, they are still not at pre-pandemic levels. KFF analysis of the Census Bureau’s  Household Pulse Survey from June 23 – July 5, 2021 found 12% of adults with children in the household applied for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and 23% experienced loss of income in the past 4 weeks (Figure 3). These rates were significantly higher compared to adults without children in the household.

Figure 3: Households with children are experiencing higher rates of job or income loss compared households without children

Loss of family income affects parents’ ability to provide for children’s basic needs.  KFF analysis of the Census Bureau’s  Household Pulse Survey also found that among adults reporting income loss in the past 4 weeks, 91% of adults with children in the household reported difficultly paying for expenses in the past week, 20% reported not having confidence in their ability to make their next month’s housing payment, and 32% reported food insufficiency (Figure 4). All of these rates are significantly higher for adults living in households with children than adults living in households without children. A large body of research shows that economic instability is a social determinant of health outcomes for children.

Figure 4: Among households experiencing income loss, households with children are experiencing higher rates of hardship

Further, Black, Hispanic , 2 and other households of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and its economic effects. In 2019, Black and Hispanic children were nearly three times more likely to be living in poverty than Asian and White children, and food insufficiency rates before the pandemic were three times higher for Black households and two time higher for Hispanic households when compared to White households. A recent report found Hispanic and Black households with children have experienced almost double the rate of economic or health-related hardships during the pandemic compared to White and Asian households with children. Overall, child poverty rates children have increased during the pandemic, especially among Hispanic and Black children.

Job and income loss may lead to disruptions in children’s health coverage, though increased coverage through Medicaid and CHIP is likely offsetting much of that decline. Roughly 2 to 3 million people between March and September 2020 have lost employer health benefits, a trend that built on years of coverage losses among children. From 2016 and 2019, the rate of uninsured children in the US started to increase despite reaching the lowest rate in history (4.7%) in 2016, with the rate of uninsured Hispanic children increasing more than twice as fast as the rate for non-Hispanic youth. Loss of coverage or coverage interruptions can negatively impact children’s ability to access needed care. 3 , 4 , 5 During the pandemic, Medicaid and CHIP provided a safety net for many children. Administrative data for Medicaid show that children’s enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP has increased between February 2020 and February 2021, a total increase of 3.2 million enrollees, or 9.1%, from child enrollment in February 2020 (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Child Medicaid/CHIP enrollment has increased since the pandemic

Children’s Health and COVID-19

While likely to be asymptomatic or experience only mild symptoms, children can contract COVID-19. Preliminary data through July 29, 2021 show there have been over 4 million child COVID-19 cases, and children with underlying health conditions may be at an increased risk of developing severe illness. Though a small percentage, some children who tested positive for the virus are now facing long haul symptoms , with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) the most-common complication that has impacted 4,000 children as of June 2, 2021 . It is unclear how long symptoms will last and what impact they will have on children’s long-term health. Cases have risen in recent weeks due to the Delta variant, and children are making up an increasing share of new cases, with children making up 19.0% of cases for the week ending in July 29 compared to 14.3% since the pandemic began. Hospitalizations of children with COVID-19 have also been rising since early July, reaching 216 children, on average, being admitted to the hospital every day for the week of July 31 – August 6, 2021.

Eligible children have lower vaccination rates than the adult population, and some children remain ineligible for a vaccine. Children 12 and up are now able to be vaccinated against COVID-19, which reduces the risk of adolescents contracting, spreading, or experiencing severe symptoms from COVID-19. Approximately 37% of children ages 12-15 and 48% of children ages 16-17 have received at least one vaccine dose as of July 26, 2021. These rates are lower than the adult population, which reached 70% as of August 2, 2021. There is currently no COVID vaccine for children under the age of 12, so  some risk remains for that population to contract and spread the virus. Vaccine clinical trials are currently underway for children under 12, with authorization expected by the end of 2021. The KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor recently reported that almost half of parents of children ages 12-17 say their child has received a COVID-19 vaccine or they intend to get them vaccinated right away. The report also found that parents’ vaccination intentions for their children are largely correlated with their own vaccination status and those who say their child’s school provided information on or encouraged COVID-19 vaccines are more likely to report their child has received a vaccine. The KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor also found that parents are more cautious when it comes to vaccinating their child under 12, with about a quarter saying they would get their child between the ages of 5 and 11 vaccinated right away once the vaccine is authorized and four in ten saying they would wait and see.

Some children have experienced COVID-19 through the loss of one or more family members due to the virus. A study estimates that, as of Feb. 2021, 43,000 children in US have lost at least one parent to COVID-19. The study also finds Black children represent only 14% of children in the US but 20% of children who have lost a parent, and low-income communities and communities of color overall experienced higher COVID-19 case rates and deaths . Losing a parent can have long term impacts on a child’s health, increasing their risk of substance abuse, mental health challenges, poor educational outcomes , and early death . Further, the death of a loved one from COVID-19 may have occurred amid increased social isolation and economic hardship due to the pandemic. Estimates indicate a 17.5% to 20% increase in bereaved children due to COVID-19, indicating an increased number of grieving children who may need additional supports as they head back to school in the fall.

Policy Responses

Several policies passed during the pandemic provided financial relief for families with children. To address the economic fallout of the pandemic, the federal government passed relief bills that included direct financial relief for families, and evidence suggests material hardships that affect health, such as food insufficiency and financial instability, declined following stimulus payments. In addition, the March 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) included targeted aid to families with children through the Child Tax Credit (CTC). The ARPA is projected to decrease the number of children living in poverty by over 40%, with the expanded CTC now reaching children previously too poor to qualify and giving families in the lowest quintile an average income boost of $4,470. Alleviating child poverty is associated with improved child health outcomes such as healthier birthweights, lower maternal stress, better nutrition, and lower use of drugs and alcohol.

Other recent policies directly target children’s health coverage or access to health care. To address health care coverage, the ARPA extended eligibility to ACA health insurance subsides for people with incomes over 400% of poverty and increased the amount of assistance for people with lower incomes. The ARPA also included incentives for states to expand Medicaid for low-income adults under the ACA and extend Medicaid postpartum coverage for up to 12 months, both of which could benefit the health and well-being of families. 6 , 7 The Child Tax Credit, expanded by the ARPA, is not taxable income, so expanding the tax credit will not count toward Medicaid eligibility . To address access to health care challenges, the federal government and many states are making policy changes to permanently expand access to telehealth services. In their most recent report to congress , the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) recommended more coordinated efforts by agencies to address the design and implementation of benefits and improve access to home and community-based behavioral health services for Medicaid/CHIP children with significant mental health needs. In addition, the Biden Administration created a program to provide relief for COVID-19 related funeral costs, but targeted services for bereaved children were not included.

Back to School

Most children are likely to be back in the classroom this fall, but many still face health risks due to their or their teachers’ vaccination status and increasing transmission due to the Delta variant. The vast majority of schools, 88% of schools with 4 th grade and 89% of schools with 8 th grade, in the U.S. offered hybrid or full-time, in-person learning in Spring 2021, according to a federal survey . Most of these schools, as well as others, are likely to be in-person in fall 2021. While many states allow for in-person learning decision to be made at the local level, nine states have mandated schools return to in-person learning for the 2021-22 school year as of June 2021. No states are requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for school attendance at this time, and some states have enacted legislation to ban vaccine mandates for school attendance. However, due to concerns over the Delta variant and rising cases, some local districts are beginning to require the COVID-19 vaccine for teachers and staff. There have been legal challenges to vaccine mandates, with a federal District Court in Texas recently upholding a Hospital’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for employees. The CDC recently updated their guidance for COVID-19 in schools, recommending masks for all staff and students regardless of vaccination status for in-person learning in the fall. While some states and school districts will require students and staff to wear masks at school, at least nine states have passed legislation to ban mask mandates for schools as of late July 2021. Recent KFF polling shows that about half the public overall supports K-12 schools requiring COVID-19 vaccination, but most parents are opposed, with divisions along partisan lines.

While returning to in-person learning can support children’s development and well-being, the transition back to school in the fall may be challenging for some children. Experts notes that in-person learning is beneficial for children’s social, emotional, and physical health and can provide access to important health services and address racial and social inequities. However, this school year will look different for many children due to COVID-19 prevention strategies and transitioning back to “the new normal” may be difficult for some, especially those who have adapted to new routines and virtual learning in the past year . Children’s mental health has worsened during the pandemic , which could make the transition back to school more challenging. Additionally, young children who have been home with parents during the pandemic may experience separation anxiety as they transition back to school or day care.

Schools and proposed policies may provide additional supports for children and families as they transition back to school. The increased Child Tax Credits began July 15 th and will continue monthly, but the enhanced CTC was only adopted for 2021. The American Families Plan put forth by the White House proposes to extend the CTC expansion through 2025 and make the credit permanently available to families with no earnings. The American Families Plan also proposes expanding school meals and access to healthy foods, making the summer EBT program permanent, and expanding SNAP eligibility for formerly incarcerated individuals. The American Families Plan also proposes a national paid family and medical leave program and universal pre-kindergarten, both of which research has shown have benefits for children’s health outcomes. 8 , 9  President Biden and congressional Democrats also recently released a reconciliation budget resolution that includes expanded child tax credits and investments in universal pre-k, child care, paid leave, and education. Other policy actions at the local level can also address children’s well-being. For example, schools and school districts can support students as they transition back to school by creating a safe in-person learning environment , providing staff and resources to support students having difficulty transitioning, ensuring staff and teachers have access to mental health resources, and developing a trauma-informed plan to respond to COVID-19 related trauma.

COVID-19 and the health care disruptions, mental health challenges, and economic hardships stemming from COVID-19 all have implications for children’s health and their transition back to school in the fall. While returning to in-person learning can support children’s development and well-being, uncertainty remains around what in-person learning will look like as cases rise due to the Delta variant and the transition to “the new normal” may be difficult for some children and their families. Recent policy developments attempt to address the ongoing effects of the pandemic on children, and schools, parents, and policymakers may face additional pressure to support children during this time.

• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Coronavirus

news release

• Children Head Back to School Amid an Ongoing Pandemic That Has Had Significant Effects on Their Health and Well-Being

Also of Interest

• Mental Health and Substance Use Considerations Among Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• The Next Stage of COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-Out in United States: Children Under 12
• KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor: Parents and the Pandemic

Teaching and Learning in the New Normal: Responding to Students’ and Academics’ Multifaceted Needs

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• First Online: 09 July 2023
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• Andriani Piki   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0376-1713 9 &
• Magdalena Brzezinska   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4213-8636 10  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14026))

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• International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

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Alongside the prolonged social and economic instability and the escalating demands for upskilling, Covid-19 pandemic had a detrimental impact on students’ and academics’ mental health and wellbeing. Social isolation and the emergency transition to remote education caused high levels of psychological distress, hindering students’ self-efficacy and academic performance. The pandemic also induced sudden changes affecting academics’ personal and professional lives, leading to mental disorders and risk of burnout. While recent research focuses on addressing the effects of the pandemic on either students or academics, this paper presents a collective analysis. The key themes that emerged by examining the experiences of both students and academics in higher education are framed in a multi-layered support system embracing qualities such as: self-efficacy, wellbeing, equality, diversity, and inclusion, social interactions, human-centred technologies, and authentic pedagogical methods. The findings are discussed with the aim to extract informed recommendations for enhancing teaching and learning experiences in the post-pandemic era.

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Piki, A., Brzezinska, M. (2023). Teaching and Learning in the New Normal: Responding to Students’ and Academics’ Multifaceted Needs. In: Coman, A., Vasilache, S. (eds) Social Computing and Social Media. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14026. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35927-9_9

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Adapting to the culture of ‘new normal’: an emerging response to COVID-19

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Jeff Clyde G Corpuz, Adapting to the culture of ‘new normal’: an emerging response to COVID-19, Journal of Public Health , Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2021, Pages e344–e345, https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab057

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A year after COVID-19 pandemic has emerged, we have suddenly been forced to adapt to the ‘new normal’: work-from-home setting, parents home-schooling their children in a new blended learning setting, lockdown and quarantine, and the mandatory wearing of face mask and face shields in public. For many, 2020 has already been earmarked as ‘the worst’ year in the 21st century. Ripples from the current situation have spread into the personal, social, economic and spiritual spheres. Is this new normal really new or is it a reiteration of the old? A recent correspondence published in this journal rightly pointed out the involvement of a ‘supportive’ government, ‘creative’ church and an ‘adaptive’ public in the so-called culture. However, I argue that adapting to the ‘new normal’ can greatly affect the future. I would carefully suggest that we examine the context and the location of culture in which adaptations are needed.

To live in the world is to adapt constantly. A year after COVID-19 pandemic has emerged, we have suddenly been forced to adapt to the ‘new normal’: work-from-home setting, parents home-schooling their children in a new blended learning setting, lockdown and quarantine, and the mandatory wearing of face mask and face shields in public. For many, 2020 has already been earmarked as ‘the worst’ year in the 21st century. 1 Ripples from the current situation have spread into the personal, social, economic and spiritual spheres. Is this new normal really new or is it a reiteration of the old? A recent correspondence published in this journal rightly pointed out the involvement of a ‘supportive’ government, ‘creative’ church and an ‘adaptive’ public in the so-called culture. 2 However, I argue that adapting to the ‘new normal’ can greatly affect the future. I would carefully suggest that we examine the context and the location of culture in which adaptations are needed.

The term ‘new normal’ first appeared during the 2008 financial crisis to refer to the dramatic economic, cultural and social transformations that caused precariousness and social unrest, impacting collective perceptions and individual lifestyles. 3 This term has been used again during the COVID-19 pandemic to point out how it has transformed essential aspects of human life. Cultural theorists argue that there is an interplay between culture and both personal feelings (powerlessness) and information consumption (conspiracy theories) during times of crisis. 4 Nonetheless, it is up to us to adapt to the challenges of current pandemic and similar crises, and whether we respond positively or negatively can greatly affect our personal and social lives. Indeed, there are many lessons we can learn from this crisis that can be used in building a better society. How we open to change will depend our capacity to adapt, to manage resilience in the face of adversity, flexibility and creativity without forcing us to make changes. As long as the world has not found a safe and effective vaccine, we may have to adjust to a new normal as people get back to work, school and a more normal life. As such, ‘we have reached the end of the beginning. New conventions, rituals, images and narratives will no doubt emerge, so there will be more work for cultural sociology before we get to the beginning of the end’. 5

Now, a year after COVID-19, we are starting to see a way to restore health, economies and societies together despite the new coronavirus strain. In the face of global crisis, we need to improvise, adapt and overcome. The new normal is still emerging, so I think that our immediate focus should be to tackle the complex problems that have emerged from the pandemic by highlighting resilience, recovery and restructuring (the new three Rs). The World Health Organization states that ‘recognizing that the virus will be with us for a long time, governments should also use this opportunity to invest in health systems, which can benefit all populations beyond COVID-19, as well as prepare for future public health emergencies’. 6 There may be little to gain from the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is important that the public should keep in mind that no one is being left behind. When the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the best of our new normal will survive to enrich our lives and our work in the future.

No funding was received for this paper.

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Biddlestone M , Green R , Douglas KM . Cultural orientation, power, belief in conspiracy theories, and intentions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 . Br J Soc Psychol 2020 ; 59 ( 3 ): 663 – 73 .

World Health Organization . From the “new normal” to a “new future”: A sustainable response to COVID-19. 13 October 2020 . https: // www.who.int/westernpacific/news/commentaries/detail-hq/from-the-new-normal-to-a-new-future-a-sustainable-response-to-covid-19 . (12 February 2021, date last accessed) .

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Glimpses of Teaching in the New Normal: Changes, Challenges, and Chances

The current context on virtual education has provided a plethora of studies investigating educational institutions’ response strategies to remote and online learning formats. However, to provide a much-grounded description of the realities in the field, this study explored the role of teachers in the virtual learning environment through their narratives reflective of their experiences. Furthermore, it employed a qualitative narrative and descriptive research method anchored on the tenets of Husserlian descriptive phenomenology. Six higher education professors from different colleges and universities in Central Visayas, Philippines served as the participants of the study. Data were collected from in-depth interviews done virtually via Zoom. Based on participant narratives, the following emerged as themes: changes, challenges, and chances, respectively, in all the teaching-learning phases, from preparation and implementation to assessment. These changes , challenges , and chances shared by the participants have shed light on teaching being a multifaceted profession, putting emphasis on teachers as innovators of change. Thus, it is recommended that colleges and universities should establish an institutional based framework for emergency remote teaching. The framework should highlight policies on virtual education, upscale and upskill teachers, address learning losses, and promote strategies to build resilience in students and teachers.  

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.21.4.16

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Griffin, J. (2020). Teacher observation, feedback, and support in the time of COVID-19: Guidance for virtual learning. Center on Great Teachers and Leaders at the American Institutes for Research. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED610628.pdf

Guangul, F. M., Suhail, A. H., Khalit, M. I., & Khidhir, B. (2020). Challenges of remote assessment in higher education in the context of COVID-19: A case study of Middle East College. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 32, 519 535. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-020-09340-w

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Izhar, N. A., Na, Y. M. A., & Na, K. S. (2021). Teaching in the time of COVID-19: The challenges faced by teachers in initiating online class sessions. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(2), 1294-1306. https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/9205/teaching-in-the-time-of-covid-19-the-challenges-faced-by-teachers-in-initiating-online-class-sessions.pdf

Joaquin, J., Biana, H., & Dacela, M. (2020). The Philippine higher education sector in the time of COVID-19. Frontiers in Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.576371

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Today’s front page, Saturday, June 8, 2024

Challenges and opportunities in education under the new normal

• Leony Garcia
• August 24, 2020
• 3 minute read

In the recently published Framework for Reopening Schools from UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, the World Food Programme and UNHCR, these reputable international organizations are all one in saying that “the best interest of every child should be paramount.”

“When deciding whether to re-open schools, authorities should look at the benefits and risks across education, public health and socio-economic factors, in the local context, using the best available evidence,” they pointed out.

Perhaps this is the reason why the Department of Education decided to postpone the class opening for school year 2020-2021 from August 24 to October 5.

Indeed, with the world’s greatest disruption upon us, more than 1.2 billion students worldwide have been affected by school closures.

Effect on children

Schools educators are considered as by many children as their second family as these are the parent figures that teach how to read, write, count and so much more. Schools also impart knowledge on nutrition, health and hygiene services; mental health and psychosocial support; and dramatically reduce the risk of violence, early pregnancy and more.

Prolonged closure of schools can only have an unfavorable effect on them.

“We know from previous crises the longer the children are out of school, the less likely they are to return,” the Framework further underscored.

Prolonged closures also disrupt essential school-based services such as immunization, school feeding, and mental health and psychosocial support. Loss of peer interaction and disrupted routines also result in stress and anxiety. 

These negative impacts will be significantly higher for marginalized children, such as those living in countries affected by conflict and other protracted crises, migrants, refugees and the forcibly displaced, minorities, children, living with disabilities, and children in institutions, the report added.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also called on governments and donors to prioritize education for all children, including the most marginalized. And the Global Education Coalition was established to support governments in strengthening distance learning and facilitating the reopening of schools. “National governments and partners must simultaneously work to promote and safeguard every child’s right to education, health and safety, as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” the Framework further cited.

School re-openings, however, must be safe and consistent with each country’s overall COVID-19 health response, with all reasonable measures taken to protect students, staff, teachers and their families.

Technical and vocational students

Students in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system are also affected by the challenges in school re-opening. Dr. Shyamal Majumdar, TVET Expert, and former head of UNESCO-UNEVOC, has come up with the reflective paper, Technical Vocational Education & Training – Reflections that zeroes in on the issues facing TVET and its potential in the time of COVID-19.

Given the circumstances, many TVET institutions are expected to come up with out-of-box responses. Interestingly, the current pandemic offers a host of opportunities for TVET students. In her paper, Majumdar noted that Top 4 industries for which vocational training program will be in a great demand are health care, green jobs, service sector and agricultural sectors.

TVET’ being focused on practical skills and work-readiness makes remote learning particularly challenging. Practical skills are often acquired through learning-by-doing, which occurs in school-based workshops and laboratories or through hands-on experience at the workplace.

For beauty guru Antonio “Tony” Galvez, the new normal calls for highly professionalized services and hence TVET education and training in the Philippines should be uplifted to the highest level.

He said it is time for the country to follow the astringent international standards that is globally recognized and acclaimed in progressive countries like the US, Canada, Australia, Korea, Japan, England and in many parts of Europe.

Galvez,  a tech-voc practitioner himself and founder of The Tony Galvez School of Cosmetology (1989) challenges the ongoing training system for the creation of various industry boards leading to professionalization of tech-voc career.

“Let us keep our focus on uplifting the image of tech-voc in the Philippines by upgrading and professionalizing our occupations to techvoc professions with prestige and dignity. Let’s improve our schools and training centers. Let’s improve our curriculum and adapt modern-day practices,” he said.

Filipinos are regarded to be the best workers in the world. With internationally-recognized transcript of records and professional license at hand, these skilled workers are expected to perform better. They would work with pride in the same way that university graduates do. They would be encouraged to further hone their skills and knowledge and become experts in their chosen occupation.

“Let us make every opportunity to make our citizens professional because they would eventually boost the economy of our country. And that starts with the quality education before us: blended and flexible couple with the students’ strict adherence to self-discipline,” Galvez concluded.

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TEACHER'S CAPABILITIES, LEARNING EXPERIENCES, AND CHALLENGES IN BLENDED LEARNING IN THE NEW NORMAL EDUCATION

2022, IOER International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

The educational services worldwide are affected by COVID 19 pandemic. It brings numerous challenges, particularly to all. Thus, the Philippine public educational sectors decided to shift traditional teachinglearning into a blended learning modality. There are options such as online classes and modular distance learning as an alternative way for schools and teachers to render educational services to the students. Moreover, even teachers are still in the process of adjusting and improving their teaching practices and capabilities to deal with the current trend of teaching-learning modality. So, the researcher explored the teachers' capabilities, learning experience, and its challenges in blended learning in this new normal education. This descriptive research used a quantitative method wherein the teachers of Diplahan National High School served as respondents. They were chosen randomly through stratified random sampling to come up with 68 sample sizes. It utilized Pearson Product Moment Correlation, T-Test, and ANOVA as statistical tools. Results revealed that teachers in Diplahan National High School possess the necessary capabilities needed for the implementation of blended learning. The learning experiences of the teachers in blended learning are the following: the students are improving their ICT literacy skills, the students are responsive to queries, respectful, participative, and are paying attention. The respondents experienced these challenges: students with internet connectivity, poor internet connectivity, distance from home, too much auxiliary work, stress, and lack of sufficient time. More so, there is a significant effect of teachers' capabilities on the teacher's learning experiences in blended learning, particularly in the length of service. Consequently, regardless of the respondent's differences in terms of their age, years in service, and position, they have acquired some learning experiences in this blended learning.

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The “new normal” in education

José augusto pacheco.

Research Centre on Education (CIEd), Institute of Education, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal

Effects rippling from the Covid 19 emergency include changes in the personal, social, and economic spheres. Are there continuities as well? Based on a literature review (primarily of UNESCO and OECD publications and their critics), the following question is posed: How can one resist the slide into passive technologization and seize the possibility of achieving a responsive, ethical, humane, and international-transformational approach to education? Technologization, while an ongoing and evidently ever-intensifying tendency, is not without its critics, especially those associated with the humanistic tradition in education. This is more apparent now that curriculum is being conceived as a complicated conversation. In a complex and unequal world, the well-being of students requires diverse and even conflicting visions of the world, its problems, and the forms of knowledge we study to address them.

From the past, we might find our way to a future unforeclosed by the present (Pinar 2019 , p. 12)

Texts regarding this pandemic’s consequences are appearing at an accelerating pace, with constant coverage by news outlets, as well as philosophical, historical, and sociological reflections by public intellectuals worldwide. Ripples from the current emergency have spread into the personal, social, and economic spheres. But are there continuities as well? Is the pandemic creating a “new normal” in education or simply accenting what has already become normal—an accelerating tendency toward technologization? This tendency presents an important challenge for education, requiring a critical vision of post-Covid-19 curriculum. One must pose an additional question: How can one resist the slide into passive technologization and seize the possibility of achieving a responsive, ethical, humane, and international-transformational approach to education?

The ongoing present

Unpredicted except through science fiction, movie scripts, and novels, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed everyday life, caused wide-scale illness and death, and provoked preventive measures like social distancing, confinement, and school closures. It has struck disproportionately at those who provide essential services and those unable to work remotely; in an already precarious marketplace, unemployment is having terrible consequences. The pandemic is now the chief sign of both globalization and deglobalization, as nations close borders and airports sit empty. There are no departures, no delays. Everything has changed, and no one was prepared. The pandemic has disrupted the flow of time and unraveled what was normal. It is the emergence of an event (think of Badiou 2009 ) that restarts time, creates radical ruptures and imbalances, and brings about a contingency that becomes a new necessity (Žižek 2020 ). Such events question the ongoing present.

The pandemic has reshuffled our needs, which are now based on a new order. Whether of short or medium duration, will it end in a return to the “normal” or move us into an unknown future? Žižek contends that “there is no return to normal, the new ‘normal’ will have to be constructed on the ruins of our old lives, or we will find ourselves in a new barbarism whose signs are already clearly discernible” (Žižek 2020 , p. 3).

Despite public health measures, Gil ( 2020 ) observes that the pandemic has so far generated no physical or spiritual upheaval and no universal awareness of the need to change how we live. Techno-capitalism continues to work, though perhaps not as before. Online sales increase and professionals work from home, thereby creating new digital subjectivities and economies. We will not escape the pull of self-preservation, self-regeneration, and the metamorphosis of capitalism, which will continue its permanent revolution (Wells 2020 ). In adapting subjectivities to the recent demands of digital capitalism, the pandemic can catapult us into an even more thoroughly digitalized space, a trend that artificial intelligence will accelerate. These new subjectivities will exhibit increased capacities for voluntary obedience and programmable functioning abilities, leading to a “new normal” benefiting those who are savvy in software-structured social relationships.

The Covid-19 pandemic has submerged us all in the tsunami-like economies of the Cloud. There is an intensification of the allegro rhythm of adaptation to the Internet of Things (Davies, Beauchamp, Davies, and Price 2019 ). For Latour ( 2020 ), the pandemic has become internalized as an ongoing state of emergency preparing us for the next crisis—climate change—for which we will see just how (un)prepared we are. Along with inequality, climate is one of the most pressing issues of our time (OECD 2019a , 2019b ) and therefore its representation in the curriculum is of public, not just private, interest.

Education both reflects what is now and anticipates what is next, recoding private and public responses to crises. Žižek ( 2020 , p. 117) suggests in this regard that “values and beliefs should not be simply ignored: they play an important role and should be treated as a specific mode of assemblage”. As such, education is (post)human and has its (over)determination by beliefs and values, themselves encoded in technology.

Will the pandemic detoxify our addiction to technology, or will it cement that addiction? Pinar ( 2019 , pp. 14–15) suggests that “this idea—that technological advance can overcome cultural, economic, educational crises—has faded into the background. It is our assumption. Our faith prompts the purchase of new technology and assures we can cure climate change”. While waiting for technology to rescue us, we might also remember to look at ourselves. In this way, the pandemic could be a starting point for a more sustainable environment. An intelligent response to climate change, reactivating the humanistic tradition in education, would reaffirm the right to such an education as a global common good (UNESCO 2015a , p. 10):

This approach emphasizes the inclusion of people who are often subject to discrimination – women and girls, indigenous people, persons with disabilities, migrants, the elderly and people living in countries affected by conflict. It requires an open and flexible approach to learning that is both lifelong and life-wide: an approach that provides the opportunity for all to realize their potential for a sustainable future and a life of dignity”.

Pinar ( 2004 , 2009 , 2019 ) concevies of curriculum as a complicated conversation. Central to that complicated conversation is climate change, which drives the need for education for sustainable development and the grooming of new global citizens with sustainable lifestyles and exemplary environmental custodianship (Marope 2017 ).

The new normal

The pandemic ushers in a “new” normal, in which digitization enforces ways of working and learning. It forces education further into technologization, a development already well underway, fueled by commercialism and the reigning market ideology. Daniel ( 2020 , p. 1) notes that “many institutions had plans to make greater use of technology in teaching, but the outbreak of Covid-19 has meant that changes intended to occur over months or years had to be implemented in a few days”.

Is this “new normal” really new or is it a reiteration of the old?

Digital technologies are the visible face of the immediate changes taking place in society—the commercial society—and schools. The immediate solution to the closure of schools is distance learning, with platforms proliferating and knowledge demoted to information to be exchanged (Koopman 2019 ), like a product, a phenomenon predicted decades ago by Lyotard ( 1984 , pp. 4-5):

Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be valued in a new production: in both cases, the goal is exchange. Knowledge ceases to be an end in itself, it loses its use-value.

Digital technologies and economic rationality based on performance are significant determinants of the commercialization of learning. Moving from physical face-to-face presence to virtual contact (synchronous and asynchronous), the learning space becomes disembodied, virtual not actual, impacting both student learning and the organization of schools, which are no longer buildings but websites. Such change is not only coterminous with the pandemic, as the Education 2030 Agenda (UNESCO 2015b ) testified; preceding that was the Delors Report (Delors 1996 ), which recoded education as lifelong learning that included learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together.

Transnational organizations have specified competences for the 21st century and, in the process, have defined disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge that encourages global citizenship, through “the supra curriculum at the global, regional, or international comparative level” (Marope 2017 , p. 10). According to UNESCO ( 2017 ):

While the world may be increasingly interconnected, human rights violations, inequality and poverty still threaten peace and sustainability. Global Citizenship Education (GCED) is UNESCO’s response to these challenges. It works by empowering learners of all ages to understand that these are global, not local issues and to become active promoters of more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable societies.

These transnational initiatives have not only acknowledged traditional school subjects but have also shifted the curriculum toward timely topics dedicated to understanding the emergencies of the day (Spiller 2017 ). However, for the OECD ( 2019a ), the “new normal” accentuates two ideas: competence-based education, which includes the knowledges identified in the Delors Report , and a new learning framework structured by digital technologies. The Covid-19 pandemic does not change this logic. Indeed, the interdisciplinary skills framework, content and standardized testing associated with the Programme for International Student Assessment of the OECD has become the most powerful tool for prescribing the curriculum. Educationally, “the universal homogenous ‘state’ exists already. Globalization of standardized testing—the most prominent instance of threatening to restructure schools into technological sites of political socialization, conditioning children for compliance to a universal homogeneous state of mind” (Pinar 2019 , p. 2).

In addition to cognitive and practical skills, this “homogenous state of mind” rests on so-called social and emotional skills in the service of learning to live together, affirming global citizenship, and presumably returning agency to students and teachers (OECD 2019a ). According to Marope ( 2017 , p. 22), “this calls for higher flexibility in curriculum development, and for the need to leave space for curricula interpretation, contextualization, and creativity at the micro level of teachers and classrooms”. Heterogeneity is thus enlisted in the service of both economic homogeneity and disciplinary knowledge. Disciplinary knowledge is presented as universal and endowed with social, moral, and cognitive authority. Operational and effective knowledge becomes central, due to the influence of financial lobbies, thereby ensuring that the logic of the market is brought into the practices of schools. As Pestre ( 2013 , p. 21) observed, “the nature of this knowledge is new: what matters is that it makes hic et nunc the action, its effect and not its understanding”. Its functionality follows (presumably) data and evidence-based management.

A new language is thus imposed on education and the curriculum. Such enforced installation of performative language and Big Data lead to effective and profitable operations in a vast market concerned with competence in operational skills (Lyotard 1984 ). This “new normal” curriculum is said to be more horizontal and less hierarchical and radically polycentric with problem-solving produced through social networks, NGOs, transnational organizations, and think tanks (Pestre 2013 ; Williamson 2013 , 2017 ). Untouched by the pandemic, the “new (old) normal” remains based on disciplinary knowledge and enmeshed in the discourse of standards and accountability in education.

Such enforced commercialism reflects and reinforces economic globalization. Pinar ( 2011 , p. 30) worries that “the globalization of instrumental rationality in education threatens the very existence of education itself”. In his theory, commercialism and the technical instrumentality by which homogenization advances erase education as an embodied experience and the curriculum as a humanistic project. It is a time in which the humanities are devalued as well, as acknowledged by Pinar ( 2019 , p. 19): “In the United States [and in the world] not only does economics replace education—STEM replace the liberal arts as central to the curriculum—there are even politicians who attack the liberal arts as subversive and irrelevant…it can be more precisely characterized as reckless rhetoric of a know-nothing populism”. Replacing in-person dialogical encounters and the educational cultivation of the person (via Bildung and currere ), digital technologies are creating uniformity of learning spaces, in spite of their individualistic tendencies. Of course, education occurs outside schools—and on occasion in schools—but this causal displacement of the centrality of the school implies a devaluation of academic knowledge in the name of diversification of learning spaces.

In society, education, and specifically in the curriculum, the pandemic has brought nothing new but rather has accelerated already existing trends that can be summarized as technologization. Those who can work “remotely” exercise their privilege, since they can exploit an increasingly digital society. They themselves are changed in the process, as their own subjectivities are digitalized, thus predisposing them to a “curriculum of things” (a term coined by Laist ( 2016 ) to describe an object-oriented pedagogical approach), which is organized not around knowledge but information (Koopman 2019 ; Couldry and Mejias 2019 ). This (old) “new normal” was advanced by the OECD, among other international organizations, thus precipitating what some see as “a dynamic and transformative articulation of collective expectations of the purpose, quality, and relevance of education and learning to holistic, inclusive, just, peaceful, and sustainable development, and to the well-being and fulfilment of current and future generations” (Marope 2017 , p. 13). Covid-19, illiberal democracy, economic nationalism, and inaction on climate change, all upend this promise.

Understanding the psychological and cultural complexity of the curriculum is crucial. Without appreciating the infinity of responses students have to what they study, one cannot engage in the complicated conversation that is the curriculum. There must be an affirmation of “not only the individualism of a person’s experience but [of what is] underlining the significance of a person’s response to a course of study that has been designed to ignore individuality in order to buttress nation, religion, ethnicity, family, and gender” (Grumet 2017 , p. 77). Rather than promoting neuroscience as the answer to the problems of curriculum and pedagogy, it is long-past time for rethinking curriculum development and addressing the canonical curriculum question: What knowledge is of most worth from a humanistic perspective that is structured by complicated conversation (UNESCO 2015a ; Pinar 2004 , 2019 )? It promotes respect for diversity and rejection of all forms of (cultural) hegemony, stereotypes, and biases (Pacheco 2009 , 2017 ).

Revisiting the curriculum in the Covid-19 era then expresses the fallacy of the “new normal” but also represents a particular opportunity to promote a different path forward.

Looking to the post-Covid-19 curriculum

Based on the notion of curriculum as a complicated conversation, as proposed by Pinar ( 2004 ), the post-Covid-19 curriculum can seize the possibility of achieving a responsive, ethical, humane education, one which requires a humanistic and internationally aware reconceptualization of curriculum.

While beliefs and values are anchored in social and individual practices (Pinar 2019 , p. 15), education extracts them for critique and reconsideration. For example, freedom and tolerance are not neutral but normative practices, however ideology-free policymakers imagine them to be.

That same sleight-of-hand—value neutrality in the service of a certain normativity—is evident in a digital concept of society as a relationship between humans and non-humans (or posthumans), a relationship not only mediated by but encapsulated within technology: machines interfacing with other machines. This is not merely a technological change, as if it were a quarantined domain severed from society. Technologization is a totalizing digitalization of human experience that includes the structures of society. It is less social than economic, with social bonds now recoded as financial transactions sutured by software. Now that subjectivity is digitalized, the human face has become an exclusively economic one that fabricates the fantasy of rational and free agents—always self-interested—operating in supposedly free markets. Oddly enough, there is no place for a vision of humanistic and internationally aware change. The technological dimension of curriculum is assumed to be the primary area of change, which has been deeply and totally imposed by global standards. The worldwide pandemic supports arguments for imposing forms of control (Žižek 2020 ), including the geolocation of infected people and the suspension—in a state of exception—of civil liberties.

By destroying democracy, the technology of control leads to totalitarianism and barbarism, ending tolerance, difference, and diversity. Remembrance and memory are needed so that historical fascisms (Eley 2020 ) are not repeated, albeit in new disguises (Adorno 2011 ). Technologized education enhances efficiency and ensures uniformity, while presuming objectivity to the detriment of human reflection and singularity. It imposes the running data of the Curriculum of Things and eschews intellectual endeavor, critical attitude, and self-reflexivity.

For those who advocate the primacy of technology and the so-called “free market”, the pandemic represents opportunities not only for profit but also for confirmation of the pervasiveness of human error and proof of the efficiency of the non-human, i.e., the inhuman technology. What may possibly protect children from this inhumanity and their commodification, as human capital, is a humane or humanistic education that contradicts their commodification.

The decontextualized technical vocabulary in use in a market society produces an undifferentiated image in which people are blinded to nuance, distinction, and subtlety. For Pestre, concepts associated with efficiency convey the primacy of economic activity to the exclusion, for instance, of ethics, since those concepts devalue historic (if unrealized) commitments to equality and fraternity by instead emphasizing economic freedom and the autonomy of self-interested individuals. Constructing education as solely economic and technological constitutes a movement toward total efficiency through the installation of uniformity of behavior, devaluing diversity and human creativity.

Erased from the screen is any image of public education as a space of freedom, or as Macdonald ( 1995 , p. 38) holds, any image or concept of “the dignity and integrity of each human”. Instead, what we face is the post-human and the undisputed reign of instrumental reality, where the ends justify the means and human realization is reduced to the consumption of goods and experiences. As Pinar ( 2019 , p. 7) observes: “In the private sphere…. freedom is recast as a choice of consumer goods; in the public sphere, it converts to control and the demand that freedom flourish, so that whatever is profitable can be pursued”. Such “negative” freedom—freedom from constraint—ignores “positive” freedom, which requires us to contemplate—in ethical and spiritual terms—what that freedom is for. To contemplate what freedom is for requires “critical and comprehensive knowledge” (Pestre 2013 , p. 39) not only instrumental and technical knowledge. The humanities and the arts would reoccupy the center of such a curriculum and not be related to its margins (Westbury 2008 ), acknowledging that what is studied within schools is a complicated conversation among those present—including oneself, one’s ancestors, and those yet to be born (Pinar 2004 ).

In an era of unconstrained technologization, the challenge facing the curriculum is coding and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), with technology dislodging those subjects related to the human. This is not a classical curriculum (although it could be) but one focused on the emergencies of the moment–namely, climate change, the pandemic, mass migration, right-wing populism, and economic inequality. These timely topics, which in secondary school could be taught as short courses and at the elementary level as thematic units, would be informed by the traditional school subjects (yes, including STEM). Such a reorganization of the curriculum would allow students to see how academic knowledge enables them to understand what is happening to them and their parents in their own regions and globally. Such a cosmopolitan curriculum would prepare children to become citizens not only of their own nations but of the world. This citizenship would simultaneously be subjective and social, singular and universal (Marope 2020 ). Pinar ( 2019 , p. 5) reminds us that “the division between private and public was first blurred then erased by technology”:

No longer public, let alone sacred, morality becomes a matter of privately held values, sometimes monetized as commodities, statements of personal preference, often ornamental, sometimes self-servingly instrumental. Whatever their function, values were to be confined to the private sphere. The public sphere was no longer the civic square but rather, the marketplace, the site where one purchased whatever one valued.

New technological spaces are the universal center for (in)human values. The civic square is now Amazon, Alibaba, Twitter, WeChat, and other global online corporations. The facts of our human condition—a century-old phrase uncanny in its echoes today—can be studied in schools as an interdisciplinary complicated conversation about public issues that eclipse private ones (Pinar 2019 ), including social injustice, inequality, democracy, climate change, refugees, immigrants, and minority groups. Understood as a responsive, ethical, humane and transformational international educational approach, such a post-Covid-19 curriculum could be a “force for social equity, justice, cohesion, stability, and peace” (Marope 2017 , p. 32). “Unchosen” is certainly the adjective describing our obligations now, as we are surrounded by death and dying and threatened by privation or even starvation, as economies collapse and food-supply chains are broken. The pandemic may not mean deglobalization, but it surely accentuates it, as national borders are closed, international travel is suspended, and international trade is impacted by the accompanying economic crisis. On the other hand, economic globalization could return even stronger, as could the globalization of education systems. The “new normal” in education is the technological order—a passive technologization—and its expansion continues uncontested and even accelerated by the pandemic.

Two Greek concepts, kronos and kairos , allow a discussion of contrasts between the quantitative and the qualitative in education. Echoing the ancient notion of kronos are the technologically structured curriculum values of quantity and performance, which are always assessed by a standardized accountability system enforcing an “ideology of achievement”. “While kronos refers to chronological or sequential time, kairos refers to time that might require waiting patiently for a long time or immediate and rapid action; which course of action one chooses will depend on the particular situation” (Lahtinen 2009 , p. 252).

For Macdonald ( 1995 , p. 51), “the central ideology of the schools is the ideology of achievement …[It] is a quantitative ideology, for even to attempt to assess quality must be quantified under this ideology, and the educational process is perceived as a technically monitored quality control process”.

Self-evaluation subjectively internalizes what is useful and in conformity with the techno-economy and its so-called standards, increasingly enforcing technical (software) forms. If recoded as the Internet of Things, this remains a curriculum in allegiance with “order and control” (Doll 2013 , p. 314) School knowledge is reduced to an instrument for economic success, employing compulsory collaboration to ensure group think and conformity. Intertwined with the Internet of Things, technological subjectivity becomes embedded in software, redesigned for effectiveness, i.e., or use-value (as Lyotard predicted).

The Curriculum of Things dominates the Internet, which is simultaneously an object and a thing (see Heidegger 1967 , 1971 , 1977 ), a powerful “technological tool for the process of knowledge building” (Means 2008 , p. 137). Online learning occupies the subjective zone between the “curriculum-as-planned” and the “curriculum-as-lived” (Pinar 2019 , p. 23). The world of the curriculum-as-lived fades, as the screen shifts and children are enmeshed in an ocularcentric system of accountability and instrumentality.

In contrast to kronos , the Greek concept of kairos implies lived time or even slow time (Koepnick 2014 ), time that is “self-reflective” (Macdonald 1995 , p. 103) and autobiographical (Pinar 2009 , 2004), thus inspiring “curriculum improvisation” (Aoki 2011 , p. 375), while emphasizing “the plurality of subjectivities” (Grumet 2017 , p. 80). Kairos emphasizes singularity and acknowledges particularities; it is skeptical of similarities. For Shew ( 2013 , p. 48), “ kairos is that which opens an originary experience—of the divine, perhaps, but also of life or being. Thought as such, kairos as a formative happening—an opportune moment, crisis, circumstance, event—imposes its own sense of measure on time”. So conceived, curriculum can become a complicated conversation that occurs not in chronological time but in its own time. Such dialogue is not neutral, apolitical, or timeless. It focuses on the present and is intrinsically subjective, even in public space, as Pinar ( 2019 , p. 12) writes: “its site is subjectivity as one attunes oneself to what one is experiencing, yes to its immediacy and specificity but also to its situatedness, relatedness, including to what lies beyond it and not only spatially but temporally”.

Kairos is, then, the uniqueness of time that converts curriculum into a complicated conversation, one that includes the subjective reconstruction of learning as a consciousness of everyday life, encouraging the inner activism of quietude and disquietude. Writing about eternity, as an orientation towards the future, Pinar ( 2019 , p. 2) argues that “the second side [the first is contemplation] of such consciousness is immersion in daily life, the activism of quietude – for example, ethical engagement with others”. We add disquietude now, following the work of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Disquietude is a moment of eternity: “Sometimes I think I’ll never leave ‘Douradores’ Street. And having written this, it seems to me eternity. Neither pleasure, nor glory, nor power. Freedom, only freedom” (Pesssoa 1991 ).

The disquietude conversation is simultaneously individual and public. It establishes an international space both deglobalized and autonomous, a source of responsive, ethical, and humane encounter. No longer entranced by the distracting dynamic stasis of image-after-image on the screen, the student can face what is his or her emplacement in the physical and natural world, as well as the technological world. The student can become present as a person, here and now, simultaneously historical and timeless.

Conclusions

Slow down and linger should be our motto now. A slogan yes, but it also represents a political, as well as a psychological resistance to the acceleration of time (Berg and Seeber 2016 )—an acceleration that the pandemic has intensified. Covid-19 has moved curriculum online, forcing children physically apart from each other and from their teachers and especially from the in-person dialogical encounters that classrooms can provide. The public space disappears into the pre-designed screen space that software allows, and the machine now becomes the material basis for a curriculum of things, not persons. Like the virus, the pandemic curriculum becomes embedded in devices that technologize our children.

Although one hundred years old, the images created in Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin return, less humorous this time than emblematic of our intensifying subjection to technological necessity. It “would seem to leave us as cogs in the machine, ourselves like moving parts, we keep functioning efficiently, increasing productivity calculating the creative destruction of what is, the human now materialized (de)vices ensnaring us in convenience, connectivity, calculation” (Pinar 2019 , p. 9). Post-human, as many would say.

Technology supports standardized testing and enforces software-designed conformity and never-ending self-evaluation, while all the time erasing lived, embodied experience and intellectual independence. Ignoring the evidence, others are sure that technology can function differently: “Given the potential of information and communication technologies, the teacher should now be a guide who enables learners, from early childhood throughout their learning trajectories, to develop and advance through the constantly expanding maze of knowledge” (UNESCO 2015a , p. 51). Would that it were so.

The canonical question—What knowledge is of most worth?—is open-ended and contentious. In a technologized world, providing for the well-being of children is not obvious, as well-being is embedded in ancient, non-neoliberal visions of the world. “Education is everybody’s business”, Pinar ( 2019 , p. 2) points out, as it fosters “responsible citizenship and solidarity in a global world” (UNESCO 2015a , p. 66), resisting inequality and the exclusion, for example, of migrant groups, refugees, and even those who live below or on the edge of poverty.

In this fast-moving digital world, education needs to be inclusive but not conformist. As the United Nations ( 2015 ) declares, education should ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. “The coming years will be a vital period to save the planet and to achieve sustainable, inclusive human development” (United Nations 2019 , p. 64). Is such sustainable, inclusive human development achievable through technologization? Can technology succeed where religion has failed?

Despite its contradictions and economic emphases, public education has one clear obligation—to create embodied encounters of learning through curriculum conceived as a complicated conversation. Such a conception acknowledges the worldliness of a cosmopolitan curriculum as it affirms the personification of the individual (Pinar 2011 ). As noted by Grumet ( 2017 , p. 89), “as a form of ethics, there is a responsibility to participate in conversation”. Certainly, it is necessary to ask over and over again the canonical curriculum question: What knowledge is of most worth?

If time, technology and teaching are moving images of eternity, curriculum and pedagogy are also, both ‘moving’ and ‘images’ but not an explicit, empirical, or exact representation of eternity…if reality is an endless series of ‘moving images’, the canonical curriculum question—What knowledge is of most worth?—cannot be settled for all time by declaring one set of subjects eternally important” (Pinar 2019 , p. 12).

In a complicated conversation, the curriculum is not a fixed image sliding into a passive technologization. As a “moving image”, the curriculum constitutes a politics of presence, an ongoing expression of subjectivity (Grumet 2017 ) that affirms the infinity of reality: “Shifting one’s attitude from ‘reducing’ complexity to ‘embracing’ what is always already present in relations and interactions may lead to thinking complexly, abiding happily with mystery” (Doll 2012 , p. 172). Describing the dialogical encounter characterizing conceived curriculum, as a complicated conversation, Pinar explains that this moment of dialogue “is not only place-sensitive (perhaps classroom centered) but also within oneself”, because “the educational significance of subject matter is that it enables the student to learn from actual embodied experience, an outcome that cannot always be engineered” (Pinar 2019 , pp. 12–13). Lived experience is not technological. So, “the curriculum of the future is not just a matter of defining content and official knowledge. It is about creating, sculpting, and finessing minds, mentalities, and identities, promoting style of thought about humans, or ‘mashing up’ and ‘making up’ the future of people” (Williamson 2013 , p. 113).

Yes, we need to linger and take time to contemplate the curriculum question. Only in this way will we share what is common and distinctive in our experience of the current pandemic by changing our time and our learning to foreclose on our future. Curriculum conceived as a complicated conversation restarts historical not screen time; it enacts the private and public as distinguishable, not fused in a computer screen. That is the “new normal”.

is full professor in the Department of Curriculum Studies and Educational Technology (Institute of Education, University of Minho, Portugal). His research focuses on curriculum theory, curriculum politics, and teacher training and evaluation. Presently, he is director of the PhD Science Education Program of the University of Minho, member of the Advisory Board of the Organization of Ibero-American Studies, director of the European Journal of Curriculum Studies, and director of the European Association on Curriculum Studies.

My thanks to William F. Pinar. Friendship is another moving image of eternity. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewer. This work is financed by national funds through the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project PTDC / CED-EDG / 30410/2017, Centre for Research in Education, Institute of Education, University of Minho.

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Pharmacy’s new era—in the home

Customers of the $460 billion retail pharmacy sector are increasingly demanding a pharmacy experience that mirrors the rest of their retail experiences—omnichannel, convenient, and with home delivery at the center. 1 Adam J. Fein, “The 2021 economic report on U.S. pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers,” Drug Channels Institute, March 2021, drugchannels.net; Victor Fabius, Sajal Kohli, Björn Timelin, and Sofia Moulvad Veranen, “ Meet the next-normal consumer ,” August 17, 2020, McKinsey.com; “The Update: How Walgreens’ customer-focused marketing is driving business growth,” Google, September 2020, thinkwithgoogle.com. While interests vary meaningfully across customer archetypes and can be segmented by various factors (for example, complexity of medical condition, digital experience preferences, and proximity to stores), our pharmacy market research has indicated that there are two key patient archetypes across the spectrum of experience. Making the experience right for these two groups will prepare pharmacies for a broader spectrum of customers.

Patients in one archetype, focused on convenience, are beginning to experiment with new, digital-first pharmacy entrants that facilitate in-home pharmacy experiences, especially during reflections on the COVID-19 crisis. 2 “The Update: How Walgreens’ customer-focused marketing is driving business growth,” Google, September 2020, thinkwithgoogle.com.

Customers in the other archetype—those with multiple chronic conditions—are seeking higher-touch clinical support models in the home and digitally, as well as wanting guidance from a trusted pharmacist in managing multiple medications. 3 Madison Como et al., “Pharmacist-led chronic care management for medically underserved rural populations in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Preventing Chronic Disease , July 30, 2020, Volume 17, cdc.gov. These developments put pressure on both pharmacy incumbents and new players attempting to define their future pharmacy value propositions. At the same time, these systemic changes present new focus areas for stakeholders across the value chain, giving players a chance to move quickly.

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High-value patient archetypes.

Two patient archetypes should be top priority for stakeholders: one that is primarily concerned with convenience, and one that desires an ongoing relationship with their pharmacist to support their chronic conditions and medication needs.

Convenience, convenience, convenience

The thought driving this archetype can be summed up as follows: “I want to spend as little time and energy as possible interacting with my pharmacy.” This tends to be the primary goal of young professionals, busy parents, active retirees, and others. Convenient, direct-to-consumer  new pharmacy entrants are working to meet this need and, based on recent venture-funding rounds that value these players in the billions, are achieving early market traction. 4 Katie Jennings, “Digital health startup Ro raised $500 million at $5 billion valuation,” Forbes, March 22, 2021, forbes.com. A physician can prescribe a new prescription virtually, the customer pays online, and the prescription shows up a day later. In addition to providing convenience, delivery and medication synchronization (such as pharmacist coordination of refills) may improve medication adherence in certain use cases. 5 Alexis A. Krumme et al., “Medication synchronization programs improve adherence to cardiovascular medications and health care use,” Health Affairs , January 2018, Volume 37, Number 1, pp. 125–33, healthaffairs.org.

Clinical support for chronic conditions

Patients in the second archetype, in contrast, are looking for much-needed support from their pharmacy (and pharmacist) in managing and adhering to multiple medications. Their driving thought is “I have multiple medications, and I need support from a pharmacist I know and trust.” Polychronic and complex chronic homebound patients taking multiple medications often have adherence challenges and could benefit from a high-touch pharmacist model that includes, for example, adherence counseling and medication reconciliation. 6 Reyan Ghany et al., “High-touch care leads to better outcomes and lower costs in a senior population,” American Journal of Managed Care , August 28, 2018, Volume 24, Number 9, ajmc.com. In addition, complex chronic homebound patients are at a greater risk for high medical costs, including complications of chronic diseases. 7 Katherine A. Ornstein et al., “Epidemiology of the homebound population in the United States,” JAMA Internal Medicine , July 2015, Volume 175, Number 7, pp. 1180–6, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Why stakeholders may welcome the shift to home

The who, what, when, where, and how of pharmacy-care delivery is rapidly evolving: from traditional models to tech-enabled models, from in-person pickup to delivery, and from outpatient hospitals and clinics to the home. This shift may be welcomed by many stakeholders because e-commerce penetration in retail pharmacy is low relative to most other retail categories (exhibit).

A number of factors are driving the shift to in-home pharmacy care for convenience seekers:

• Demand tailwinds: The market has experienced a meaningful increase in consumer preference for home options during the COVID-19 crisis, with likely stickiness as normal activity resumes. 8 Victor Fabius, Sajal Kohli, Björn Timelin, and Sofia Moulvad Veranen, “ Meet the next-normal consumer ,” August 17, 2020, McKinsey.com.
• Tech-driven innovation: There has been substantial growth in tech-driven product and service-delivery models (for example, digital pharmacy and direct-to-consumer virtual care clinics) that are penetrating traditional channels and supporting the shift to home. 9 Heather Landi, “In a competitive digital health market, startups move to add new medication delivery services,” Fierce Healthcare , March 8, 2021, fiercehealthcare.com.

In addition to demand tailwinds, several major factors are driving the shift for those needing clinical support for their chronic conditions:

• Growth in homebound populations: The market has seen material growth in homebound populations, including those eligible for Medicare and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), as well as an expansion of managed Medicaid and managed dual-eligible patients. 10 Katherine A. Ornstein et al., “Estimation of the incident homebound population in the US among older Medicare beneficiaries, 2012 to 2018,” JAMA Internal Medicine , May 26, 2020, Volume 180, Number 7, pp. 1022–1025, jamanetwork.com.
• Payer actions: Finally, there has been a rise in new medical-necessity and reimbursement policies and innovative programs from payers (for example, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Acute Hospital Care at Home) that have shifted care from hospitals, facility-based settings (for example, long-term acute care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities), and doctor’s offices and clinics to the home. 11 “Acute Hospital Care at Home Program: Approved list of hospitals as of 4/5/2021,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), April 5, 2021, cms.gov.

The future of healthcare: Value creation through next-generation business models

The challenges of moving the pharmacy into the home.

Several challenges of serving the pharmacy market have delayed this move into the home:

• Pharmacy is more than drug fulfillment and delivery. New entrants have quickly shown they can offer drug fulfillment and two-day delivery. However, many patients rely on clinical support from their pharmacists. This can manifest as medication review and reconciliation, as adherence counseling, as limited prescribing, and, even more broadly, as disease management. 12 Patti G. Manolakis and Jann B. Skelton, “Pharmacists’ contributions to primary care in the United States collaborating to address unmet patient care needs: The emerging role for pharmacists to address the shortage of primary care providers,” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education , December 15, 2010, Volume 74, Number 10, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. To offer these services at home requires a fleet of pharmacists who can meet patients where they are, telepharmacy systems, or both.
• The unit economics of this sector are challenging. 13 Elizabeth Seeley and Surya Singh, “Competition, consolidation, and evolution in the pharmacy market: Implications for efforts to contain drug prices and spending,” Commonwealth Fund, August 12, 2021, commonwealthfund.org. Competitive cost of goods sold (COGS) and reimbursement rates often come with scale, and it can take new entrants meaningful time to establish themselves.
• Today’s in-home offerings from digital disrupters can be limited depending on the prescription need. For example, offerings may not include Schedule 2 narcotics, may only focus on one- or two-day delivery (for example, exclude difficult-to-deliver but immediately needed acute scripts), and may not always offer both traditional and specialty (low-volume but high-value) drugs simultaneously.

Implications for pharmacy incumbents and new entrants

The recent systemic changes in the market present risks for players across the pharmacy value chain. The new, consumer-focused digital disrupters have strong advantages given the newness of their systems, their speed and agility, and their customer-centric foundation. 14 Heather Landi, “NowRx, Medly Pharmacy land new funding as demand for digital pharmacies grows,” Fierce Healthcare , July 17, 2020, fiercehealthcare.com. However, incumbents are also well positioned given their existing platforms, high volumes, and large customer bases in a business that depends heavily on volume. Yet these same incumbents will likely need to do more to stay ahead of the competition. While national retail pharmacy chains have begun to offer home delivery (for example, free one- or two-day delivery with same-day delivery for an additional fee), it is not yet clear whether they will keep up with the delivery speed and experience of new e-commerce players. 15 “CVS Pharmacy prescription delivery now available from all locations nationwide,” CVS Health, June 19, 2018, cvshealth.com. To be successful in this market, incumbents will likely need to fundamentally rethink their existing processes, workflows, technologies, and systems so that they can engage the various customer archetypes in the settings and locations most important to them.

Potential actions in the next normal

Payers have an opportunity to build partnerships across the physical and virtual continuum to create a more coordinated healthcare ecosystem, to improve patient experience, and to drive down the cost of care. Partnerships with a direct-to-consumer pharmacy—likely an attractive offering for the highly convenience-oriented customer archetype—could create a differentiated experience that drives growth and retention. Payers also have an opportunity to improve ratings by partnering with digital pharmacies to close care gaps, improve adherence, and manage multiple medications.

Finally, payers have the opportunity to bundle intensive clinical-care models with mail-order pharmacy capabilities, meeting the needs of patients with chronic conditions. Payers are increasingly focused on chronic care and disease management—driven in part by the shift toward risk-bearing and integrated-care-delivery models—and are often willing to reimburse for in-home clinical services. 16 Christian Worstell, “Does Medicare cover home health care?,” MedicareAdvantage.com, February 23, 2021, medicareadvantage.com.

Success in this space will likely require core pharmacy assets (for example, the ability to sort and repackage medication, to deliver directly to patients at home, and to provide on-demand pharmacist consultations) coupled with direct-to-home assets and access to home health agencies and providers, for example.

Systemic changes have fueled new types of services for key patient archetypes and focus areas for stakeholders across the pharmacy value chain. While near-term pressures may exist for both incumbents and new entrants, those that move quickly will be able to make substantial progress in these focus areas.

Adam Apfel is a partner in McKinsey’s Boston office; Sarah Lorenzana is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office; Alec McLeod is an associate partner in the Miami office; and BJ Tevelow is a senior partner in the Miami office.

This article was edited by Elizabeth Newman, an executive editor in the Chicago office.

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The role of personalization in the care journey: An example of patient engagement to reduce readmissions

Hidden challenges of tooth loss and dentures revealed in new study

Improvements in dental care, more people living longer and the social value placed on having a healthy smile has led to people keeping their own teeth longer, but it has also led to an increasing number of people needing some kind of restoration work including crowns, bridges and implants.

Many of these treatments remain unobtainable for most people due to the availability of NHS dentists and the high cost of private dental work. Removable dentures are often the only viable option for anyone experiencing tooth loss with an estimated 10 to 15 percent of the population wearing them.

A new study by researchers at the University of Sheffield's Healthy Life Span Institute and the School of Clinical Dentistry has highlighted the emotional struggles and hidden challenges patients experience when having dentures fitted. This is the first study to map out the patient journey and how this experience can affect the overall success of the treatment.

The study found that patients think about their denture journey in four stages:

• Tooth Loss: This is the initial stage where patients experience the physical loss of teeth.
• The Emotional Tunnel: This stage focuses on the emotional rollercoaster of tooth loss. Patients experience self-consciousness, depression, and struggle with dentures. They may feel shame, anger, or fear, but also hope.
• Prosthetic Hope: This stage represents the hope and optimism patients feel when getting dentures. They might anticipate regaining their smile and ability to eat normally.
• Prosthetic Compromise leading to managing disclosure: This final stage acknowledges that dentures take some getting used to. Patients might need to adjust their expectations and learn how to manage talking and eating with dentures. They might also develop strategies to feel comfortable disclosing their denture use to others.

These feelings and how dentists understand and manage them can influence the patient outcomes. A dentist's empathy during this adjustment period is crucial for successful denture use and better patient outcomes.

The study also identified that wearing removable dentures can be a hidden disability for many. People with dentures feel they have to hide them due to feeling embarrassed or worrying they will fall out. Some patients also avoided social situations

Lead researcher Barry Gibson, Professor in Medical Sociology at the University of Sheffield said "Tooth loss can be hugely traumatic and this study has uncovered just how challenging it is for people needing partial dentures. Feelings such as embarrassment or shame can significantly affect the process of having dentures made and fitted. On top of this if they don't fit properly this can make everyday activities such as speaking, eating and drinking very difficult which affects a person's quality of life. The impact can be so dramatic that it can impact their confidence to leave the house. This can have a devastating and lasting impact.

"Understanding the emotional difficulties identified in the study will help dentists to improve the care given to denture patients and lead to a more successful and better experience for everyone"

The research team partnered with local Sheffield artist Gina Allen to create an art piece reflecting the diverse emotional journeys of denture wearers.

The picture is a collage that illustrates the type of journeys patients go through from tooth loss to life with a denture. It uses colour to depict the emotional nature of the journey and demonstrates that all patients have a unique journey and outcome from the experience. One patient, a young woman, has a successful outcome; a middle-aged man is OK but a bit 'Meh!' An older woman continues to struggle to cope with some aspects of adapting to her denture.

Artist Gina Allen said "I'm a visual artist with a science background and a particular interest in how art can help to explore and interpret data, often around social and environmental themes. It seemed to me that there was such a depth and variety of individual experiences captured by the research team on this project, so it was a really interesting challenge to be involved in, trying to use the visual parameters of an artwork to convey some of that in an engaging and meaningful way."

This collaboration has influenced the development of a new patient questionnaire designed to:

• Identify Individual Needs: Tailor care based on specific patient experiences.
• Improve Communication: Enable dentists and patients to have open conversations about dentures.
• Trigger Follow-Up: Identify patients who may need additional support.

In addition to identifying the emotional challenges faced by patients, the study also highlights the need for a clinical care pathway to improve patient support, focus on improving denture fit, educate patients about denture care, and combat the shame and stigma associated with wearing dentures.

Mr Bilal El-Dhuwaib, Clinical Teacher in Restorative Dentistry at the University of Sheffield, said: "This study is important because it goes beyond the typical numbers-driven approach to dentistry by looking at crucial aspects of patients' emotions and lived experiences. By understanding the psychological and social impact of tooth loss and replacement, the research provides a valuable toolkit for myself and fellow dentists to better understand and address the emotional rollercoaster patients navigate during this process. By equipping dentists with the tools to understand these challenges, we can create a more compassionate and effective approach to tooth replacement."

The research team is seeking further funding to validate the questionnaire and develop a comprehensive clinical pathway for denture care. This pathway aims to improve patient outcomes and address the hidden struggles faced by denture wearers.

This study, published in The Journal of Dentistry was funded by consumer health company Haleon.

• Patient Education and Counseling
• Today's Healthcare
• Wounds and Healing
• Disorders and Syndromes
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Spirituality
• Extraction (dental)
• Dental caries
• Tooth enamel
• Tooth development
• Hyperthyroidism
• Local anesthetic

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Materials provided by University of Sheffield . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Barry John Gibson, Sarah R Baker, Tom Broomhead, Bilal El-Dhuwaib, Nicolas Martin, Gerry McKenna, Anousheh Alavi. ‘It's like being in a tunnel’: Understanding the patient journey from tooth loss to life with removable dentures . Journal of Dentistry , 2024; 145: 104964 DOI: 10.1016/j.jdent.2024.104964

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Strange & offbeat.

U.S. climate outlook for June 2024

I know I sound like a broken record, but May was again a warmer-than-normal month for large parts of the United States, particularly from the Rockies eastward. In fact, the temperature pattern was quite similar to March, with near- and below-normal temperatures generally observed from the Rockies to the West Coast. And not surprisingly, temperatures this spring were also above-average east of the Rockies and normal to below-normal to the west. Beneficial rains fell across parts of the central and eastern parts of the nation during May, with the amount of drought decreasing in these regions.

With summer beginning, will temperatures remain above-average? Will beneficial rains continue to fall in the important growing regions of the nation? This is what NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) thinks will happen during June.

The temperature outlook for June 2024, showing where the average temperature is favored to be much warmer than average (orange and red), near average (gray), or much cooler than average (blues). Darker colors mean higher chances, not more extreme temperatures. White areas mean that there are equal chances for a warm, cool, or near-average June.  Much warmer  or  much cooler than average  means "in the upper or lower third" of June temperatures from 1991-2020. For more details on how to interpret these maps, read our explainer  Understanding NOAA's monthly climate outlooks.

On May 31, CPC released its updated monthly climate outlooks for temperature, precipitation, and drought across the United States for June 2024. The temperature outlook favors well above average temperatures across much of the central and western parts of the nation, along the Gulf Coast to Florida, around the Great Lakes, and in the Northeast, with no tilt in odds toward a category over the remainder of the country. The precipitation outlook favors well above average precipitation across parts of the south-central and southeastern U.S., western Washington, and in the Northeast, and well below average precipitation favored in the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains.

The precipitation outlook for June 2024, showing where the average precipitation (rain and snow) is favored to be much higher than average (greens), near average (gray), or much lower than average (browns). Darker colors mean higher chances, not more extreme precipitation departures. White areas mean that there are equal chances for a wet, dry, or near-average June.  Much higher  or  much lower than average  means "in the upper or lower third" of June precipitation amounts from 1991-2020. For more details on how to interpret these maps, read our explainer  Understanding NOAA's monthly climate outlooks.

In addition to drilling down into the specifics about the outlooks and their basis, I’ll also discuss the current state of drought, changes in drought during May, and changes we expect to see during June. And the broken record continues here, with my monthly reminder to the reader that the colors on the temperature and precipitation outlook maps only provide information about the most likely outcome, but other outcomes are still possible, although less likely to occur. More details about interpreting the outlooks can be found here .

The updated outlooks were produced considering the Week 1 forecast from the Weather Prediction Center (WPC), and CPC’s own Week 2 and Week 3-4 outlooks. Other tools that forecasters examined this month were longer-range forecast models such as the Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS), the Climate Forecast System (CFSv2), and products derived from these models. And as the transition of El Niño to neutral is imminent , El Niño was not a factor in the June outlooks. Finally, observed soil moisture was considered for these outlooks, as extremes in soil moisture (both wet and dry) can influence temperatures during the spring and summer.

Temperature outlook favors change in the pattern

The June temperature outlook favors a change from the May (and March) temperature pattern, with elevated odds for well above average temperatures across much of the western and central parts of the nation. There is more uncertainty in the East, although above-average temperatures are still favored in the Northeast and along the Gulf Coast and Florida. The region most likely to be warmer than average extends from southern Texas northward through much of the Southwest into the central and northern Rockies, where odds exceed 50%. No areas are favored to be colder than average, with equal chance odds (1/3 chance of below-, near-, and above-average) found in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys eastward to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

Sub-seasonal model guidance (the GEFS and CFSv2 models mentioned above) favors mean ridging (where the jet stream is shifted north of normal) over the west-central country in early and mid-June. This ridging elevates odds for warmer than normal conditions for the first half of June for much of this area, as does dry soil moisture conditions currently observed in parts of the Pacific Northwest, northern Rockies, Southwest, and southern High Plains. Subtropical ridging along the southern tier of the U.S. supports elevated odds for above-normal temperatures for the southern Plains, along the Gulf Coast, and in the Southeast. Meanwhile, model guidance during the short and sub-seasonal range supports above-average temperatures throughout the Great Lakes and Northeast regions.

Precipitation outlook is more questionable

As is often the case, forecast coverage in the precipitation outlook is less cohesive than in the temperature outlook. The only region favored to have below-average precipitation is in the northern Rockies and northern High Plains, where the aforementioned strong ridging favored throughout most of the month should limit precipitation. The ridge does favor a downstream (further east) trough (where the jet stream is shifted south of normal and contributes to unsettled weather) from the Southern Plains eastward into the Southeast, which elevates the odds for a wetter-than-normal June in that region.

High odds for above-average precipitation is forecast for a small region in the far Pacific Northwest, where large rainfall amounts are predicted during the first week of June. Finally, forecast troughing (jet stream shifted south of normal) around the Great Lakes favors unsettled conditions downstream, resulting in a tilt in the odds in the Northeast towards above-average.

U. S. Drought area decreases during May

Beneficial rains across the middle and eastern parts of the nation during May resulted in the total amount of drought across the continuous United States decreasing from 18% at the end of April to about 12.5%. This is the lowest amount of drought coverage across the contiguous U. S. since spring 2020.  The percent of the country in the two most intense categories (D3-D4, representing extreme and exceptional drought) remained at less than 1%, also the lowest amount since April 2020. 

Drought conditions across the contiguous United States as of May 28, 2024. Extreme (red) and exceptional (dark red) drought was present in relatively small parts of New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, and Idaho, less than 1% of the country. Map by NOAA Climate.gov, based on data provided by the U.S. Drought Monitor project . 

Regionally, drought improvement was recorded in most regions of the country, with significant improvement found in the northern and central Great Plains (2-3 classes). In particular, improvement over Iowa was such that none of the state was in drought at the end of May, the first time that has occurred since the end of June 2020. Drought removal also occurred over large parts of Minnesota and northeastern North Dakota. In contrast, drought degradation was more pronounced over Florida, where drought developed and worsened up to 2 classes. Some limited degradation (1-2 classes) was also recorded in southern Texas, around the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, and in Washington state.   

Drought outlook tilts toward persistence and development

The drought outlook for June predicts drought persistence for most regions of the nation currently in drought. In addition, development is favored in significant parts in south Texas, the Southwest, and in the northern Rockies. With antecedent dryness and below-normal snowpack, drought is likely to develop in the northern Rockies, as excessive heat and below-normal rainfall is favored in much of this region, especially early in the month. Drought persistence and development in south Texas and in the Southwest is also likely, with conditions currently drier than average, and expectations of above-average temperatures as we head into the warmest time of year.

U.S. map of predicted drought changes or persistence in June 2024. Some areas of new drought are forecast to develop across parts of the northern Rockies, Southwest and southern Texas. Drought is forecast to continue or worsen across portions of Florida, the Southwest, central Great Plains and northern Rockies. Drought improvement and removal is likely across areas of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. NOAA Climate.gov map, based on data from the Climate Prediction Center.

In contrast, drought improvement and some removal is likely in parts of Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, as favorable precipitation outlooks during the first half of June is combined with heavy rainfall that fell at the end of May.

To read the entire discussion of the monthly climate outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center, check out their  website.

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