Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: FY 21. Finance Tables. NCES 2023-301

This set of tables introduces new data for national and state-level public elementary and secondary revenues and expenditures for fiscal year (FY) 2021. Specifically, these tables include the following school finance data: (1) revenue and expenditure totals;(2) revenues by source;(3) expenditures by function and object;(4) current expenditures;(5) revenues and current expenditures per pupil;(6) expenditures from Title I funds;and (7) revenues and expenditures from COVID-19 Federal Assistance Funds. The tables chosen for this report demonstrate the range of information available when using the National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS). [For "Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: FY 20. Finance Tables. NCES 2022-301," see ED619372.]

CREATIVE ACCOUNTING IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TO OBTAIN FUNDS FOR COVID-19 MANAGEMENT

Purpose: This study aims to test whether local governments in Indonesia carry out creative accounting to obtain a national economic response loan in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic with 0% interest. Theoretical framework: According to public choice theory, it can be predicted that local government will take advantage the National Economic Recovery (PEN) loan program with 0% interest from central government for their covid-19 prevention. Local government will fix the financial information which adjusted to the central government regulation in order to obtain the loan. Design/methodology/approach: The research population in the first year was all local governments in Indonesia. The sample obtained in this study was 51 local governments according to the criteria in the purposive method. The data analysis technique used in the study was the STATA analysis tool version 15. Findings: The result analysis regression has proven that the local government loan positively affects creative accounting. This study can also prove that geographic location and local government independence positively affects creative accounting. Research, Practical & Social implications: The low level of local government financial statement accessibility in Indonesia has resulted in a minimum amount of data being obtained. This can be a motivation for further research to examine the level of financial statements transparency in Indonesia. Originality/value: This study is the first to examine creative accounting by government accountants. Secondly, this study can improve scientific studies, especially financial accounting through empirical evidence about creative accounting carried out by Indonesian local governments in developing countries that have different characteristics from other countries in the world. © AOS-Estratagia and Inovacao. All Rights Reserved.

Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools in 2019-20: Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety. First Look. NCES 2022-029

Using data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), this report presents findings both on crime and violence in U.S. public schools and on the practices and programs schools have used to promote school safety. SSOCS collects data from public school principals about violent and nonviolent crimes in their schools. The survey also collects data on school security measures, school security staff, mental health services, parent and community involvement at school, and staff training. SSOCS data can be used to study how violent incidents in schools relate to the programs and practices that schools have in place to prevent crime. Data collection began in February 2020 and was conducted mostly using an online survey instrument. In March 2020, many schools began closing their physical buildings due to the coronavirus pandemic. This affected data collection activities. Also, the change to virtual schooling and the adjusted school year may have impacted the data collected by SSOCS. Readers should use caution when comparing SSOCS:2020 estimates with those from earlier years. The national sample for SSOCS:2020 was made up of 4,800 U.S. public schools. Of these schools, 2,370 elementary, middle, high/secondary, and combined/other schools responded. The results showed that nonresponding schools were significantly different from responding schools. However, the results also showed that weighting adjustments removed most of the observed nonresponse bias. [For the summary report, see ED621594. For the 2019 report, see ED596638.]

Reflections on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Bibliometric Mapping Analysis

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been around for some time, but several studies highlighted different issues associated with them, including quality. The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed their second blooming, where MOOCs have seen a surge in enrollments since March 2020. This study intended to explore how this enrollment reflected on the research studies included in scientific publications, indexed by Web of Science. Specifically, the bibliometric mapping analyses of 108 studies have revealed an ongoing trend in the countries contributing to the MOOCs research, namely USA, China, UK and Spain. Additionally, MOOCs research coming from US, UK and other western countries was decreasing before the pandemic and showed a continuous dramatic reduction also during the COVID-19 pandemic. Growing attention in MOOCs research among less represented countries was also observed. Besides, most of the topics focused on by MOOCs research during the pandemic were mainly related to education and engineering.

A Systematic Review of Studies on Online Education for Autism Spectrum Disorder

The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak caused a paradigm change in education and made it necessary to conduct educational activities through online learning environments (OLEs). This sudden shift also affected special education practices for learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study aims to investigate the current issues in online education studies relating to individuals with or involved with (i.e., parents or teachers) ASD. For this purpose, a literature search was carried out to review the relevant studies conducted from 2010 to 2019, and 19 studies were selected based on predefined research criteria. Content analysis was performed to analyze the reviewed articles considering the following domains: publication year, country, field, purpose, research methods, instruments, results, and suggestions. Results indicated that the publication rates of studies pertaining to individuals with ASD, their parents and teachers increased after 2014, and although OLEs are found to be beneficial in meeting the needs of the target group, several improvements are needed to make them more useful and adaptable.

COVID-19 Effects on Construction Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted a wide variety of industries including construction management. The scope and magnitude of these effects may vary based on geographic location and section of industry. Our motivation to conduct a research study, by collecting the industry professionals' opinions and feedback about COVID-19 impacts on construction, was derived from the growing uncertainty caused by the pandemic. The objectives of the survey are to measure how the industry has been affected by the pandemic and investigate if the outbreak would affect the future of construction industry. The survey was sent out to approximately one thousand professionals working in different sections of the industry across the United States, and 83 responses were collected in late 2020 and early 2021. The results of the survey suggest that economic uncertainty, safety, and communications are the worst challenges that the construction industry faced so far due to the pandemic. Industry professionals identified cancellation or delay of contracts and supply chain shortages as the main negative impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the construction. Currently, the construction industry is experiencing a sharp recovery while suffering from supply chain disruptions, skilled labor shortages, escalating inflation rate, and higher risk of COVID-19 infections compared to other industries due to the lower vaccination rate. This study shows that the pandemic had a silver lining that forced construction companies to adoption of new technologies and increasing the productivity rate. It provides new opportunities to build more manufacturing and warehouses within the states, and create more domestic job opportunities while avoiding uncertainty associated with outsourcing. This research provides academia with insight to better prepare new generation for upcoming changes and have these new technologies and trends included in the curriculum. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Comparison of Variations between the Waves in This COVID-19 Pandemic: Past, Present and Future

The COVID-19 pandemic started by the SARS-CoV-2 virus from China hit different parts of the world and caused till now the first, second and third waves at different time periods from March 2020 to December 2021. Virus variants emerged to cause these waves with altered behaviour and severity of the disease and difficulty in the management of the pandemic. An unexpected upsurge happened during these waves due to social reasons and policies. In this article, we discuss the variations in the waves from a few geographic locations which will give us a better understanding of regional effects and precautions needed for the future. © 2022 Society for Biomaterials and Artificial Organs - India. All rights reserved.

The COVID-19 inequidemic: Disparities in school-based telehealth services

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most unique events in world history as it caused economic and social disruption, impacted the physical and mental health of individuals, and created new, and highlighted already existing, disparities. To minimize the spread of the infection, schools closed, which required daily tasks to continue through a virtual format. For potentially the first time and with little prior research, school-based professionals were instructed to provide mental and behavioral health services to students through online telehealth platforms. The researcher aimed to examine the extent to which school-based professionals were providing telehealth services to students along with the barriers that have presented to successful telehealth implementation and receipt. Specifically, the researcher was interested in how geographic location and socioeconomic status impacted effectiveness of telehealth services during school closure due to COVID-19. School psychologists, social workers, and counselors were surveyed on experiences with delivering these services, and parents and guardians were surveyed on their child's experience with receiving telehealth services. Quantitative data on current experiences were collected, and qualitative data on future recommendations for practice were analyzed. The findings suggest the lack of access to and consistently successful utilization of telehealth services for rural and lower socioeconomic communities. The findings further demonstrate the need for a systemic approach in successful virtual mental and behavioral health service delivery, which includes government funding, community-based partnerships, and collaboration among school- based providers and families. The data add to the current research literature regarding the potential limitations and successes of telehealth services in schools and areas of improvement that include professional developments and greater education, assistance, and resources for proper use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Ensemble Federated Learning for Non-II D COVID-19 Detection

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for a chest X-ray scans classifier is crucial in order to diagnose patients and classify scans into normal, COVID-infected, and pneumonia. Federated learning was chosen for the classification as it uses a decentralized approach to train the model at the local servers belonging to each entity in various geographic locations. Therefore, information leakage that could happen from the traditional centralized approach of training is prevented, besides saving the huge cost of central storage. However, between the vast difference in the number of X-ray scans per data-silo (i.e. hospital), the dissimilar image-Acquisition techniques, and the diverse morphological structures of the human chest, non-IID (non-Independent and Identically Distributed) skews are introduced in the data. In this paper, real-world datasets of COVID and pneumonia scans are used to satisfy all the non-IID data skews. An experiment was then conducted to test the effect of these skews using five federated learning algorithms, FedAvg, FedProx, FedNova, SCAFFOLD, and FedBN, under the same metrics. The obtained accuracy values are 79.5%, 76.92%, 5.57%, 79.18%, and 84.4%, respectively. In this paper, we present the different effects of non-IID skews on the training process and discuss the different federated learning variations to mitigate the data heterogeneity. © 2022 IEEE.

Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic on Public and Private Elementary and Secondary Education in the United States: Results from the 2020-21 National Teacher and Principal Survey. NCES 2022-019

The 2020-21 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS)1 is a national survey of public and private K-12 schools, principals, and teachers. Data were collected in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. NTPS collects data on core topics, including teacher and principal training, classes taught, school characteristics, and backgrounds of teachers and principals. In addition to these core topics, the 2020-21 NTPS collected data on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education during the 2019-20 school year. NTPS collects data to provide a detailed picture of U.S. elementary and secondary schools and their staff. These data are collected through school, principal, and teacher surveys. Data can be linked through all three surveys. This report provides basic findings from the COVID-19 questions asked as part of the NTPS public and private school, principal, and teacher surveys. The full 2020-21 data files will be released in summer 2022. The released data will be imputed before undergoing perturbation and will include final weights. Findings are based on preliminary data in order to provide critical and timely data on the impact of COVID-19 on schools, principals, and teachers in the spring of 2020.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Urban Spatial Distribution of the Sales and Use of Online Education Courses: The Case of the Taipei Area

The COVID-19 pandemic broke out in December 2019 and began to spread globally in 2020. The final analysis of 124, 564 valid observations pointed out that before and after the COVID-19, online education courses had an abso-lute increase in the total purchase amount or total purchase amount. Because of the control of COVID-19 in Taiwan, there is no significant difference between the validity and the time point of the purchase amount and the use of the course. The geographic location is defined by the digital development level of the administrative area, and the higher the digital development of the administrative area, the better the amount of courses purchased and the use of courses, compared with other types of courses, the life category has more purchase amount and course use time;the education level of course users has a considerable degree of positive influence on the purchase amount and course using. © 2021, Tamkang University. All rights reserved.

Understanding the Hoarding Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic using Large Scale Social Media Data

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people's lives around the world on an unprecedented scale. We intend to investigate hoarding behaviors in response to the pandemic using large-scale social media data. First, we collect hoarding-related tweets shortly after the outbreak of the coronavirus. Next, we analyze the hoarding and anti-hoarding patterns of over 42,000 unique Twitter users in the United States from March 1 to April 30, 2020, and dissect the hoarding-related tweets by age, gender, and geographic location. We find the percentage of women in both hoarding and anti-hoarding groups is higher than that of the general Twitter user population. Furthermore, using topic modeling, we investigate the opinions expressed towards the hoarding behavior by categorizing these topics according to demographic and geographic groups. We also calculate the anxiety scores for the hoarding and anti-hoarding related tweets using a lexical approach. By comparing their anxiety scores with the baseline Twitter anxiety score, we reveal further insights. The LIWC anxiety mean for the hoarding-related tweets is significantly higher than the baseline Twitter anxiety mean. Interestingly, beer has the highest calculated anxiety score compared to other hoarded items mentioned in the tweets. © 2021 IEEE.

The Rise of Virtual Schools: Selected Findings from the Third American School District Panel Survey. Data Note: Insights from the American Educator Panels. Research Report. RR-A956-5

The onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted school districts in the United States to offer remote schooling options for their K-12 students. The authors of this report fielded the third American School District Panel (ASDP) survey in June 2021 to assess districts' plans to offer both temporary and more-lasting remote instruction options starting in fall 2021. The key ASDP findings presented in this report draw on the responses of 292 district leaders after weighting those responses to make them nationally representative. Results from the June 2021 ASDP survey suggest that K-12 remote instruction will outlast the pandemic. Remote instruction can be delivered in various forms, however, and the survey questions delved into three: a temporary option for fully remote instruction in fall 2021, fully online courses, and standalone virtual schools. The authors explore differences in districts' pre-pandemic offerings and plans to offer multiple remote instructional modes in the 2021-2022 school year by district type. Virtual schools have had the most marked growth. Only 3 percent of surveyed districts ran a virtual school before the pandemic began. Since the pandemic began, however, the number of districts running virtual schools has grown ninefold. And nearly one-quarter of surveyed districts that had no plans to operate a virtual school in the 2021-2022 school year had at least some interest in operating a virtual school sometime in the future. [For a related report, "Technical Documentation for the Third American School District Panel Survey. Research Report. RR-A956-6," see ED615291.]

The associations of geographic location and perceived risk of infection with the intentions to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in China.

BACKGROUND: Vaccines are a critical tool against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, yet little is known regarding the associations of geographic location and perceived risk with the intentions to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in China. METHODS: An on-site survey of adults aged 18 or older (n = 7261) was conducted from November to December, 2020 in China, and this survey selected six provinces based on the geographic location. RESULTS: In the total sample, 82.5% reported that they would intend to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Compared with Hubei province, respondents' intentions to get vaccinated decreased by 70% in Zhejiang, 61% in Guangdong, 87% in Gansu, and 71% in Jilin, respectively. However, within Hubei province, compared with Wuhan city, respondents' intentions to get vaccinated in other cities were not significantly different. Respondents with higher perceived risk of infection were associated with increased odds of intentions to get vaccinated against COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Our study identified priority geographic regions that need to pay attention on the vaccination campaign and help design effective immunization strategies to increase the vaccine uptake against COVID-19. More attention should be paid to adults residing farther from the epicenter of the outbreak and having lower perceived risk of infection.

International heterogeneity in coronavirus disease 2019 pediatric mortality rates.

Background: Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is infrequent in children and shows a mortality rate of around 0.08%. This study aims to explore international differences in the pediatric mortality rate. Methods: We analyzed several countries with populations over 5 million that report disaggregated data of COVID-19 deaths by quinquennial or decennial age groups. Data were extracted from COVID-19 cases and deaths by age database, National Ministeries of Health, and the World Health Organization. Results: We included 23 countries in the analysis. Pediatric mortality varied from 0 to 12.1 deaths per million children of the corresponding age group, with the highest rate in Peru. In most countries, deaths were more frequent in the 0-4-year-old age group, except for Brazil. The pediatric/general COVID-19 mortality showed a great variation and ranged from 0% (Republic of Korea) to 10.4% (India). Pediatric and pediatric/general COVID mortality correlates strongly with 2018 neonatal mortality (r = 0.77, p < 0.001; and r = 0.88, p < 0.001, respectively), while shows a moderate or no correlation (r = 0.47, p = 0.02; and r = 0.19, p = 0.38, respectively) with COVID-19 mortality in the general population. Conclusions: International heterogeneity in pediatric COVID-19 mortality importantly parallels historical neonatal mortality. Neonatal mortality is a well-known index of the quality of a country's health system, which points to the importance of social determinants of health in pediatric COVID-19 mortality disparities. This issue should be further explored.

Introducción: La COVID-19 grave es poco frecuente en la infancia. El objetivo de este estudio fue explorar las diferencias en la tasa de mortalidad internacional por COVID-19 en la población pediátrica. Método: Se analizaron países con poblaciones superiores a 5 millones de habitantes que reporten muertes por COVID-19 con datos desglosados por grupos de edad quinquenales o decenales. Los datos se extrajeron de la base de datos COVerAge-DBs, de los ministerios nacionales de salud y de la Organización Mundial de la Salud. Resultados: Se incluyeron 23 países. La mortalidad pediátrica varió de 0 a 12.1 muertes por millón de personas del grupo de edad correspondiente, con la tasa más alta en Perú. En la mayoría de los países, las muertes fueron más frecuentes en el grupo de 0 a 4 años, excepto en Brasil. La mortalidad pediátrica/general por COVID-19 mostró una gran variación entre países y osciló entre el 0% (República de Corea) y el 10.4% (India). La mortalidad pediátrica y pediátrica/general por COVID-19 se correlaciona fuertemente con la mortalidad neonatal de 2018, mientras que tiene una moderada o nula correlación con la mortalidad por COVID-19 en la población general. Conclusiones: Existe una importante heterogeneidad internacional en la mortalidad pediátrica por COVID-19, que es paralela a la mortalidad neonatal histórica, la cual es un indicador de la calidad de los sistemas de salud y señala la importancia de los determinantes sociales de la salud en las disparidades de mortalidad pediátrica por COVID-19. Este tema debe explorarse a fondo.

Geographic Distribution of Mental Health Problems Among Chinese College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Nationwide, Web-Based Survey Study.

BACKGROUND: Since the COVID-19 outbreak was first reported, considerable attention has been drawn to mental health problems among college students. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to estimate the prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms among college students in different geographical areas of China during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. METHODS: A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted among Chinese college students of 16 provinces or municipalities from February 4 to 12, 2020. A web-based survey was adopted to collect information from these college students, including demographics, perceived risk of infection, attitudes toward the epidemic and its control, and mental health status. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire. Chi-square test was used to compare the percentage of perceived risk of infection and attitude toward COVID-19 among college students in different geographic locations. Binary logistic models were used to identify associations between geographic locations and mental health problems after controlling for covariates. RESULTS: A total of 11,787 participants were analyzed in this study (response rate: 79.7%). The prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms among college students was 17.8% (95% CI 17.1%-18.5%) and 25.9% (95% CI 25.1%-26.7%), respectively. After controlling for covariates, current residence area in Wuhan city was found to have a positive association with anxiety symptoms (odds ratio [OR] 1.37, 95% CI 1.11-1.68) and depressive symptoms (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.09-1.59). Similarly, college location in Wuhan city was found to have a positive association with anxiety symptoms (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.07-1.35) and depressive symptoms (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.10-1.36). History of residence in or travel to Wuhan city in the past month was also positively associated with anxiety symptoms (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.46-1.80) and depressive symptoms (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.35-1.63). Furthermore, the perceived risk of COVID-19 was higher among students whose college location and current residence area were in Wuhan city, and it was positively associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health problems among Chinese college students were widespread and geographically diverse. Our study results provide further insight for policymakers to develop targeted intervention strategies.

Regional and Chronological Variation of Chemosensory Dysfunction in COVID-19: a Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Olfactory and gustatory dysfunction are frequently reported in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the reported prevalence of olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunction varies widely, and the reason for the inter-study differences is unclear. Hence, in this meta-analysis, we performed subgroup analyses to investigate the factors that contribute to the inter-study variability in the prevalence of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction. METHODS: Out of 943 citations, we included 55 eligible studies with 13,527 patients with COVID-19 for a meta-analysis. Calculating the data extracted from each study, the weighted summary prevalence of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction was estimated using a Freeman-Tukey transformation with models based on random-effects assumptions. A meta-analysis of variance compared the prevalence of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction according to regional, chronological, demographic, and methodologic factors, respectively. RESULTS: The overall pooled prevalence rates of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction were 51.4% and 47.5%, respectively, in the random-effect model. In subgroup analyses, the prevalence rates of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction were significantly different among four geographical regions (both P < 0.001, respectively). Although the prevalence rates of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction did not significantly differ according to the time of enrollment, the subgroup analyses including only studies from the same geographical region (Europe) revealed a significant difference in olfactory dysfunction according to the time of enrollment. CONCLUSION: The regional and chronological differences in the prevalence rates of olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions partly explain the wide inter-study variability.

The pandemic characteristics of 2019-nCoV: case-control study for severity and geographic locations for 2019-nCoV epidemics worldwide.

Using available official data we found 248 epidemics curves caused worldwide by the 2019-nCoV in the period December 2019-March 31st 2020. The analysis of this material allowed two main observations: 1) it is possible to describe the main geographical pathway of the diffusion of the virus in different directions. This strongly suggests a unique point of origin of the pandemics in Wuhan, China, from where it spread in many different directions. 2) of the 74 epidemics which were characterized by at least 1000 cases, 65 (90%) were located in the geographic region of the world delimitated by 52-30 degrees latitude North. Viceversa 110 (60%) of the 176 epidemics with less than 1000 cases were located outside the cited geographical world region. These results suggest considerations on the pandemic characteristics of 2019-nCoV.