Rockefeller Foundation: Difficult but doable: relationships & trust are helping schools reopen safely

Once LaGrange 102 rolled out the program, teachers saw real-world evidence that testing was likely preventing outbreaks, fears about testing were largely put to rest. As reported in the RAND working paper, the testing program identified and isolated 53 out of 84 total Covid-19 cases reported in district schools since September 2020, reducing the risk of silent transmission. As a LaGrange 102 staff member quoted in the working paper reflected, “when we started picking up clinically significant findings, teachers think, ‘wow, if we didn’t have this, this kid would be in my class with COVID.’ That’s when people thought, ‘This will work.’"

When we started picking up clinically significant findings, teachers think, ‘wow, if we didn’t have this, this kid would be in my class with COVID.’ That’s when people thought, ‘This will work.'

When LaGrange 102’s strategy was first deployed in Fall 2020, there was limited available evidence or expert consensus than there is now on the limited nature of school-based transmission. To Dr. Schumacher and Dr. Campbell, real-world evidence is a huge boost for schools who are reopening now as it increases confidence and trust. “People who are going into this now, they don’t have to go through that [as much uncertainty] because there are better examples...The districts we’ve brought on board [more recently], their ramp-up was faster because [we] had [other] districts to point to,” said Dr. Schumacher.

Read the full article on The Rockefeller Foundation website here.

---

The Centre for Public Impact, a BCG Foundation, is not affiliated with Public Impact, an independent education research and consulting firm dedicated to improving learning outcomes for all children in the United States.