Dr. Cassandra R. Davis: Hurricanes and learning loss

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IT’S NOT JUST THE PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL DAMAGE LEFT BEHIND AFTER A HURRICANE…. KIDS CAN ALSO FALL BEHIND IN SCHOOL.

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PUBLIC POLICY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR CASSANDRA DAVIS SAYS NORTH CAROLINA… WHERE SHE LIVES… HAS BEEN HIT BY AT *LEAST ONE TROPICAL STORM EVERY YEAR SINCE THE 18-HUNDREDS.
SHE SAYS STORMS CAN DISRUPT LEARNING… ESPECIALLY IN COASTAL COMMUNITIES… AS FAMILIES EVACUATE AND TOWNS WORK TO REBUILD.
HER RESEARCH FOUND ELEMENTARY STUDENTS IN COMMUNITIES HIT BY HURRICANE MATTHEW IN 20-16… AND HURRICANE FLORENCE IN 20-18… SCORED MUCH LOWER IN MATH AND READING.

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Duration: :28
Super: Dr. Cassandra R. Davis – Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
“And in addition to that, we see that there is a social-emotional impact where we’ve heard and we’ve seen students, as well as educators, talk about how years or months after an event, a similar, maybe a bad rainstorm, will bring some bit of trauma. I’s difficult to concentrate, that fear of reliving another disaster.”

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DAVIS SAYS AS CLIMATE CHANGE WORSENS…  THE IMPACT ON KIDS’ LEARNING WILL LIKELY GROW.
AND THAT IMPACT IS NOT THE SAME IN EVERY COMMUNITY.

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Duration: 1:07
“If a community was living in a food desert prior to a disaster and they’re still in one after, what are they really recovering from? And so I guess my push, my ways to encourage other scholars, other emergency management personnel, people who are working day-to-day with these communities, we really need to rethink what recovery looks like long-term. And we really need to kind of start to question this use of this word resilience. And in what pockets do we use that word and where we do not. And so I am an advocate for a just recovery. So ensuring that communities are able to not just, again, recover, but they’re able to thrive. They’re not bouncing back to a community that didn’t have resources. They’re thriving in a space that honors their history and their culture, and they’re able to continue on, but in a strong way in preparation for future disasters.”