News

As a complex era fuels urgent questions about the state of American democracy, faculty and students at Penn GSE are examining key issues of freedom, voice, and dialogue while helping foster respectful discussion within the classroom and beyond.

2011 McGraw Prize winner, Mitchel Resnick is the head of the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the MIT Media Lab.

Laura Perna spoke about how so-called College Promise Programs that reduce the costs of attending college may encourage more students to enroll — but cautioned a number may still be deterred by fears of hidden costs.

Laura Perna discussed how the challenges of constructing debt-free degree programs may be daunting for colleges, but the ends justify the means: The programs create a more socioeconomically diverse student body, to the benefit of everyone.

Penn GSE’s Robert Zemsky, an expert on higher education, is leading a new project called “College in 3” to explore the feasibility of creating intentional three-year degree programs.

Legacy of pioneering Civil Rights and education activist Bob Moses was the focus of schoolwide conversations at Penn GSE’s 2nd annual One Book, One GSE event, where students, faculty and staff discussed Moses’ book Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights.

Jonathan Zimmerman asked, “Can we be honest about critical race theory (CRT)?” He argues the topic has become highly politicized. To confront biases, one must share different versions of America with students and allow them to use critical thinking skills to confront conflicting truths and weigh opposing arguments.

In the 2021 Constance E. Clayton lecture, Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn points to the critical need to imagine Black futures in the metaverse and describes her work on an immersive virtual reality experience in which viewers become a Black male encountering racism.

Considered one of education’s top honors, the McGraw Prize this year recognizes Drs. Douglas and Lynn Fuchs, Richard Baraniuk and Carol D. Lee for their innovative work improving the lives of students.

Considered one of education’s top honors, the McGraw Prize this year recognizes Drs. Douglas and Lynn Fuchs, Richard Baraniuk and Carol D. Lee for their innovative work improving the lives of students.

2009 McGraw Prize winner, Sarita E. Brown, co-founded Excelencia in Education in 2004 to accelerate Latino student success in higher education by identifying, analyzing and disseminating information on effective higher education practices that highlight problems and solutions facing Latino students.

Sean E. Vereen, GED’00, GRD’05

Penn GSE alumni in educational leadership roles are at the forefront of organizations’ efforts towards advocacy, overcoming barriers, creating paths to success, celebrating differences, and more.

The Penn GSE community mourns the loss of longtime staff member Betty Deane, who served an extraordinary tenure of more than five decades at the School.

The first Penn Integrates Knowledge professor to hold an appointment at Penn GSE, Dr. Roberto Gonzales discusses the journey that led to his research on immigrant populations and envisions next steps in his new role.

Recent graduates of Penn GSE’s three teacher education master’s programs are implementing what they’ve learned, showing a deep commitment to their students’ futures as they teach mathematics, English, and science.

In a new study, Penn GSE’s Sharon Wolf documents in detail how inequalities impacted learning in Ghana during the pandemic and shares how that could inform any nation’s approach to instruction this fall.

In an op-ed in EdWeek, Penn GSE’s Dean Pam Grossman, Zachary Herrmann, and Sarah Schneider Kavanagh write that incorporating project-based learning is just like running: start a little at a time.

The University of Pennsylvania’s IES predoctoral training program, led by Penn GSE’s Brooks Bowden and Rebecca Maynard, has announced this year’s nine awardees.

Amalia Daché, a Penn GSE professor and Cuban-American activist, talks about the invisibility of Black-led movements in Cuba on Red Table Talk: The Estefans.

Andrea Kane, who joined Penn GSE this year as a Professor of Practice in Educational Leadership, was recently profiled for The New York Times.

Since 2010, the competition has awarded more than $1.5 million in cash and prizes.

A joint Penn GSE and Netter Center for Community Partnerships initiative meshed academics and joy to prepare students to return to classrooms this fall.

2018 McGraw Prize winner, Reshma Saujani is the Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, the international nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and change the image of what a computer programmer looks like and does. Saujani is also a bestselling author, award-winning podcast host, and fierce advocate for girls and women.

Penn GSE Dean Pam Grossman spoke with historian and best-selling author Jill Lepore at the School’s annual Steven S. Goldberg and Jolley Bruce Christman Lecture in Education Law

Local educators, students, and education advocates came together to celebrate the Penn Alexander School, a partner of Penn GSE, which was awarded the National Blue Ribbon Award

Mike Nakkula comments on the development of LGBTQ student support programs in the Philadelphia public school system. “Being closeted and hiding are major risk factors,” Nakkula said. “Creating spaces in schools where students feel like they have a chance to voice their concerns, that’s a critical developmental act.”

Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher dicusses her Teaching Beyond September 11th curriculum with the FreshEd Podcast.

An inaugural Penn Projects for Progress program led by a Penn GSE team focused on reconnecting West Philadelphia students to school and one another, rather than academic remediation. 

Commenting on a new 6abc investigation, Penn GSE’s Bob Jarvis offers some suggestions for addressing inequities.

In new research published in the Journal of Sleep Research, Penn GSE’s Michael A. Gottfried and Texas Tech University’s J. Jacob Kirksey find that a regular bedtime improves kindergarteners’ attendance and decreases the likelihood they will be chronically absent.

Michael Gottfried said COVID-19-related school absences may disrupt all students’ learning. “Part of me is just like let’s just go back to Zoom for everyone,” he said. “I want to be in person more than anyone else. That is, the last thing I want to do is sit on Zoom and teach. So I feel for these kids. But what kind of learning is it going to be without a real fallback plan in place?”

Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher's “Teaching Beyond September 11” curriculum has sparked conversation of the importance of learning about 9/11 in school. Many states, including Colorado, do not have a school curriculum that teaches about the “increasingly distant historic event.” There is hope that students “would understand everything that happened that went into that event taking place and they would work to make sure that event never takes place again.”

Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher says that while Americans talk about the events of Sept. 11, not enough time is spent reflecting on policies like increased surveillance of Muslims and Arabs.

Brooks Bowden cautions that while the effect sizes in the ARC Core research study were large compared to studies of older students, there are few similar studies of kindergarteners to provide a basis for comparison.

Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher spoke about “history from the last 20 years that is completely neglected.” The “Teaching Beyond September 11” curriculum “is really speaking to that gap and helping young people understand just how the world has changed as a consequence of that awful day,” she said.

Laura Perna spoke about efforts to make community college tuition-free. "There's power in the message that tuition is free. Figuring out how much college costs is complicated," she said.

2013 McGraw Prize winner, Deborah Bial is the President and Founder of the nonprofit The Posse Foundation which uses its signature Posse model to support young scholars with diverse demographic backgrounds through attending, enrolling and completing college and emerging as strong leaders from diverse backgrounds who are able to develop consensus solutions to complex social problems.

Caroline Watts discusses educators’ experiences during the early days of the pandemic, lessons learned and how the classroom might be different in the coming months.

Amalia Daché criticizes people who have blamed the U.S. embargo and not the Cuban government for the crisis in Cuba. “She was shocked to see how the U.S. media and Twitter were taking Afro-Cubans out of the narrative and blaming the U.S. and the CIA for the demonstrations,” she said.

Richard Ingersoll comments on teachers leaving the profession if the economy continues to improve and they continue to feel stress. “Typically we find that employees across the economy tend to quit less during economic downtimes,” he said. “There’s a lot of indications that in fact, during the pandemic, teacher turnover and teacher retirements may have even gone down.”

In new research published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Professor Michael Gottfried, along with J. Jacob Kirksey (Texas Tech University) and Tina L. Fletcher (Penn GSE), concluded that Latinx students with Latinx teachers attend school more, a relationship that does not exist for white students.

The history of the September 11 attacks is important. But Penn GSE’s Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher says we should show students how 9/11 has shaped our world.

Brooks Bowden comments on the amount of work that needs to be done before and after school reopen for the fall. “We’ve all got a lot of work to do,” she said. Bowden thinks “educator coaches, tutoring services, and supports for families can go a long way.”

In new research published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Michael Gottfried (Penn GSE), J. Jacob Kirksey (Texas Tech) and Tina L. Fletcher (Penn) examine the impact of having a same-race teacher on attendance.

Trina and Tina Fletcher are 35 year old twins, originally from a rural town in Arkansas with just 850 people. They are also highly successful African American women who, from an early age, had their eyes set on earning a Ph.D. and changing the world around them. Trina is currently an assistant professor of Engineering and Computing Education at Florida International University, and Tina is a Ph.D. candidate in educational policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Laura Perna spoke about accommodating the needs of adult students. “There is a complexity to adult learners,” she said. “It is really recognizing, ‘What are the circumstances of individual people’s lives?’ If someone is to enroll in college, how do you make it possible for them to attend?”

Amalia Daché spoke with Politico about the uprisings in Cuba with respect to Afro-Cubans who are disproportionately affected by the hardships in Cuba and are taking the lead in the protests. “This is one of the reasons I’ve been so active, related to my research and my own identity as an Afro-Cuban, is that Afro-Cubans have been leading this from the beginning.”

Amalia Daché writes, “The first thing the United States needs to do in crafting policy solutions is listen to the brave people risking their lives and freedom to lead these protests, especially Afro-Cubans who have lived at the bottom of the regime’s racist and classist system.”