Education Policy

How to encourage student attendance

From Penn GSE’s Educator’s Playbook, Michael Gottfried highlights approaches that schools and teachers can take to address absenteeism by identifying root causes and creating a supportive environment for all students.

From Penn GSE

A legacy of leadership

Dean Pam Grossman has guided Penn’s Graduate School of Education through a capital campaign, a global pandemic, a historic building expansion, and unprecedented growth with ambition and compassion.

From Penn GSE

Educational inequities? Follow the numbers, says Ericka Weathers

The Penn GSE professor studies how policies that are supposed to be race-neutral, like school funding formulas, truancy policy, or special education, end up failing marginalized groups, and urges a look at the results of past policies to better inform moving forward.

From Penn GSE

Penn GSE’s María Cioè-Peña on equitable access in education

The assistant professor of education joined the Educational Linguistics Division to ensure that bilingual children with dis/abilities get the support needed to thrive; she aims to find a model where all learners get what they need without being labeled.

From Penn GSE



Media Contact


In the News


Associated Press

College students are still struggling with basic math. Professors blame the pandemic

Dean Katharine Strunk of the Graduate School of Education says that math issues are most pronounced among Black, Latino, low-income, and other vulnerable students, as with many learning setbacks.

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The Washington Post

In some schools, dread over the new year: ‘We’re scared to teach’

Jonathan Zimmerman of the Graduate School of Education says that the ambiguity of bans on teaching topics creates more anxiety among educators.

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USA Today

Summer school may be back in vogue as college students work toward early graduation

Robert Zemsky of the Graduate School of Education is co-leading a three-year bachelor’s degree project.

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Christian Science Monitor

Rise of the microschool: Small, student-centered learning spaces take off

Jonathan Zimmerman of the Graduate School of Education says that multi-age, communal school environments with small student populations have consistently reemerged through the decades as Americans have rejected sprawling schools with hundreds or thousands of students.

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Associated Press

A Biden plan cuts student loan payments for millions to $0. Will it be the next legal battle?

Penn researchers estimate that President Biden’s new student loan payment plan will cost as much as $361 billion.

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Los Angeles Times

How we got interminable summer breaks from school—and what we can do about it

In an op-ed, Jonathan Zimmerman of the Graduate School of Education writes that a new take on summer school could connect more teachers with the passion and idealism that brought them into education in the first place. 

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