Education Policy

Penn GSE’s PASS Program receives $1M from Google to expand AI education in schools

Penn’s Graduate School of Education’s Pioneering AI in School Systems program will expand to five school districts across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware in December, and will be offered free of charge to participating districts.

Educator’s Playbook: Incorporating arts-based inquiry into literacy classrooms

Jessica Whitelaw, a lecturer in literacy studies at Penn’s Graduate School of Education and former middle school teacher shares how to combine art with texts to maximize critical inquiry and the imagination.

Teachers are struggling with work-life balance, but there are ways to help

Research from Penn suggests that team teaching supports job flexibility and teacher retention.

A group of middle-school kids in a hallway all looking at their phones.

Over 20,000 educators share insights on school cell phone policies

Preliminary findings in the landmark research initiative “Phones in Focus” suggest stricter cell phone policies are linked to less disruption and greater teacher satisfaction.

3 min. read

Students benefit most when teachers share both their background and language skills

A new study coauthored by Graduate School of Education’s Michael A. Gottfried is the first to show that teachers’ ability to teach in students’ home language, combined with a shared racial or ethnic background, drives greater academic gains.

Janine Remillard: Improving math teaching for students

Janine Remillard improves math instruction so classrooms are places where children love the subject and see themselves as mathematicians.

Betty Chandy speaking into a microphone with AI In Schools on the white board behind her.

Philly teachers get a class PASS

Penn’s Graduate School of Education pilots “Pioneering AI in School Systems” for Philadelphia school district partners.

2 min. read

Library of Congress Literacy Awards honor Penn GSE-related literacy initiatives

The 2025 Library of Congress Literacy Awards recognized both Penn GSE’s Philadelphia Writing Project and a startup founded by alum Rina Madhani for their contributions to literacy and community engagement.

John Silvanus Wilson Jr. named executive director of the McGraw Center for Educational Leadership at Penn GSE

Beginning Sept. 2, Wilson’s role at the McGraw Center will leverage his deep expertise to advance the Center’s mission of cultivating visionary educational leaders. The former Morehouse College President previously led the White House Initiative on HBCU

A young elementary student at a blackboard.

How children learn a foreign language

Yuko Goto Butler’s latest book gathers research on language development and pedagogy among children learning a foreign language and presents it in a manner that bridges research and practice.