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Secondary Education
Supporting education in Ghana
The Graduate School of Education’s Sharon Wolf is leading a research project on reaching parents in remote and impoverished regions of Ghana with supportive text messages to share information on helping their children, especially girls, succeed in school.
Improving college access for Philadelphia’s Latinx community
A collaboration between Penn and the nonprofit Centro de Cultura Arte Trabajo y Educación aims to enhance a thriving post-secondary success program, create mentoring opportunities, and more.
2021 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education honorees boast transformative accomplishments, Penn ties
Often regarded as the “Nobel Prize of Education,” the McGraw Prize is awarded annually to leaders who are pushing beyond the boundaries of the current education landscape and revolutionizing the field.
Penn Summer Academy dives into social justice
High school students explore complex issues surrounding social justice and environmental justice through a variety of media at Penn Summer Academy.
In a California district, Latinx students with Latinx teachers attend more school
While the teaching workforce continues to be heavily dominated by white teachers, in particular white women, the academic and social-emotional benefits for students of color of having a teacher who is their same race have been widely documented. Less studied is the impact that having a same-race teacher has on attendance.
Remote learning affected high schoolers’ social, emotional health
Research from Angela Duckworth and colleagues found that teenagers who attended school virtually fared worse than classmates who went in person, results that held even when accounting for variables like gender, race, and socioeconomic status.
A post-pandemic wave of teachers leaving the workforce, and other trends
Penn GSE’s Richard Ingersoll has published a new report looking at who is at work in America’s classrooms, and finds that many trends he has tracked since publishing his first study continue to hold true, and in some ways have deepened.
Five tips for talking to young children about COVID-19 today
Many vaccinated adults have started going maskless, but most children still cannot. Some states are now fully open. Psychologist Caroline Watts offers parents language they can use to talk openly as a family about this newest phase of the pandemic.
How project-based learning can prepare students for the 21st century
Penn GSE dean Pam Grossman and peers argue in a new book that project-based learning, a method of instruction that identifies a project or problem that students work on, should be at the center of American public education.
How to get even better at supporting your LGBTQ+ students
Teachers, school counselors, and administrators owe it to their LGBTQ+ students, along with the rest of the student body, to provide an inclusive environment where everyone feels comfortable.
In the News
Philly School District partners with Temple, Penn for new program preparing diverse future education leaders
Penn is partnering with Temple University and the School District of Philadelphia to launch a program that aims to diversify the pipeline of education leaders. The program begins this summer.
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Remote students of all races, incomes suffered during pandemic
Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences helped lead a study that explored the impact of academic, social, and emotional learning loss among high school students who learned remotely last year. “We must recognize that our nation’s students are not just lagging as performers, they are suffering as people," she said.
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Pivoting to middle school teacher from bank teller to stay ahead of disruption
Dean Pam Grossman of the Graduate School of Education said technology has yet to significantly disrupt education or replace the need for teachers. “Teaching and learning are fundamentally relational processes, and without the relationship, it’s hard to engage learners, particularly those that aren’t motivated,” she said.
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‘Is inclusion even possible?’
Dean John L. Jackson Jr. of the Annenberg School for Communication participated in a conversation about how colleges can be more inclusive and equitable. “Difficult as it is, as challenging as it always has been, this is something we have to imagine,” he said. “The alternative is far too dark.”
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What principals have learned from COVID-19’s ‘stress test’
The Consortium for Policy Research in Education, housed in the Graduate School of Education, has published five briefs about how U.S. school districts and principals have dealt with the pandemic. “The principals are doing all these amazing things, which are serving urgent needs of kids and families. That’s not taken into account in what we think of as a good school. There is an imbalance between our metrics for assessing quality and the actual role of schools in society,” said Jonathan Supovitz.
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How the coronavirus has upended college admissions
Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke at the annual conference for the Common Application about factoring “personal qualities” into the admissions process. "Whatever you call them, the take-home message is these things matter, and in some cases matter as much as IQ," she said.
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