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A powerful, lively, and heartfelt panel took over the second floor of Houston Hall this past week as part of the seventh annual Women of Color in Higher Education Summit

The ranking marks Penn GSE’s second year in a row at #1 in U.S. News & World Report’s list and its seventh consecutive year in the top five.

Should there be more than two podiums, two gendered sets of record books? More could be done to recognize transgender athletes’ accomplishments, Ross Aikins writes.

Janine Remillard speaks about a local program that prepares Black girls for careers in STEM fields. “Black girls need to be in an environment where they can thrive by being supported as learners, and by being able to look around and see others like themselves,” she says.

What can institutions do to help students make informed choices about higher education? How can we make sense of skepticism surrounding cost, value, and return on investment? Four members of the Penn GSE community at the forefront of these changes spoke at a recent Penn Alumni panel event.

Jonathan Zimmerman speaks about how teaching has been ignored until recently because “it has never been professionalized.” He says research has received more attention while teaching has gotten less, and suggests four guidelines for those considering peer review of teaching.

Struck by her own experience as an educator, Penn GSE alum Rina Madhani is helping promote childhood literacy in the underserved communities of the Bronx through a growing nonprofit.

Michael Gottfried speaks about mental health absences in schools. Unexcused absences can lead to truancy, get kids into trouble, get parents into trouble, and can lead to juvenile justice outcomes, he says. Schools need to keep careful track of students who take repeated mental health days.

Penn GSE doctoral student Lightning P. Jay talked with Tech & Learning about ways educators can engage in this difficult but worthwhile conversation with their students.

Jonathan Supovitz comments on the drop in Pennsylvania students’ standardized testing scores. Given the pandemic and the challenges of virtual learning, Supovitz says the scores are “not surprising, and it is also entirely consistent with other places in the country.”

The Penn GSE Magazine takes a look at the three master's programs in teacher education at Penn GSE — and the stories of three of its students, each on their own journey.

Ryan Baker shares some best practices and which practices to avoid after two years of virtual learning. Virtual learning should focus on ensuring that students experience as little disruption to their education as possible. The key to that is creating a discourse around the use of technology.

Laura Perna speaks about net price calculators and their implications in college admissions. The three buckets that matter for college opportunity are financial aid, academic readiness, and information, she says. Net price calculators are an “important mechanism to help people understand really early on in the process ideally, how much it will actually cost.”

Halfway around the world from home, a Penn GSE alum discovered a passion for writing — and teaching other non-native English writers.

Penn GSE’s Dr. Marsha Richardson shares her insights on how parents and teachers can help children process the complex thoughts and emotions associated with watching war unfold.

Marsha Richardson discusses how to explain the realities of war to children. “When it comes to issues like this, sometimes we can find it hard to connect the dots between a child’s behavior and the events unfolding in the world around them,” she says. “This is about being in tune with and understanding, developmentally, the ways in which these stressful situations might manifest for children.”

Renowned edtech expert Ryan Baker talks about what we’ve learned — and how educators can put that knowledge to work.

Through a strategic and mutually beneficial partnership, the Jacobs Foundation and Penn GSE will advance a shared belief in the transformative power of education.

Designed to level the playing field and create a more diverse pool of leaders for Philadelphia schools, the Pathway to Leadership Program will see its first students this summer.

Four Penn GSE alumni describe how they are striving to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion through their roles at a education nonprofit, a middle school, a state university, and a tech company

Sigal Ben-Porath speaks about how information spreads outside conventional news sources. “You have a really open [media] landscape where people like Joe Rogan can hustle,” she says. “The incentive structure is built around rage rather than thoughtful engagement. At the same time, society’s values are changing. Societies are not like atomic clocks. We change and evolve over time.”

The meeting featured high-level findings from four research studies and a thorough discussion of Penn GSE’s educational framework for practice-based learning.

Penn GSE’s Sigal Ben-Porath joined Yale University’s Jacob S. Hacker, UCLA’s Martin Gilens and Vanderbilt University’s Larry M. Bartels in The Scholars’ Circle interview to discuss the decline of democracy in the U.S., its causes, and its cures.

Richard Ingersoll expressed concern about lowering the bar for teachers. “Remote sometimes might be much more preferable to getting some substitute in there who’s basically babysitting,” he said.

Penn GSE’s Abby Reisman and Sigal Ben-Porath penned a piece for the Washington Post denouncing legislative efforts to limit classroom discussions on race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Penn GSE’s Andrea Kane spoke at a recent panel discussion about the importance of retaining and supporting educational leaders of color.

Jonathan Zimmerman opined that the role of an educational institution is to make its students more aware, informed and thoughtful adults through structured dialogue – not necessarily to discipline them for words spoken and actions taken in the past.

Jonathan Zimmerman said that bills banning the teaching of so-called “critical race theory” in schools could create more problems for conservatives than they solve. “I understand the danger of indoctrination in our schools, about race and everything else,” he said. “But the solution to that problem is to present multiple perspectives in our classrooms, not to bar certain perspectives from them.”

Following the formalization of a five-year, $4.1 million deal between Penn and Henry C. Lea Elementary School,  many throughout the city are wondering how the extra support will transform the school over the coming years.

The University and its Graduate School of Education will contribute more than $4 million to the West Philadelphia K-8 school throughout the next five years.

Rabani Garg and Sibylla Shekerdjiska-Benatova discuss what goes into the creation of the Best Books for Young Readers list — and what it means to them.

Now more than ever, it is imperative that the stories we tell, read, and write are reflective of the histories and experiences of the many different communities that make up our world — communities which are often missing from bookshelves in schools and libraries.

One of many virtual offerings of Penn GSE’s Center for Professional Learning, the Strategic Leadership Certificate program is helping educators strengthen their effectiveness and deepen their impact.

Penn GSE’s newest associate professor on “curricular complexity,” how too many choices can overwhelm students, and the human stories behind big data.

As 2022 gets rolling, let's take one last look back at our top stories of 2021.

Drawing on pre-pandemic data, Robert Zemsky predicted that 20% of higher education institutions were in danger of shuttering.

Amalia Daché spoke about the mistreatment of protesters in Cuba. “Cuba is a political apartheid. There is definitely racial discrimination happening in Cuba,” she said. “When Cuba gets a cold, Afro-Cubans get the flu, and they die.”

Jonathan Zimmerman posed tough questions about who will instruct students about the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Most of our history teachers, he says, are not adequately educated for that task.

The NCAA is hosting a Constitutional Convention to consider “sweeping” changes to how it governs college athletics. What's at stake? What does it mean for the future of college athletics?

St. Mark’s School, Kent School, John Burroughs School, and Marin Academy will join 17 host partner schools working directly with Penn GSE to provide intensive teaching fellowships to aspiring early career teachers.

Tina Fletcher figured out her life’s purpose when she met her ninth-grade civics teacher. Mrs. Payne was Black, like Fletcher, and was one of the first teachers of color Fletcher had in her rural Arkansas town. “I knew from that point forward I had to be a social studies teacher,” Fletcher said. “I could see myself.”

Laura Perna said that applying for financial aid can be complicated for students. However, the Alamo Promise program, which provides students in Texas with free tuition and additional services, sends “a clear message with no fine print,” she said.

Speaking to an audience of Penn GSE alumni and friends, three mental health professionals shared ways in which they’re responding to students’ mental health during transitional times.

Penn GSE exceeded the largest fundraising goal in its history, dramatically increasing support for priorities across the School.

Jonathan Zimmerman proposed a domestic sister city program to alleviate partisan divisions and remind Americans of their commonalities.

While migration research tends to focus on migrants and the countries that receive them, Briana Nichols, a joint doctoral candidate in Education, Culture, and Society, and Anthropology, chose to focus her research on the community members who are fighting to stay.