Centers & Initiatives

Center for Collaborative Research and Practice in Teacher Education

Center for Collaborative Research and Practice in Teacher Education brings together colleagues from Penn GSE, across Penn, and the School District of Philadelphia whose research and practice address teacher education.

Center for Research and Evaluation in Social Policy

Center for Research and Evaluation in Social Policy examines the severity of social and educational problems and the effectiveness of ameliorative programs.

Center for School Study Councils

The Center for School Study Councils works to improve the quality of education in school districts across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Center serves as a catalyst for school district superintendents to take a pro-active leadership role and facilitates their professional development.

Center for Urban Ethnography / Annual Ethnography in Education Forum

Center for Urban Ethnography / Annual Ethnography in Education Forum convenes the Ethnography in Education Research Forum, the largest annual meeting of qualitative researchers in education.

Center on Health, Achievement, Neighborhood Growth and Ethnic Studies

Center on Health, Achievement, Neighborhood Growth and Ethnic Studies focuses on designing, implementing and evaluating programs that promote resiliency among racially diverse children and youth from low-resource communities.

Consortium for Policy Research in Education:

A joint effort of the graduate schools of education at Penn, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Focuses on school reform, governance, policy, and finance.

The Kids Integrated Data System

A collaboration of Penn, the City of Philadelphia, and the School District of Philadelphia that maintains one of the nation's first fully-integrated archival systems of municipal data for children and youth.

National Center on Fathers and Families

National Center on Fathers and Families aims to improve the lives of children and families by helping fathers become more effectively involved in family life.

National Center on Adult Literacy / International Literacy Institute

National Center on Adult Literacy / International Literacy Institute is devoted to applied R&D and policy on issues of literacy across the life span, on regional, national and international basis.

Penn Center for Educational Leadership

Penn Center for Educational Leadership provides programs and services targeted at improving leadership in schools and districts, helping them enhance students achievement and growth.

Penn Literacy Network

A comprehensive professional development/curricular enhancement program that provides on-site seminars, workshops, and mentoring programs to preK-12 educators.

The Penn Project for Civic Engagement

The Penn Project for Civic Engagement is a cross-University project that collaborates with media, business and community agencies to identify and address projects on emerging issues.  It links citizen concerns to expert knowledge and media coverage, to develop real-world solutions that might not emerge otherwise.

Pre-Doctoral Training Program in Interdisciplinary Methods for Field-based Research in Education

Pre-Doctoral Training Program in Interdisciplinary Methods for Field-based Research in Education supports the Ph.D. training of students in different disciplines who are committed to careers in applied, field-based education research.

The 21st Century Center for Cognition and Science Instruction

A consortium of Penn GSE, Penn's Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, Temple's Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, the University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center, Research for Better Schools, and The 21st Century Partnership for STEM Education. Focuses on cognitive science in developing middle school science curricula.