Community Connections

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School. GSE leads the University's effort to develop and operate this new university-assisted, public PreK-8 neighborhood school in West Philadelphia. Commonly called the Penn Alexander School, this initiative represents an important direction for the University - partnering with the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers - to create a high performing public school. It also significantly expands the University's deepening involvement in the community and represents an enormous opportunity for GSE students. GSE faculty and students are involved in many ways - as student teachers,  teachers, tutors, mentors, consultants and researchers, working with teachers from this school and schools throughout the entire Philadelphia school system to improve teaching and learning.  The school offers a rigorous academic program in a state-of-the-art facility surrounded by plentiful greenspace as well as a clinical setting for professional growth and development of pre-service and in-service teachers, and implementing best practices in instructional and curricular programs. Visit the school's website, to see the school community in action: http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/pennalexander.

The Center for School Study Councils, a continuing education forum for school superintendents and regional education leaders throughout south-central and eastern Pennsylvania, and southern New Jersey.

The Penn Literacy Network, a year-long, graduate-level, continuing education and curricular support seminar for K-12 teachers, focusing on reforming language arts, science, and mathematics curricula, and serving an average of 700 teachers a year from across the United States.

The Penn-Merck Collaborative, a ten-year, National Science Foundation-supported teacher enhancement program, focused on improving elementary and middle school science teaching and learning in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project and a teacher network linking GSE with the School District of Philadelphia. Known locally and nationally for its work in teacher research and teacher leadership, it seeks to improve the teaching and learning of writing and literacy in urban schools and classrooms by sponsoring intensive professional development for and by teachers at all grade levels and of all subject areas.

Say Yes to Education, a privately sponsored program involving the GSE community, helping to ensure that 112 graduates of Philadelphia's Belmont Elementary School can take advantage of a college scholarship offer from Penn alumnus George Weiss and Diane Weiss.