Penn GSE News Archive
Redefining Mental Health in Black Communities around the U.S.
Howard Stevenson on the impact of trauma on Black communities nationwide: “We found that if there has been a police shooting in that neighborhood that a lot of people in the community will experience trauma…Witnessing oppression has an impact on everybody.”
Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022
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.
As COVID thins school staffing, who’s teaching kids?
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.
GOP state lawmakers file 56 bills to ban critical race theory
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.”
Opinion: When students stumble, colleges should turn to restorative justice before expulsion
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.
![A professor wearing a white shirt and striped tie addresses a classroom of students who are listening and taking notes. The screen in the background has a large pi symbol] [Photo caption] Dr. Zachary Hermann is executive director of Penn GSE’s Center for Professional Learning, which offers virtual programs to support educators at various levels in the face of changing educational environments.](https://www.gse.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/penngse_supporting_educational_leaders_main_0.jpg)
Higher ed’s evolutionary — not revolutionary — pandemic response
Drawing on pre-pandemic data, Robert Zemsky predicted that 20% of higher education institutions were in danger of shuttering.