The Penn GSE Magazine

Dear Alumni and Friends,

I’m sure we can agree that 2020 has been a most unusual and challenging year, for education and the world. After massive school closures impacted more than 1.5 billion students around the globe, schools and colleges are navigating new modalities to provide virtual, in-person, and hybrid learning experiences for their students. As I write, our nation faces a presidential election under unprecedented circumstances, as we confront both a global pandemic and a historic movement for racial justice.

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I’m so grateful for and proud of how our Penn GSE faculty, staff, and students have come together during this tumultuous time. Our cover story describes our work to address a complex landscape of virtual learning, uncertainty, heightened inequities, renewed calls to combat racism, and increased social and emotional needs. For Penn GSE, this has been a time of reaching out to help educators and leaders—through an array of professional development opportunities, two new projects funded by The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation, and our partnership with The School District of Philadelphia.

We have deepened our relationship with the District’s network of K–8 schools in West Philadelphia, led by Assistant Superintendent Rahshene Davis, GED’03, a current student in our Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, who is highlighted in the feature “Adapting in Times of Crisis.” At her request, Penn GSE recently covered most of the cost to bring the virtual learning platform Nearpod to all thirteen network schools to improve learning, engagement, and equity. We have been delighted to support Davis’s leadership and to hear that her teachers are giving rave reviews of Nearpod.

We have also leveraged our strengths to adapt to our changing circumstances. Our rapid transition to virtual learning in the spring and continued success through the virtual summer and fall have been made possible by the expertise of faculty across the School. This fall, we welcomed the largest incoming class in Penn GSE’s history, 735 students, a tremendous milestone reflecting the dedication of our faculty and staff in a new landscape.

All of our faculty have spent time learning new tools and approaches to help create the kinds of interactive classes we conduct in person—and I am no exception! After four decades of teaching, I am leading my first online class this fall. I have been so grateful for the support and resources our faculty and staff have provided. Thanks to their efforts, I know how best to apply the latest technologies as I get to know our doctoral students, delve into texts, and build a learning community.

 To address the need to confront systemic racial injustice in our country, we have undertaken a School-wide process of reflection among faculty, staff, and students, establishing new goals for our continued work in race, equity, and inclusion. Once again, our faculty and staff stepped up to help lead community meetings and our schoolwide discussions of Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How to Be an Anti-Racist. We are now engaged in a number of efforts that were identified in these community meetings, including preparing antiracist teachers, leaders, counselors, and researchers; ensuring that our community reflects the diversity of our city, our country, and our world; and ensuring that schools become places where students of color, and Black students in particular, can flourish.

These are indeed challenging times, but they are also times of hope. The work of our community and of educators around the globe has never been more urgent, and I draw inspiration from it each day. I hope you will do the same as you read the stories in this issue and explore the virtual resources highlighted in our cover story. Thank you for all that you are doing for education in these times of change.

Pam Grossman
Dean, Penn Graduate School of Education
George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education

Editor’s note: This issue of The Penn GSE Magazine went to print on October 22, 2020.

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Image by iStock.com/Anastasiia_New

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