Penn GSE News Archive
How Liberal Politics and Teachers’ Unions Got So Entangled
Richard Ingersoll comments on the history of teachers’ unions and the importance of understanding the historical context when looking at political issues facing unions today.
Geography and College Attainment: A Place-Based Approach
Laura Perna and Roman Ruiz write about the correlations between place of residence and college attainment, and how understanding these correlations can help target the needs of different communities.
Horowitz's code of ethics would muzzle teachers
Jonathan Zimmerman questions David Horowitz’s code of ethics and how students can learn the skills of democracy if we prohibit our teachers from modeling them.
Autonomy central to Kazakhstan’s ‘world class’ HE ambitions
Matthew Hartley and Alan Ruby advise a Kazakhstan government working group on how to create a governance structure for a research institution.
Boston Bridge Program Aims to Put College Within Residents’ Reach
Laura Perna notes the need to pay attention to short-term and long-term results for students who are encouraged to attend particular institutions, given the on-average low completion and transfer rates at community colleges.
Free Speech Loses Ground as Harvard Retracts Offers to Admitted Students
Jonathan Zimmerman analyzes Harvard’s reported decision to retract admissions offers from 10 students who posted offensive social media messages and suggests that “the best reply to bad speech is always more speech, not less.”
Who thrives and who doesn't as Pa.'s state university system nears the edge
Joni Finney remarks on the disparities among Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities and notes that it is the government’s role to even out the opportunities.
Parsing the Difference Between Education and Indoctrination
Jonathan Zimmerman discusses how K-12 educators must use care and discretion when expressing political opinions so they do not impose their beliefs on their students.
Experts Discuss How to Find – and Keep – Teachers of Color
Richard Ingersoll comments on the importance of retaining teachers of color and the need to improve working conditions in schools where resources are scarce.
One D.C. school lost more than a quarter of its teaching staff this year
Nearly 200 teachers in D.C. Public Schools quit their jobs this school year. Richard Ingersoll comments on the research regarding high turnover rates in schools.
Pound for pound, Dillard University is a physics powerhouse
Marybeth Gasman comments on the significance of historically black college Dillard University's large enrollment of black female undergraduate students majoring in physics.
Essay: The shame of my father’s racism
Marybeth Gasman reminisces about her father's racism and his eventual redemption in this essay that encourages open dialogue about race and racism.
Courageous Conversations: Race at the Crossroads
Marybeth Gasman and Howard Stevenson participate in a live-streamed panel discussion on “What do we lose when we don’t talk about race and how could our lives improve if we did?"
Trump Walks Back Threat to Defund Black Colleges
Marybeth Gasman comments on Trump's offensive statement about disregarding $20 million in funding to HBCUs.
In college test prep industry, cheaper options available
Even though some colleges no longer require standardized test scores for admission, Jonathan Supovitz says some kind of standardized testing is necessary to evaluate students since there are differences in higher education quality across institutions.
Trump is not US universities’ biggest threat
"The biggest threat to the academy will not come from Washington. It will come from the statehouses..." writes Matthew Hartley in this op-ed.