Penn GSE News Archive
Scores on Pa. standardized tests fell in 2021, but many students didn’t take them
Jonathan Supovitz comments on the drop in Pennsylvania students’ standardized testing scores. Given the pandemic and the challenges of virtual learning, Supovitz says the scores are “not surprising, and it is also entirely consistent with other places in the country.”
Six takeaways from two years of online learning
Ryan Baker shares some best practices and which practices to avoid after two years of virtual learning. Virtual learning should focus on ensuring that students experience as little disruption to their education as possible. The key to that is creating a discourse around the use of technology.
What Is a Net Price Calculator?
Laura Perna speaks about net price calculators and their implications in college admissions. The three buckets that matter for college opportunity are financial aid, academic readiness, and information, she says. Net price calculators are an “important mechanism to help people understand really early on in the process ideally, how much it will actually cost.”
Six tips to help explain the realities of war to children
Marsha Richardson discusses how to explain the realities of war to children. “When it comes to issues like this, sometimes we can find it hard to connect the dots between a child’s behavior and the events unfolding in the world around them,” she says. “This is about being in tune with and understanding, developmentally, the ways in which these stressful situations might manifest for children.”
‘If you want my advice, don’t take my advice.’ When the host isn’t an expert.
Sigal Ben-Porath speaks about how information spreads outside conventional news sources. “You have a really open [media] landscape where people like Joe Rogan can hustle,” she says. “The incentive structure is built around rage rather than thoughtful engagement. At the same time, society’s values are changing. Societies are not like atomic clocks. We change and evolve over time.”
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.
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.
Detained protestors in Cuba detail torture amid trials
Amalia Daché spoke about the mistreatment of protesters in Cuba. “Cuba is a political apartheid. There is definitely racial discrimination happening in Cuba,” she said. “When Cuba gets a cold, Afro-Cubans get the flu, and they die.”
You can't teach what you don't know
Jonathan Zimmerman posed tough questions about who will instruct students about the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Most of our history teachers, he says, are not adequately educated for that task.
Groups seek to boost the number of Black men teaching
Tina Fletcher figured out her life’s purpose when she met her ninth-grade civics teacher. Mrs. Payne was Black, like Fletcher, and was one of the first teachers of color Fletcher had in her rural Arkansas town. “I knew from that point forward I had to be a social studies teacher,” Fletcher said. “I could see myself.”
Texas community college group aims to help students beyond the classroom
Laura Perna said that applying for financial aid can be complicated for students. However, the Alamo Promise program, which provides students in Texas with free tuition and additional services, sends “a clear message with no fine print,” she said.
Perceptions of affordability
Joni Finney spoke about the impact of rising college costs on low-income families, saying, “For these families the high cost of college is not a perception but a reality that they must deal with.”