Philly superintendent joins Dean Strunk for Homecoming conversation

Dean Katharine Strunk and Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. in conversation during the Penn GSE Homecoming event on November 16. (Holden Blanco | HKB Photo for Penn GSE)

Homecoming is a special occasion every year — one that invites former classmates, friends, and mentors to reconnect on campus; but this year’s event was distinctive. It marked the beginning of a new era for the School as Dean Katharine Strunk publicly launched Penn GSE's new strategic vision, Together for Good: A Vision for Transformational Impact.

In front of a packed house in Stiteler Hall, the dean spoke about the four foundational priorities of Together for Good — preparing and sustaining the education workforce, collaborating for community-engaged programs and scholarship, innovating for the public good, and elevating education’s role in democracy — and the myriad ways the friends and alumni in attendance could help realize this inspiring vision.

“Our plan is bold, but bold is precisely what we need to overcome the challenges ahead,” Dean Strunk said from the podium. “We need each and every one of you to help us shape the educational future we have envisioned. You — our alumni — lead, teach, research, counsel, plan, and innovate in virtually every sector and across 90 countries, bringing Penn GSE’s vision to life every day. There are countless ways to connect your work with ours as we strive toward our shared goals. And you being here today is just the beginning of that.”

One crucial part of that work is Together for Good’s first priority: expanding Penn GSE’s efforts to create a resilient, diverse educator workforce that reflects the communities it serves. To that end, the dean’s Homecoming remarks were followed by her conversation with Philadelphia Superintendent Dr. Tony B. Watlington, Sr. The two education leaders engaged in a wide-ranging discussion titled “Partnering for Progress: The School District of Philadelphia and Penn GSE,” which covered teacher and school leader shortages and both what the district and the School are currently doing and what more they can do to help remediate those shortages.

“There’s an opportunity to fully leverage the expertise and the assets of [Penn GSE] to help kids read better, do math better, and help kids who live in what’s often referred to as the nation’s biggest poor city to be able to graduate college and be career ready in the world’s biggest economy,” said Dr. Watlington.

The dean and the superintendent agreed that, in addition to the steps the School and district can take — from making high-quality teacher preparation more accessible to increasing compensation for educators — one thing that anyone can do to help grow and bolster the educator pipeline is to share education’s success stories instead of dwelling on its challenges.

“It’s my job and the University of Pennsylvania’s job and the citizens of Philadelphia’s job to talk up the value of the teaching profession,” Dr. Watlington said, “...[and] to tell the story of what’s happening in the School District of Philadelphia.

“In February of this year, the Education Recovery Score Card was published by researchers at Harvard and Stanford....” he continued. “They found that, among the big-city school districts, the School District of Philadelphia has the best, fastest-rebounding performance in third-grade math.” He then listed various recent improvements in the district, from teacher and student attendance to graduation rates and enrollment growth, urging the audience to share this good news with their naysaying neighbors.

“We’ve got to believe we can get better,” he added. “And when we get better, we can’t listen to the pundits who say public schools are failing... We’ve got to find those areas where we are making progress and tell those stories.”