Sade Bonilla named inaugural Faculty Research Director for Penn GSE’s Office of School and Community Engagement

Assistant Professor Sade Bonilla has been named Faculty Research Director for Penn GSE’s Office of School and Community Engagement (OSCE). In this role she will provide thought leadership on the evaluation of programs administered by the OSCE while serving as the principal investigator for select research projects with the School District of Philadelphia (SDP).

The appointment is part of an expansion of OSCE under Katharine O. Strunk, Dean of the Graduate School of Education and the George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education, and aims to create new capacity and focus on research to drive Penn GSE’s community engagement efforts.

“I am excited that Dr. Sade Bonilla will serve as OSCE’s inaugural Faculty Research Director,” said Strunk. “With this new role, Penn GSE will expand our capability to conduct research that directly responds to needs identified by the School District of Philadelphia. We want to empower the district to translate rigorous research insights directly into impactful practice and policy. We look forward to the many ways Sade’s efforts will advance Penn GSE’s commitment to deepening our longstanding relationships with the school district.”

Bonilla’s first research project, at the request of SDP Superintendent Tony Watlington, is an analysis of teacher quality in the school district. The project will analyze data from SDP to identify teachers who have demonstrated strong positive impacts on student outcomes and examine the equity implications of uneven teacher distributions across schools. By evaluating teachers’ contributions to student learning and engagement and simulating changes in their placements, Bonilla aims to provide actionable insights for improving educational equity across student groups. The study will also examine non-academic outcomes, such as attendance, to provide a more comprehensive view of teacher influence on student success.

In the future, Bonilla will collaborate closely with SDP to develop a research agenda that addresses pressing questions and topics aligned with the district’s needs, is responsive to the decision-making timelines of district leadership, and informs resource allocation and policy adoption. This partnership is particularly crucial as the legislature considers additional resource allocations to SDP — and districts across Pennsylvania — following the landmark school funding court decision last year.