Community engagement is at the heart of Penn GSE. Longstanding partnerships across our city, state, nation, and world connect the School's faculty, staff, and students with collaborators to address pressing, real-world problems.
Improving Outcomes in Philadelphia
Representing a national model of partnership between a university and an urban district, the Office of School and Community Engagement (OSCE) provides critical support and services to children, schools, and communities and develops high-quality, research-driven approaches throughout the School District of Philadelphia that can be replicated and scaled nationally.
Impacting Lives Through Policy
Education economist Brooks Bowden and the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education (CBCSE) work with schools, state legislatures, and NGOs to evaluate the costs and benefits of solutions targeting hunger, housing insecurity, and other obstacles kids face. Their work guides policymakers in allocating extremely limited resources to maximize the supports children receive.
Recognizing Education Leadership
Since 2020, we’ve been home to the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education, bestowed by the McGraw Family Foundation in partnership with Penn GSE. The $50,000 award champions leaders who have had a profound impact on our world, so that others might follow their example and extend that impact. Recipients include Jody Lewen, president of Mount Tamalpais College inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, and internationally bestselling learning specialist Barbara Oakley.
Expanding Global Partnership
Faculty and staff are engaged in work with people and institutions in more than 60 countries. Including:
For more than a decade, developmental psychologist Sharon Wolfe has helped education leaders in Ghana’s Ministry of Education improve the quality of their universal kindergarten education system by helping teachers implement child-centered, play-based learning teaching practices.
Gerald Campano works in partnership with the University of Guadalajara, building up their capacity in literacy, learning, and culture. That partnership is now expanding to to advance transnational literacy and civic participation, focusing on Mexican youth and underserved communities.
Our Work
We don’t just learn to know—we learn to do, because real progress happens when knowledge meets action.
-
Office of School and Community Engagement (OSCE)
The OSCE builds partnerships with Philadelphia educators, schools, and community organizations to address the challenges of urban education and contribute to residents’ growth and wellbeing.
-
Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education
The mission of the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education is to improve education and human capital development by producing high quality evidence on the costs, effects, and economic benefits of policies and interventions.
-
Consortium for Policy Research in Education
The Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) is a joint effort of seven graduate schools of education. Its research focuses on school reform, governance, policy, and finance.
Nelson Flores’ Becoming the System examines how bilingual education has historically framed Latinx students through a deficit lens, urging new narratives that empower students to define their own identities.