Education Policy | Penn Today

Young elementary school student at a home computer attending virtual school.

To build community this fall, think of your class as a team

Before COVID-19, it was easier for teachers to build community within their class. How can teachers do that meeting virtually?

Trump administration agrees to end policy that could have led to mass deportation of students from U.S. colleges

President Amy Gutmann said she was pleased with the rescinded directive to ban international students taking exclusively online classes at U.S. universities this fall. “We are unrelenting in our commitment to continue fighting for our international students to ensure that they are treated as equal members of our educational community,” she said. “Today we can celebrate an important step forward in that effort.”

Here’s why seven Ivy League schools are backing Harvard and MIT’s bid to overturn Trump’s ban on international students

The University of Pennsylvania has joined other colleges and universities in filing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit filed by Harvard and MIT. The lawsuit seeks to block the Trump administration’s proposal to revoke F-1 and M-1 visas from international students not taking in-person classes this fall.

A child sits on the grass in front of a large fence covered in Black Lives Matter protest signs, another child plays on a small toy slide on the sidewalk in front of the fence.

The trauma that underlies student behavior and educators’ responses

As educators work to understand their students’ emotional needs, they must also consider how they themselves are impacted by traumatic events. Says Penn GSE’s Marsha Richardson, everyone is reacting to stressors and trauma in their unique way.

Writing on a whiteboard reading: Check-in, what are you seeing? What are you feeling? Question of the day: What needs to change? How can we create this change? Reminders: Be there. Reach out.

Educators should have the ‘hard conversation’ with students about events unfolding

Penn GSE’s Sigal Sigal Ben-Porath has guidance for educators on how to address the protests across the U.S. and the world with students at this crucial time.

Person walking along Locust Walk seen through the bars of a railing of a campus building

Higher education system faces the inequities COVID-19 exposes

With pandemic budget cuts looming, Penn GSE’s Laura Perna says policymakers should prioritize low-income college students.

open laptop on a desk shows a video chat with a person wearing earbuds in an online learning environment

Guidelines for moving college courses online

In response to the coronavirus, college instructors are shifting their in-person courses online. Zachary Herrmann and Penn GSE’s Center for Professional Learning have some experience making this work.

Sophie Rosenfeld and Sigal Ben-Porath in College Hall

Understanding what makes a fact a fact

Professor of History Sophie Rosenfeld and Professor of Education Sigal Ben-Porath unite their perspectives on truth for Penn Today's first “Understand This ...” podcast episode.

Five people sit on a stage in discussion with an audience in front, on projection on wall behind them reads The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education

The McGraw Prize partners with Penn GSE to celebrate education changemakers

Since 1988, the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education has honored innovators who are transforming teaching and learning. Penn GSE is now the new home of the prize, partnering with the McGraw family.

Four students hold certificates from Philadelphia Writing Project smiling and standing outdoors

How the city cultivates its youngest writers

Since 1986, The Philadelphia Writing Project has called Penn GSE home, which works with the city’s teachers and students to advance high-quality writing skills.

Filters