C1 Cover S06 - Penn GSE

Winter 2009

M A G A Z I N E

The Graduate School of Educat ion • University of Pennsylvania

FAIR-TRADE SCHOOLS

FAIR-TRADE SCHOOLS

Bringing new technology—and training—to NicaraguaBringing new technology—and training—to Nicaragua

Penn GSE Leads GloballyInitiative will improve science and math teaching

Penn GSE Leads GloballyInitiative will improve science and math teaching

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F R O M T H E D E A N

When President Amy Gutmann laid out her vision for theUniversity in the Penn Compact, “engaging globally” wasone of the key principles she indentified for making Penneminent among research universities worldwide. “A great21st-century American university engages dynamicallywith communities all over the world to advance the centralvalues of democracy and to exchange knowledge thatimproves quality of life for all.”

In this issue of Penn GSE Magazine, we introduce youto just a handful of the ways that this School is advancingPenn’s commitment to global engagement. Our coverstory, Fair-Trade School, describes how GSE researchersare partnering with a multi-generational Penn family tointroduce laptop computers to a rural Nicaraguan school.More important, the research team—led by GSE Senior

Lecturer Sharon Ravitch Gr’00—will collaborate with thelocal community on a technology-based curriculum andteacher professional development program.

You’ll also read about a fascinating study conducted byanother GSE faculty member, Alan Ruby. Asked to helpthe Panamanians understand how they could improvetheir education system, Alan’s team compared educationin Panama to the system in Costa Rica—and in doing so,discovered pathways to improving teacher preparation andschool finance for a nation.

This issue also covers a project close to my heart –improving high school math and science teaching in the U.S.and around the world. Working with the Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation (APEC) group and other universitypartners, GSE is spearheading a project that will look atteacher education in math and science in a select set of coun-tries to generate hypotheses about how the best practices inone country might inform new initiatives in another.

But these articles only scratch the surface of what GSEis doing on the international front. Our InternationalPrograms Office, headed by Vice Dean Cheng Davis,oversees a host of programs that enable countries fromaround the globe to learn from each other. ThroughDavis’s offices, GSE is now working on projects as diverse

as cooperative Ed.D. programs with leading universities inChina, and cross-national research projects that offer pro-fessional development and educational enrichment pro-grams. In addition, Professor Nancy Hornberger, arenowned expert in bilingual education policies and prac-tices around the world, chairs the School’s InternationalEducation Advisory Committee, which has done wonder-ful work in the past several years in articulating our inter-national strategy, organizing efforts to bring more interna-tional scholars to GSE, and helping our own faculty andstudents understand the wealth of knowledge and experi-ence that GSE can claim.

And that’s just the faculty side of things. In this issue,you’ll read about the inspiring work that one of our doctor-al students, Thomas Hill, is doing to develop peace-build-ing programs in Iraqi universities. He’s just one of manyGSE students engaged internationally. In Ghana, NanaAckatia-Armah is studying an NGO’s work with youngwomen living on the streets. In Sierra Leone, NicoleBehnam is looking at the impact of human-rights work onintergenerational authority relations. In Taiwan, Wei-shanHsu is studying the integration of foreign spouses fromSouth East Asia into the society. In Korea, Kathleen Lee isresearching English language teaching. In India, CynthiaGroff is focusing on the educational experiences of youngKumaoni women and their teachers.

Our alumni, too, are active abroad. Just last year, DanaHolland Gr’06 moved to Kabul for a faculty job at theAmerican University of Afghanistan, and ChristopherSteel GrEd’09 is a Fulbright Fellow, working to developeducational programs in Ecuador.

As you know, our work at GSE is focused on researchand development to create ideas, programs, and tools thatwill strengthen education—not just in the U.S. but aroundthe globe. This snapshot of our international engagementonly begins to capture the scope of what GSE faculty, students, and alumni are doing in the international arena.

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Our work at GSE is focused on research and development to create ideas, programs, and tools that will strengtheneducation—not just in the U.S. but around the globe.

Andy Porter

On Saturday, May 16, Dean Andy Porter welcomed this year’s graduatingstudents to Franklin Field for Penn GSE’s 2009 Commencement cere-

mony. William Tate, a professor of education at Washington University in St.Louis and an expert on human resource development in science, technolo-gy, engineering, and mathematics education, was this year’s speaker.

The ceremony began with the doctoral hooding ceremony, in which grad-uating doctoral candidates received their official doctoral hood from facultyadvisors. This year, GSE graduated 83 doctoral students—22 PhDs and 68EdDs—and 387 master’s students.

This year’s GSE Excellence in Teaching Award went to Sharon Ravitch, ateacher-educator and ethnographer. The award recognizes faculty mem-bers who evidence “a strong commitment to teaching and learning,” whodemonstrate an interest and enthusiasm forboth the course material and for the students,and who are intellectually challenging andstimulating.

The Phi Delta Kappa Award for OutstandingDissertation went to Elizabeth Farley-Ripplefor her dissertation, Accountability, Evidenceand School District Decision-Making. JessicaKim received the William E. Arnold Award forOutstanding Contributions by a DoctoralStudent, given to a graduating student who hashad a significant impact on GSE.

In an earlier ceremony, Kim was awardedthe President and Provost’s Citation forExceptional Commitment to Graduate andProfessional Student Life. In addition, ErinKearney received the Dell H. Hymes-NessaWolfson Award for Excellence in EducationalLinguistics, and Hye Seung Sung received theEducational Linguistics International Award.

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N O T E W O R T H Y

GSE communications has begun a podcast series—simply called the Penn GSE Podcast—aimed at bringing theSchool’s perspectives on education and social science to a broader audience through audio. Our debut episode,

titled “Young Black Males: Anger, Aggression, and Perception,” focuses on the work of Associate Professor HowardStevenson and his team as they develop a program to help prevent violence and aggression in African-American youth.

“The Choice” features doctoral student Clarisse Haxton’s dissertation research on high school choice inPhiladelphia, and “The Teachers That City Schools Need” looks at what it takes to prepare teachers in urban settingsand follows a group of master’s students as they tour the neighborhoods where they’ll be doing their student-teaching.“Virtual Learning” looks at Professor Yasmin Kafai’s research into the learning that takes place when kids play in virtual worlds.

For the latest GSE podcast, search “Penn GSE Podcast”' at the iTunesU store.

Commencement 2009

GSE Podcasts

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Wagner Marseille GrEd’09 graduated from GSE’s Mid-Career DoctoralProgram in Educational Leadership; Jamey Rorison GEd’09 is stayingon for his doctoral studies in GSE’s Higher Education program; alsomarching were Ashako Yoshino GEd’09, from the InterdisciplinaryStudies in Human Development program, and Natalie WillliamsGEd’09, a student in the Higher Education program.


N O T E W O R T H Y

Speaking at a panel discussion on theeconomy and higher education, Joni

Finney told a packed house that the currentcrisis could provide “the perfect opportunityfor reform.”

Finney, a professor at Penn GSE andexpert on higher education policy, arguedthat money from the Obama stimulus pack-age should be used to target innovation, withappropriations going toward funding studentsrather than institutions. “The worst thatcould happen to American higher educationis … that we don’t embrace reform,” she said.

Finney was speaking at the annual GordonS. Bodek Lecture of Distinguished Educators,held annually at the University ofPennsylvania. Joining her on the panel werePenn Executive Vice President CraigCarnaroli and Social Policy and PracticeProfessor Katherina Rosqueta. Bob Zemsky,a professor at Penn GSE, moderated.

Though no single conclusion was reached,all the participants saw the economic crisisas a tipping point for the higher educationindustry.

Carnaroli, the University’s most seniornon-academic officer, argued that the econo-my is experiencing a true financial crisisrather than a business-cycle recession andforesaw more closures and more consolida-tion at institutions of higher education. He

even raised the specter of a new model foruniversities, one with no athletic teams, nofraternities, and no tenure but with a highlypaid, star faculty.

Rosqueta, director of Penn’s Center forHigh Impact Philanthropy, also addressed thequestion of consolidation. She described thebewilderment of people in the business sec-tor when they see non-profits, faced with anenvironment of decreasing capitalization, fail-ing to pursue strategies of merger and col-laboration. “I’m keenly aware of … just howinapplicable some of the actions you wouldtake in a business environment are to a mis-sion-focused institution,” she said.

Nonetheless, she added, “It would be agood thing for a university like ours to meetthose questions—and not have to defenditself for not having explored its options.”

Zemsky, one of the country’s leadingexperts on higher education, discussed theimpact of the for-profits like the University ofPhoenix. A true network, Phoenix treats“every node on the network as an equal por-tal. So you never have any large discussion atPhoenix about transferring credits,” heexplained.

“And while this won’t impact Penn, it isbeginning to impact the state systems,” hecontinued, citing the example of the chancel-lor of the University of Ohio who hopes totransform a system of historically independ-ent campuses into a unified network where“the whole thing is the brand.”

The Gordon S. Bodek Lecture ofDistinguished Educators is made possiblethrough the generosity of Gordon S. BodekC’42, an emeritus Penn trustee and formermember of the Penn GSE Board ofOverseers. Bodek established the lecture in1993 to provide a forum for leaders of theeducation community to discuss significantissues affecting the profession.

This year’s event was co-sponsored byPenn GSE and the Penn Alumni Office.

Higher Education and the Economic Downturn

Penn Executive Vice President Craig Carnarolifields a question at the 2008 Bodek Lecture asPenn GSE Practice Professor Joni Finney andSocial Policy and Practice Professor KatherinaRosqueta listen. Bob Zemsky, a professor at Penn GSE, moderated.

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The MacArthur Foundation is funding athree-year, $1.4 million grant for a

project led by Penn GSE Professor JohnFantuzzo and Social Policy and PracticeProfessor Dennis Culhane. The project willadvance integrated data systems-basedpolicy analysis and research as a field ofprofessional practice.

As co-founders of the Kids IntegratedData System (along with Trevor Hadley in theSchool of Medicine), Culhane and Fantuzzoare recognized as leaders in the integrationof administrative data for research.

Integrated administrative data systems

have emerged as a powerful tool formeasuring how public agencies are serv-ing their client populations and, in partic-ular, how multiple agencies may be work-ing with the same clients.

The grant will enable Fantuzzo andCulhane, who has a secondary appointmentto Penn GSE, to establish a professionalnetwork and standards of practice for siteswith existing integrated data systems.

The project will also focus on sites withstrong commitments to develop-ing an integrated data system.

MacArthur Foundation Funds Network

“B iotech and software entrepreneurs have a host of technical-assistanceresources, but education has almost none,” says Penn GSE Vice Dean

Doug Lynch. “Given the potential role entrepreneurs can play in addressing themyriad challenges in education, it is striking how little attention is paid to culti-vating educational entrepreneurs.”

In July, GSE kicked off a series of efforts to encourage entrepreneurship inthe education sector. First up was a summit of education and business leadersto explore the idea of transforming the area into a Silicon Valley for educationbusinesses and nonprofits. “A key theme that emerged,” Lynch says, “was thatfolks want a university like Penn to advocate on behalf of innovation, to serve asa safe place to convene, to conduct evaluations that are friendly to consumers,and to incubate the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

In November came the announcement that GSE and the Milken Family Found-ation were launching the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition,the first competition specifically aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship that tack-les the biggest educational issues—from pre-K through post-graduate.

The competition offers a first-place award of $25,000 and a second-place award of$15,000. In addition to Penn GSE and the Milken Family Foundation, the Fels Center forGovernment and the Wharton School of Business and Finance are providing support in thiseffort. More information is available at http://www.gse.upenn.edu/entrepreneurcomp/.

The latest collaboration between PennGSE and Hong Kong PCCW will help

prepare outstanding Chinese high schoolgraduates for collegiate work in the U.S.

The Penn PCP International YoungScholars Program is a joint effort of PennGSE; Hong Kong PCCW, one of Asia’s leadingintegrated communications companies; andthe China Center for International EducationalExchange of China’s Ministry of Education.

The program prepares Chinese highschool students to enter world-class IvyLeague universities. Students begin theirstudies in Beijing, with six months of class-es at the University of InternationalRelations. The top students will then beinvited to take part in the U.S.-based phaseof the program. In addition to receivingspecialized training, the students will auditclasses at Penn and visit other campuses.

GSE Partners in Program for Chinese Students

Silicon Valley on the Schuylkill

For the third year running, a PennAlexander School student represented

the City of Philadelphia in the ScrippsHoward National Spelling Bee, held inWashington, D.C., in May.

This year’s winner, sixth-grader SowsanSalaam, won the Philadelphia Tribune/Scripps Howard Regional Spelling Bee by nailing the word ubiquitous. Salaam, whocompeted against 29 fifth- through eighth-graders from schools around the city, was afinalist in last year’s regional but tripped up on the word belligerent.

Salaam’s fellow students continued thewinning PAS traditionat the 2009 GeorgeWashington CarverScience Fair. In thegrades 7-12 competi-tion, PAS students tookhome 12 awards,including three first-place awards, while inthe Lower Schoolcompetition, 13 of theawards were given toPAS students.

First-place winnerswere fourth-graderHannah Hanson (LifeScience); fifth-gradersMitchell Berven-Stotz(Physical Science),Ella Comberg(Consumer Science),

and Isaiah McQueen, Camille Coleman, andRuby Johnston (Team Project); seventh-graders Andrew Foronda (Physics) andGwendolyn Franklin (Earth Science); andeighth-grader Joseph Owusu-Boateng(Engineering).

Special awards went to Abdalla Abou-Hatab (Cobbs Creek Environmental Award);Cordelia Ilton (The Academy of NaturalSciences Environmental Award); CamilleColeman, Ruby Johnston, and IsaiahMcQueen (Educational Advancement Alliancefor Excellence in Science); Ella Serpell (1stPlace Humane Science Award); EllaComberg (Women in Science & EngineeringAward); and Dylan Yachyshen (Naval ScienceAward & Vince Russo Award for Excellence inData Presentation).

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N O T E W O R T H Y

Kudos . . .

John Fantuzzo has been appointed to the Early Head Start GoverningBoard at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and also tothe research advisory board of another CHOP initiative—the MOM pro-gram, which sponsors health- and education-related home visits tomothers and children living in poverty…. Inside Higher Ed recentlynamed Marybeth Gasman as one of the 25 people to watch in highereducation. In addition, Gasman’s book Philanthropy, Volunteerism &Fundraising in Higher Education has been chosen as the winner of the2009 CASE John Grenzebach Award for Outstanding Research inPhilanthropy for Educational Advancement.… Joan Goodman hasstepped into a two-year term as Penn’s Ombudsman for students, fac-ulty, staff, and administrators seeking assistance in addressing prob-lems they haven’t been able to resolve through normal channels….Kathleen Hall received the 2008-2009 Provost’s Award forDistinguished Ph.D. Teaching and Mentoring, which recognizes excel-lence in the teaching and mentoring of doctoral students at Penn....Shaun Harper has been appointed to the advisory board of the GatesMillennium Scholars Program, the largest college scholarship programin the world.... The Obama Administration has invited Yasmin Kafai toparticipate in the development of its new National EducationalTechnology Plan over the next six months…. Laura Perna has beenappointed to the advisory boards of Academe, the journal of theAmerican Association of University Professors, and Higher Education

Abstracts, each for three-year terms.Laura has also been named for a two-yearstint as an editorial advisor to EducationalResearcher…. Janine Remillard has beenappointed to serve as a member of theU.S. National Commission forMathematics Instruction, which promotes the advancement of mathe-matics education in this country and abroad…. Kathy Schultz has beenelected President-Elect of the Council on Anthropology and Education.After performing duties of the Program Chair, she will assume the roleof President…. Lawrence Sipe has been named the 2009 MarilynHollinshead Fellow by the Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature atthe University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The fellowship supportsstudy at the Kerlan Collection; Sipe will be tracing the writing processof a Newbery Award-winning novel, Because of Winn Dixie, by KatedeCamillo…. Doctoral student Esther Ra received the Korean HonorScholarship, sponsored by the Embassy of Korea.… At the 2009 JosephWharton Awards dinner this October, the Wharton Club of New Yorkhonored George A. Weiss W’65 with the Joseph Wharton Award forSocial Impact. The founder of the Say Yes to Education Foundation,Weiss is a member of the University’s Board of Trustees and a long-time friend and supporter of Penn GSE.

Kafai

Penn GSE Associate Professor Kathy Schultz hasreceived funding from the National Science

Foundation (NSF) for a new program designed to pre-pare scientists, technicians, engineers, and mathe-maticians for classroom teaching.

A collaboration of GSE, the Philadelphia EducationFund, the School District of Philadelphia, and thePhiladelphia Federation of Teachers, the UrbanTeaching Fellowship supports two cohorts of ten teach-ing fellows to participate in the Philadelphia TeacherResidency (PTR) program.

Each fellow will be supported for a total of fiveyears—one year as a master’s student and four years as

a full-time classroom teacher in a high-poverty school.The goal is to increase the number of teachers certifiedto teach math and science in grades 6 through 12 inhigh-need Philadelphia schools and to support thoseteachers to remain in the classroom by providing at leastthree years of professional development.

NSF Teaching Fellows, a select group of promisingteachers, will receive a fourth year of support. A key ele-ment of the PTR program is situating the preparation ofSTEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathemat-ics) teachers in the urban classrooms and publicschools where they will later obtain employment.

Urban Teaching Fellowships for STEM Professionals

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In August, more than 100 Penn alumni and friends gathered in down-town Manhattan for an event to benefit Penn GSE. Fashion designer

Tory Burch C’88 hosted the shopping eventin her boutique in the trendy MeatpackingDistrict.

The event gave guests the opportunityto pick up something fabulous, catch upwith friends, and support a scholarshipfund for Penn GSE. They also celebratedthe launch of the Penn Pacesetters, a newnetworking group for future Penn leaders.

Guests received a ten percent discounton all purchases, and Burch donated tenpercent of sales to support the fund. Alltold, the event raised more than $20,000for the scholarship.

Co-hosting the event were Dean AndyPorter; Penn Trustees George A. WeissW’65, Susan F. Danilow CW’74 G’74, andLee Spelman Doty W’76; GSE OverseersJennifer Saul C’92, Reina Bassini CW’72GEd’72 (and her husband Emilio Bassini),Allison Weiss Brady C’93 (and her husbandDennis “Chip” Brady C’94 W’94); Diane N.Weiss, Elyse Viner C’06, and Tiffany WatkinsC’98. Hip-hop mogul and philanthropist RussellSimmons served as Honorary Co-Chair.


Benefit Sale RaisesScholarship Funds

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(1) Andrew Porter, Tory Burch C’88,Allison Weiss Brady C’93, and ChipBrady C’94 W’94; (2) Tiffany WatkinsC’98, Stephanie Watkins CW’76,Courtney Portlock GEd’09, Allison WeissBrady C’93; (3) Jennifer Saul C’92 andSusan F. Danilow CW’74 G’74; (4)Matthew Maitland C’99, Deb Lee, FaquiryDiaz Cala W’97; (5) Dave Thompson C’00,Brynne Thompson, Sameer Sethna C’99,Amir Rozwadowski C’00; (6) SharonDresser, Amelia Balonek W’97,Catherine O’Toole, S. Lee Wright; (7) Dr.Reina Marin Bassini CW’72 GEd’72 andLee Spelman Doty W’76.

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At 12, Otto de Montenegro was on the verge of dropping out of school to work in the coffeefields. A collaboration between Penn GSE and one of Nicaragua’s leading families hopes to keepstudents like Otto engaged by what they’re learning in the classroom.

MATTHEW TARDITI GED’09


A collaboration between GSE researchers and a prominentPenn family brings computers—and teacher professionaldevelopment—to a school in rural Nicaragua

The ContextLa Virgen Número Uno—the community where Rosa

lives and Otto attends school—is small, with only 60 fami-lies and 960 registered residents. They are engaged mostlyin coffee production, raising livestock, and grain farming,but some run small grocery stores, restaurants, or shops.Typical houses are built mostly of wooden planks with tinroofs and outdoor privies. Basic services—electricity, com-munication, potable water, and roads—are poor at best.

Stretching out across a string of mountains, the coffeefarm—called the Finca Buenos Aires—employs about 1,300workers, many of them seasonal. And as Rosa’s story attests,it’s an extraordinary place. Finca Buenos Aires is part of theholdings of CISA Exportadora, a firm owned and operatedby one of Nicaragua’s leading families. A distinguishedPenn family that has sent four generations to the University,the Baltodanos are among those leading a nascent socialresponsibility movement in a country struggling to recoverfrom the bitter civil war of the 1980s and the devastationwrought by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

According to United Nations statistics, a quarter of thepopulation across Nicaragua lives on less than a dollar aday. More than half subsist below the poverty line. In therural areas, almost 50 percent of the population is illiterate.

AtFAIR-TRADE SCHOOL

12 years old, Otto de Montenegro felt the lure of the cof-fee fields. Like many of his friends, he wanted to earnmoney and help support his family. School seemed besidethe point.

For Otto’s mother, though, school was very much thepoint. Rosa de Montenegro had moved to the Nicaraguanregion of Jinotega nine years earlier to find a better life forherself and her family. The mother of 21 children—13 lostto poverty—she had heard through the grapevine that thecoffee farm in Buenos Aires is a good place to work. BuenosAires is a fair trade farm, and people are treated well there.So Rosa picked up her family and moved all the way acrossthe country to work and raise her children.

But even there, Rosa faced an all-too-common problemamong the rural poor of Central America: punishinglyhigh drop-out rates as young people leave their educationfor the immediate return of field work.

When she realized that Otto had started cutting schoolto work in the fields, she sat him down and told him shewas going to give him a gift: she was going to give him aday to catch up on his schoolwork.

She told him, “The second you lose your right to a penand pencil, they’re going to put a machete in your hand forthe rest of your life.”

By Nancy Brokaw


The XO Laptop wasdeveloped by NicholasNegroponte’s One LaptopPer Child initiative thataims to provide individualcomputers to students indeveloping countries.

Nationwide, approximately 15 percent of children havedropped out of the education system.

As Dania Baltodano, the company’s executive director,explains in a recent video, “We saw that we could make adifference in the lives of these children....With this inmind we organized a school sponsorship program whereCISA, together with its partners—international roastersand financial groups are the sponsors—help bring thewonderful gift of education.”

In 2001, the CISA group launched an Adopt-a-Schoolprogram that, to date, includes 16 schools in ruralNicaragua, the Buenos Aires School among them. Thatschool—the one Otto attends—serves 86 students, most ofthem farm workers’ children, and today it is poised to ben-efit from a collaboration between the Baltodanos andresearchers from Penn GSE.

The ComputerThat initiative—a project to introduce laptop computers

and a technology-based curriculum—came about whenPenn GSE faculty member Sharon Ravitch Gr’00 was invit-ed to Nicaragua to speak about community psychology.

Ravitch, an expert on applied research in developingcountries, got another invitation, this time to visit the cof-fee farm. There, she met Duilio Baltodano W’70, the pres-ident of CISA Agro, and his son Ernesto Baltodano W’05.The three exchanged ideas about the school and the fami-ly’s interest in the One Laptop Per Child initiative.

“Duilio and I shook hands after an evening of talking onthe finca,” Ravitch says, “and then we all worked hardover the next few months to make this project happen.”

The brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, One Laptop

Per Child (OLPC) aims to provide each of the world’spoorest children with “a rugged, low-cost, low-power, con-nected laptop with content and software designed for col-laborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.”

Announced with much fanfare at the 2005 WorldEconomic Forum in Davos, OLPC’s XO laptop is sold togovernment education systems for use by primary schoolchildren. The size of a textbook, the weight of a lunchbox,and the color of the Nicaraguan rainforest, the XO isdurable, functional, energy-efficient—and inexpensive.

The idea, as the name suggests, is to provide a computerfor every student, and since going into production in 2007,more than a million XO laptops have been delivered todeveloping countries worldwide.

But some educators have worried that, like far too manyinternational aid efforts, OLPC suffers from a Western-centric perspective on learning and a top-down approachthat doesn’t account for local contexts but, rather, imposesoutside values onto rural communities.

The CommunityRavitch shares these concerns, but the more she heard

about the Buenos Aires School, the more interested shewas in what the Baltodanos were doing.

Accompanied by her research assistant, MatthewTarditi GEd’09, she visited the primary school, which hasfour combined-grade classrooms, and interviewed thethree teachers—head teacher Evelyn Estrada, a four-yearveteran who teaches the combined fifth- and sixth-gradeclass; Junnieth Portillo, a 19-year-old who handles thethird/fourth grades; and Jorling Ortiz, who teaches thefirst/second grades and is filling in at the preschool untilthe arrival of a replacement.

“I insisted on visiting a lot of people’s homes as a firststep in the process,” Ravitch explains. “I wanted to get asense of the community.” They sat in Rosa deMontenegro’s modest home and heard her life story, andthey listened as Marco, the head manager of the finca anda veteran of the Revolution, talked about his work on thefarm and his hopes for the community’s children.Together, she and Tarditi began to get the feel of the place.

Back in Managua, Ravitch told the Baltodanos that theiridea was exciting but cautioned that, if they just did the typ-ical One Laptop Per Child project, it wouldn’t work. Sheexplained that the research literature on the initiative pointsto some genuine weaknesses in the model, among them alack of adequate professional development and a failure toaccount for the community context and infrastructure.

“In Managua, we went to a One Laptop Per Childtraining,” she explains. “And it’s good—but it assumes abaseline of digital literacy and that teachers would knowhow to integrate this technology with the curriculum. Theteachers in this school, for example, had never seen or used

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a computer before. So we’re going to give them five hoursof professional development and tell them, ‘Go ahead’?”

Instead Ravitch proposed a comprehensive programthat would provide intensive, collaborative professionaldevelopment for teachers, a participatory action researchcomponent to design a new curriculum that aligns with thestandardized curriculum of the Ministry of Education, asignificant ethnographic community study, and an evalua-tion of the program’s educational impact on students’ andteachers’ learning and development.

At first, the Baltodanos questioned the need for such alarge qualitative component—but listened as Ravitch madeher case. She argued for conducting an ethnographic studyto gain a deep understanding of the community, itsresources and needs. “I wanted to be sure we collected con-siderable baseline data on student learning and skills,teacher learning and skills, and also on the community as awhole—its perspectives on education, careers, family,work.” She also wanted to be sure that this project was trulycollaborative, respectful, and community-centered, and sheknew that only deep and sustained engagement within thecommunity—with parents, children, community leaders,teachers, and those who run the farm—would succeed.”

The Digital DivideWhen it comes to the digital divide, opinions vary.

While conventional wisdom holds that bridging the divideis an unalloyed good, some experts warn against introduc-ing technology that doesn’t account for the local context.

Most residents of places like Finca Buenos Aires arefarm workers and often such communities don’t offer manyother forms of employment. “What happens if you preparethe next generation for these new jobs but the communitydoesn’t have the infrastructure to support them?” Ravitchasks. “You have multiple generations living together here. Iworry about breaking up families. I worry about migrationaway from these communities. Who am I to say? At thecore of my angst about this is, Who am I?”

That said, Nicaragua—and the Finca Buenos Aires—offered two compelling arguments for proceeding with theproject. The first required an understanding of coffee farm-ing. Across Latin America, technology is transforming theindustry. “People have started wearing handhelds to tracktheir activities in the fields,” Ravitch explains. “So ifNicaragua falls behind significantly, it will no longer be com-petitive in the marketplace, which would have massive impli-cations for this and many other coffee farm communities”

Add to that the need for leadership. On most farms,middle management workers are recruited from elsewhere.But the Baltodanos want to develop leadership from withinthe community—and for that they need a well-educatedpool of workers. The interview with Marco, the farm’smanager, brought that point home: “The farm managers

are trained agronomists,” Ravitch explains. “They’re themiddle class of Nicaragua. We spent hours and hours talk-ing to Marco, and here was this man, the son of farm work-ers who everyone told me was very quiet. And he engagedus with an impassioned speech about how important thisproject is in elevating education for the children and theirfamilies in this community. And as an insider, he—hiswords, his perspective—shaped our own thinking aboutthe potential positive impacts of this initiative.”

To both these factors—the need to remain competitive,the need to cultivate leadership—Ravitch adds another:“Everyone is so excited about the computers, but I’m notas excited about them per se. I see them as a great vehicleand a great tool to bring considerable professional develop-ment and resources to this community. And that, for me, isthe model that I want to replicate.” The idea of replicatingwhat Ravitch and her team builds in Buenos Aires is at thecenter of the Baltodanos’ efforts.

The CurriculumStill, the arrival of the computers this summer was excit-

ing. Ravitch was in Nicaragua for an extended period this

Conventional wisdom holds that bridging the digital divide is anunalloyed good, but some experts warn against introducing technology that doesn’t account for local context.

Penn GSE faculty memberSharon Ravitch Gr’00 andMatthew Tarditi GEd’09, theproject’s research assistant,with students in the BuenosAires school.

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ment with students and parents. On my initial visit to ahousehold, they always accompany me. Evelyn Estrada islike the mother goose of the flock. She has a terrific rela-tionship with the community as a whole.”

He goes on: “The initiative is embedded in an ethno-graphic study of the community and the effects of technol-ogy. It is important to understand the realities of the peo-ple, their views on education, their daily lives, their experi-ences, their trajectories for themselves and for their chil-dren, their knowledge of technology, … and it is impera-tive to be culturally sensitive and respectful to the commu-nity. So I am engaging with them as much as possible toinclude them in the conversation and in the overall processor at the very least, allow them the opportunity to expresstheir opinions, concerns, thoughts, ideas, expectations,etc., about the project and their children’s education.”

That kind of commitment to collaboration is central tothe way Ravitch and Tarditi are doing business. In the tra-ditional research model, researchers position themselves as“experts,” people trained to extract information—to collectdata on their “subjects” and then write scholarly papers forrefereed journals. This project, however, follows the partic-ipatory action research model, in which research is notmerely collaborative but is undertaken to address problemsidentified by the local community. It’s research conductedwith and for people, not to or on them, Ravitch says.

The FutureThe project’s deliverables are specific and tangible:

a professional development program and a computer-centered curriculum, both documented in a training manual and curriculum guide to be used for replicationthroughout Nicaragua.

But Ravitch hopes to accomplish more: she wants toconduct a longitudinal study that will provide a detailedpicture of the impact of the laptop initiative and all that itis bringing to the community at large. Her interest here isfar more than academic. Her interest, like the Baldonados’,is in replication. “If we innovate,” she says, “if we designan emergent curriculum in a respectful way, that compli-cates what needs to be complex, that evaluates in a veryreal way, that uses a truly democratic process—if we reallydo this well, it will be worthy of replication.”

Early signs are that Nicaragua may be eager to adoptthe model. The partnership with CISA and the Baltodanoshas brought an extraordinary level of visibility to the proj-ect: Estudio 24 Horas—Nicaragua’s answer to 60Minutes—featured interviews with the team; the localpress has profiled the work; and business leaders and gov-ernment VIPs have expressed the same level of enthusiasmas the workers on the Finca Buenos Aires have.

Indeed, after one particularly high-powered meeting,one of the people at the Ministry of Education turned toRavitch and said, “Central America is watching us, LatinAmerica is watching us, the world is watching us.” n

summer and was on hand to see the XOs delivered.“The people in the community are extremely excited,”

she reports, “There were tears of hope and joy that theircommunity can help shape this project in ways that willelevate their children’s sense of possibility.”

Before arriving, she and Tarditi spent months building aprofessional development framework and a set of objectivesfor teacher and student learning. They used a math moduledeveloped by Christine Massey, director of research educa-tion in Penn’s Institute for Research and Cognitive Science,to draw up practice lessons and even simulate class sessions.NancyLee Bergey, a Penn GSE instructor with dual expert-ise in science education and teacher preparation, helpedthem with the professional development component.

Once in Nicaragua, they kicked off their first week by get-ting to know the teachers and establishing a collaborativeworking relationship. “After we broke the proverbial ice,”says Tarditi, “we quickly transitioned into the integration ofcomputers and technology in the school.

“Following our first sessions,” he continues, “we beganto work directly with the XO laptop computers, startingfrom the most basic operations and functions—opening

and turning them on. On a daily basis, I have been work-ing to familiarize the teachers with computer programs orsoftware, while we have been developing daily lesson plansthat incorporate these programs in coordination with theMinistry of Education’s curriculum.”

In addition to the teachers, Tarditi works side by side witha teacher-facilitator who will be responsible for replicatingthe project in other schools in the Adopt-a-School network.

Ravitch is closely supervising the project, but Tarditi isPenn GSE’s man on the ground and key to the project’s suc-cess. A graduate of the School’s Education, Culture, andSociety program, he was originally hired as the project trans-lator. He ended up writing his master’s thesis on the issues atthe heart of this project—the digital divide and rural pover-ty—and signed on for a one-year stint on the coffee farm.

On his own now, Tarditi is not only facilitating the pro-fessional development but also continuing the ethnograph-ic study, making daily observations and conducting inter-views with community members—parents, students,teachers, and farm personnel: “It’s his judgment in themoment, and it’s his wisdom,” says Ravitch. “One of thereasons I knew he’d be perfect is that his orientation isdeeply collaborative.”

As Tarditi explains, “On a regular basis, once or twice aweek, I make home visits in order to get to know the com-munity. The teachers have been invaluable to my engage-

“I see the computers as a great tool to bring considerable professional development and resources to this community—and, that, for me, is the model I want to replicate.”


Emanuel Gonzalez-Revilla W’88, aPanamanian business executive andPenn GSE overseer, has a longstand-

ing interest in education, especially in hisnative country. He knows that undergradu-ate tuition and living expenses at Penn—nowrunning about $50,000 a year—are a majorbarrier to many Panamanian students. Butwhen he offered to underwrite financial help,not one was able to accept his offer.Language and cultural barriers no doubtplayed a role. More important, though, was

the fact that many students were not academically prepared for an IvyLeague school.

That discovery led Gonzalez-Revilla and his family to a heightened inter-est in the quality of the Panamanian education system. Was it producingstudents who could take political and economic leadership roles, locally andnationally? Could they compete with their peers from Costa Rica, Chile,and Colombia? And if the system couldn’t do that, how could it change?

Gonzalez-Revilla approached GSE and invited us to submit a proposalfor a quick and focused comparative study of the Panamanian and CostaRican education systems. We gathered a first-rate team—proficient inSpanish and with strong field experience—and headed to Panama.

Knowing that we had very little time in which to work, we decided to focuson how primary-school math was taught. We interviewed officials, politicians,union leaders, teacher educators, and others. We looked at data sets and budg-ets and we videotaped over 75 math lessons in both Panama and Costa Rica,analyzing what does—and doesn’t—happen in those classrooms.

We were focusing on two main areas—how teachers are prepared andhow education is financed—and we were able to achieve a great deal in afairly short amount of time, thanks to the full cooperation of the govern-ment and the generous support of the Gonzalez-Revilla family.

Teacher PreparationCosta Rica, a neighbor and economic competitor of Panama, has

To understand how Panama couldimprove its education system, PennGSE researchers looked across theborder to Costa Rica. Team leaderAlan Ruby explains how they foundremedies in teacher preparation programs and school finance reform.

By Alan Ruby

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roughly the same GDP per capita. Of that GDP, howev-er, less is spent on education, and the results are better.How is this achieved, both financially and pedagogically?

The answer lies partly in how, and how much, newteachers are trained, and in what domains—in how toteach or in what to teach or in some combination of thesetwo. How much specialized mathematics knowledge dothey need to be good teachers?

In Costa Rica, all teachers are required to earn a bache-lor’s degree. In Panama, by contrast, future teachers canelect to complete the Normal School coursework instead,roughly the equivalent of finishing a high school degree inthe U.S. Slightly more than half of Panamanian primaryschool teachers choose this route. In other words, a majori-ty of primary school teachers have not had the in-depthcoursework generally associated with college-level classes.

Some differences in pedagogy were fundamental, andwe could track them to the ways in which teachers are pre-pared and the ways in which learning is organized. CostaRican elementary school teachers, for example, have morepreparation in terms of content and in terms of pedagogythan Panamanian teachers. They tend to teach mathemat-ics in larger blocks of time, so the actual effective instruc-

tional time is greater. Some changes are that simple—weactually observed these practices and could say, “Here aresome things you can do relatively quickly, that will make areal difference.”

Our interviews with many teachers also suggested thatteacher education students in both countries—but particu-larly in Panama—are not adequately prepared to teach inremote areas and in multi-grade classes. Addressing thisissue will not be as easy as changing how instructional timeis allocated, but it is essential to making real and lastingimprovements to the state of education in Panama.

Because half of all Panamanian elementary school teach-ers are trained at the same college, the Normal de Santiago,the point of intervention is obvious and makes change lookfairly easy—at least in theory. Change practices at that sin-gle national institution and the impact on future cohorts ofteachers would be significant.

But given the weaknesses in the system, should theNormal de Santiago even continue to train teachers? Theanswer is a definite yes, but with some conditions. Theschool must prepare new teachers at much higher levels ofcontent and pedagogical content knowledge if Panamanianstudents are to succeed in higher education and in theworld economy. Both at the Normal de Santiago and at

other schools, teacher pre-service education must be radi-cally changed. Future teachers need to learn more contentabout the subjects they will teach and be better prepared inhow to teach the subject at a level that deepens students’understanding of concepts and teaches them how to applythose ideas in real-world contexts.

Teachers who are already in classrooms should also haveopportunities to learn how to improve their teaching. Tomeet that need, both countries can introduce intensive in-service training, continuing over several months and taughtby high-quality educators, perhaps recruited from abroad.

Another issue, teacher compensation, affects the qualityof people recruited into teaching in the first place.Primary-school teachers in Panama are paid much lessthan other professionals, and less than teachers in CostaRica, especially when measured in the purchasing power oftheir salaries. In addition, the distribution of teacher quali-ty across the country is uneven. This system needs to bereformed, with teachers in isolated, low-income, and urbanareas receiving larger incentives.

School FinanceThe success of any educational system does not rest with

its teacher preparation programs alone. So at the same timewe were looking at teacher education, some team members,including Penn GSE Vice Dean Doug Lynch and I, turnedour attention to finances. Where did the money come from?How was it spent, and by whom? Did some regions orschools receive more money, or spend it differently?

Although the Ministry of Education in Panama is notvery large –the main building for the entire Ministry isslightly smaller in size than GSE—departments within theMinistry do not always communicate or coordinate effec-tively. As a result, budgets are not always used to maximumeffect. There is duplication—with multiple programs tryingto foster school improvement with three different fundingstrategies, three different timelines, and three differentreporting methods. If a principal wished to combine thefunds from the three sources to employ a teacher or a com-munity liaison officer, the rules would not allow it.

Identifying remedies is simple: efficiencies at the Ministry,such as combining funding streams to allow for greater flexi-bility in spending at the local level, could allow a principal tohire a new teacher, for instance. But these remedies requirechanging how people do things, and who does them.Consolidating Ministry departments, for instance, wouldthreaten people’s careers: one unit would replace three, withtwo unit heads suddenly out of jobs. Like bureaucracieseverywhere, the Ministry of Education is not a natural advo-cate of reform.

Unanswered QuestionsAs we finish this phase of the project, we are left with a

number of unresolved questions. Chief among them is, ofcourse, now what? We’ve come in, done a lot of research on

Costa Rica, a neighbor and economic competitor of Panama,has roughly the same GDP per capita. Of that GDP, however,less is spent on education, and the results are better. How isthis achieved, both financially and pedagogically?


a very compressed timeline, and made our recommenda-tions. Naturally, we hope that the government will imple-ment many, if not all, of them and that public education inPanama will improve markedly over the coming years.

There are complicating factors, political change chiefamong them. Since the end of our study, a presidentialelection has been held and the new President was sworn inat the beginning of July. The Minister of Education hasalso changed. The new President—and his advisors—havebeen briefed, fully and frankly. Emanuel Gonzalez-Revillais laying the groundwork for further work towardstrengthening the teacher education system.

Meanwhile, the country is grappling with other pressingissues—the widening of the Panama Canal and the currentstate of world trade among others—and, as important as ourwork may be to the country’s future, education reform mayfall off the radar screen. In Panama, as in the rest of theworld, the immediate often gets in the way of the strategic.

But our questions aren’t limited to those of implementa-tion. Our work in Panama has raised a number of other,more philosophical issues as well—issues with implica-tions for the development and funding of such projects.

Independent researchers, hired by a private citizen ofPanama, developed and completed this study. What roleshould independent researchers play in shaping publicunderstanding of these issues? Should a nation’s businesscommunity have a role? If so, what should it be?

As independent researchers, we came into Panamawithout an agenda, and being impartial, were in someways ideally placed to be effective advocates. We’re not

beholden, so we can say exactly what we think—althoughwe are practical in our approach. On the other hand, it isdifficult for outside researchers to fully understand thecontext and nuances of another culture. How can we quan-tify these differences, and how much do they matter?

By the same token, our study would not have been possi-ble without the full and willing cooperation of thePanamanian government. We don’t want to risk reducing thechances of government action by simply pointing to shortcomings. We were concerned to create what Ben Franklincalled “useful knowledge” that would do some good in theworld. But we did not want to just pass a polite report to offi-cials and hope for action. But what would be the line betweencreating knowledge, suggesting action, and advocacy?

As the new government takes shape—and as new poli-cies take shape—we’re keeping a close eye on develop-ments in Panama. We’re staying in touch with EmanuelGonzalez-Revilla and with our colleagues in Panama andCosta Rica, both inside and outside the Ministry ofEducation. We’re grateful for—and impressed by—thelevel of access we were given to all aspects of the educationsystem. And we’re optimistic that the government’s will-ingness to allow us into the Ministry, and into the schools,bodes well for the future of education in Panama. n

A senior fellow for international education at Penn GSE,Alan Ruby has held positions in The Atlantic Philanthropies,the World Bank, the Organisaton for Economic Co-opera-tion and Development, and the Australian department ofeducation and employment.

A student at the MontezumaElementary School in CostaRica. With roughly the sameGDP per capita as Panama,Costa Rica spends less oneducation—with higherlevels of studentachievement.

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Five-year study focuses on scienceand math teacher preparationaround the globe.

In its latest and perhaps most wide-reaching example ofglobal engagement under the Penn Compact, PennGSE has recently taken the lead in a major research ini-

tiative focused on secondary school mathematics and sci-ence teacher preparation.

The five-year collaborative project will strive to under-stand math and science teacher preparation in each partici-pating country, so that the practices of any one countrymay be improved based upon best practices discoveredelsewhere. The study’s primary audience is policymakersand research institutions across the study group.

Penn GSE is leading this multi-phase internationaleffort in collaboration with the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation Forum (APEC). Composed of 21 countries,APEC works to promote sustainable economic growththroughout the Asia Pacific region. Its Education Networkhas identified four priority areas for study—math and sci-ence learning among them. (The others are information

technology, language learning, and education governanceand systemic reform.)

The current science and math teacher preparation studybegan to take shape in October 2008, when Penn GSEhosted international delegations of senior educationresearchers and policymakers at a two-day summit.Among the APEC member countries taking part in theproject are Australia, China, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan),Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Russia,Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. Thestudy has support from the U.S. Department of Educationand ministries of education in many of the participatingcountries.

The U.S. research team is composed of faculty from fourof the nation’s top education schools: Penn GSE, MichiganState University’s College of Education, HarvardUniversity’s Graduate School of Education, and TeachersCollege of Columbia University. In addition, nationalresearch centers and various governmental policymakerswill be key collaborators. At Penn, GSE Dean Andy Porterand Professor Rebecca Maynard have been involved in theinitiative from its inception, with the Office of International

Penn GSE Leads Major International Research Initiative

By William Dunworth


Programs, led by Vice Dean Cheng Davis, coordinating theinitiative development and launch. Other Penn GSE facul-ty members involved in the development phase haveincluded Ed Boe, John DeFlaminis, Laura Desimone, PegGoertz, Richard Ingersoll, Janine Remillard, Alan Ruby,Kathy Schultz, and Elliot Weinbaum.

For well over a decade, the U.S. has been focusing onmath and science education—in part as a response to stud-ies that have shown U.S. students underperforming whencompared to many of their international counterparts, par-ticularly those in Asia. For the American researchers, thisstudy is a further attempt to understand that phenome-non—but benefits are envisioned for participation on allsides. As Davis noted in a recent Daily Pennsylvanianinterview, “Countries in Asia place too much emphasis onmemorization and testing…. Like us, they are looking forchange and we can provide that kind of instruction.”

The study will build on previous international compara-tive studies, including TIMSS (Third InternationalMathematics and Science Study), released in 2007 by theInternational Association for the Evaluation of EducationAchievement, and PISA (Programme for InternationalStudent Assessment), sponsored by the Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Development. Both of thesestudies focused on student outcomes at the middle-schoollevel, whereas the APEC study will examine teacherpreparation at the upper secondary level. Nonetheless,researchers hope to address student outcomes in a correla-tional way in the new study.

Findings more directly related to the APEC projectcome from the Teacher Education Study–Mathematics(TEDS-M), produced in 2007 by Michigan StateUniversity. This study suggested that, when comparinghigher- and lower-performing countries, differences inmiddle-school math achievement are likely related notonly to a “curriculum gap” but also to a “preparation gap.”That is, teachers in higher- and lower-performing coun-tries had very different experiences as part of their teacherpreparation. Although focused exclusively on middleschools, TEDS-M is closely related to the APEC study;therefore, Michigan State University has become part ofthe U.S. research team for the current initiative.

This study builds on Penn GSE’s deep commitment tonational and international teacher preparation, both interms of research and practice. Both Porter and Maynardhave strong experience in international comparativeresearch and in research focused on teacher preparation inmath and science. Additionally, Ingersoll is one of thenation’s leading authorities on teacher quality, particularlythe impact of teacher shortages and turnover. He was alsoa lead researcher in the “Comparative Study of TeacherPreparation and Qualifications in Six Nations” projectundertaken by the Consortium for Policy Research in

Education. On the practitioner level, the School has beenunwavering in its commitment to high-quality teachereducation through such innovative programs as a mastersprogram for Teach for America Corps members and theNinth Semester Scholar program that offers a minor inurban education for gifted Penn undergraduates.

Penn’s international experience and strong commitmentto research and practice positions GSE well to take the leadin the APEC research project. Furthermore, such leader-ship provides an outstanding learning opportunity.

“Understanding how our APEC partners prepare,assist, and reward teachers in science and math is impor-tant to educational improvement in the U.S. and world-wide,” Porter observes. “We have much to learn from oneanother. For example, in Japan and China, teachersobserve their peers and comment on their performances todevelop a broad understanding of which techniques aremost effective in the classroom, just by observing othergood teachers. What’s particularly interesting about thisstudy is that countries like Russia, China, and the U.S. willbe studying teacher preparation together—nothing likethis has been done before in a serious way.”

Phase I of the project will be launched in November2009, when the international research team convenes inMoscow. The goal for this phase is to build a solid researchpartnership among participating scholars, as the team worksto gather descriptive information about teacher preparationpractices and student outcomes in each country. This phasewill also include development of an inventory of availabledatabases in each country so that a strong foundationalknowledge base can be created across the entire project.

Phase II will entail in-depth research within each coun-try, based on a common research protocol that also allowsfor some targeted questioning to capture informationunique to smaller subsets of the study group. Instrumentswill attempt to measure teachers in terms of both theirsubject content knowledge and pedagogical content knowl-edge. Finally, Phase III will focus on cross-national com-parative analysis in order to identify the transnationalqualities of teacher preparation programs that are mosteffective for both teachers and students.

Penn GSE’s stewardship of the APEC research initia-tive is further testament to the School’s enactment of thePenn Compact. It builds on the deep local knowledge thatfaculty have developed in their work on teacher prepara-tion in the United States, and it endeavors to expand thatknowledge by collaborating with education researchers andpractitioners around the world. It demonstrates, too, howPenn GSE is striving to be the most intellectually excitingplace in education anywhere in the world—a place thatothers look to for ideas. n

“What’s particu-larly interestingabout this study isthat countries likeRussia, China, andthe U.S. will bestudying teacherpreparationtogether—nothinglike this has beendone before in aserious way.”

P E N N G S E D O N O R S

18 | Penn GSE | Fall 2007

Thank YouThank you to the many benefactors and friends whose support helps ensure Penn GSE’s position as one of the country’sfinest graduate schools of education. Your gift makes it possible for us to sustain a proud tradition of excellence and to

develop new programs, research, and resources that respond to the changing needs of educators and others in the field.All donors whose gifts or pledges (restricted and unrestricted) were received during the fiscal year of July 1, 2008,

through June 30, 2009, and total $1,000 or more are recognized in the named societies below.

Dean’s Trust$1,000, 000 and aboveThe Honorable Leonore

Annenberg HON’85The Annenberg Foundation

Legacy Circle $500,000 to $999,999Estate of M. Elaine Stinner

Ed’45 GrEd’51

Leadership Council $100,000 to $499,999America’s Choice, Inc.Avi Chai FoundationGeorge E. Doty, Jr. W’76Lee Spelman Doty W’76Doty Family FoundationHelene Feldman, Esq.Ziel Feldman, Esq.Laurence D. FinkJay S. Fishman W’74 WG’74Randy Chapman FishmanFreeman FoundationWilliam T. Grant Foundation, Inc.Joel M. Greenblatt W’79 WG’80Julie GreenblattJoyce FoundationLenfest FoundationDr. Ruth A. MoormanMRM Foundation Inc.The William Penn FoundationEstate of Etta M. Pettyjohn

Ed’29 G’32The Philadelphia FoundationJeffrey W. Schwarz W’80 WG’81Wendy W. Schwarz Schwarz Family FoundationSheldon N. Simon W’79The Spencer Foundation

Patrons of Distinction $25,000 to $99,999Asia SocietyAspen InstituteAllison Weiss Brady C’93Dennis A. Brady, Jr. C’94 W’94Annie E. Casey Foundation Lori Rutman Fife C’80Mark S. Fife W’78Lori and Mark Fife FoundationMarilyn G. Glosserman Michael J. Glosserman W’78Nancy Lee B. KellyPaul K. Kelly C’62 WG’64Kelly Family FoundationAgnes M. Mulroney CS’57Mulroney Family Charitable FundNational Center for Public Policy

& Higher EducationLawrence C. Nussdorf, Esq. W’68Melanie Franco Nussdorf, Esq.

CW’71

Founder $10,000 to $24,999Estate of Dr. Richard G. Durnin

GrEd’68John F. Gamba W’61Mary Anne S. Gamba NHP’65 G’84Gamba Family FoundationShirley Magitson Grallnick Ed’53The Institute of International

Education Dr. Carl Kaysen C’40 HON’76Peter C. Madeja GEd’79Wynn W. Madeja Jane E. McEldowney TrustJennifer Saul C’92Joseph E. & Norman G. Saul

FoundationEdmund C. Spelman III

C’79 GEd’79

Renee B. Spelman GEd’79Estate of Kathryn W. Sterner

Fellow $5,000 to $9,999Natalie Black Hertz Ed’57Estate of Dr. William S. Sterner

Ed’36 GEd’38Seth T. Toney II WG’88Dr. Flora Naomi Taylor Gr’94Verizon Communications Inc.

Associate $2,500 to $4,999Bertha L. AikenDr. Robert M. Aiken Ed’64 GEd’66Foundations, Inc.Harold E. Hirsch Foundation, Inc.Dr. Michael G. Kirsch C’68

GEd’72 GrEd’74Marcia Damsky Nad Ed’45 GEd’47Reliable Transport SpecialistsDr. Jennifer M. Segal C’96Justin R. Segal C’93Molly D. Shepard GEd’79Springer SBM LLC Phyllis F. Topchik Ed’52Robert J. Topchik W’50

Member $1,000 to $2,499Hinda Lashner Bregman Ed’47Morris Bregman CHE’48Barney D. Byrd WG’81Elena V. Byrd C’79 GEd’79Joseph L. Calihan W’60Dr. Timothy D. Cross GEd’81

G’81 Gr’83Jane W. CulverGenex Services Inc.Dr. James H. LytleDr. Susan L. Lytle Gr’82

MacKay ShieldsMuse ProjectConstance A. Bakke-NobleGeorge L. NobleJames P. Pellow GrEd’06The Pittsburgh FoundationDr. Andrew C. PorterAudrey Hochhauser Schewe

C’89 GEd’91Scott W. Schewe W’91James E. Shada W’56 GEd’67Telene ShadaJoan Myerson Shrager Ed’60Dr. Rita E. Silver Gr’99Ellen Cohen Stein CW’69

The Harrison Society(bequests and planned gifts)The following represents ourmost up-to-date informationabout bequests and plannedgifts to Penn GSE. If you haveincluded Penn GSE in yourestate planning and your namedoes not appear on this list,please contact Amy McAllister [email protected].

Marc C. AbrahmsEllen C. Adey GEd’71Bertha L. AikenDr. Robert M. Aiken Ed’64 GEd’66George Hughes Bacon GEd’68Mary Ruth Bassett Ed’38 GEd’40Sheila M. Bell GEd’64Dr. Francis M. Betts W’57 GrEd’77Daniel H. Bloom, DDS D’46Dr. David B. Brown GrEd’72Dr. Thomas M. Bruggman GEd’78Dr. Phyllis L. Brust PT’75

Gee’83 GrEd’90Andrew T. Cheifetz, DMD D’01

GEd’01Jennifer Jaye Cheifetz C’97 GEd’00Dr. Stan Cherim C’51 GEd’65Jean E. Dawson Ed’50 GEd’53Dorothy C. Day Ed’43 GEd’44Theresa Papan Demanop GEd’57Eleanore O. Dower NU’56 GEd’59Kenneth B. Dreyfuss W’69 GEd’77Patricia Dager Eckfeldt CW’41

GEd’61David Ellowitch GEd’05Carl D. Ferree GEd’68Eva Flynn Fidler Ed’40 GEd’42Nancy E. Freilich GEd’68Dr. Sylvia Joseph Galambos

CW’74 GEd’74Kevin R. Gallagher C’80 GEd’89E. Jane Galloway Ed’53 GEd’57Louise Bowie Gerow GEd’70Dr. Saul B. Grossmann C’53

GEd’58Berjoohy Haigazian GEd’62Dr. Diane E. Haines GrEd’79Margaret H. Harper Ed’40Douglas K. HarrisEllen P. HarrisMary H. Hawk GEd’71Wilbur W. Hitchcock Ed’43

GEd’50 G’51Arun S. Iyer C’94 G’02Rabbi Louis Kaplan Ed’49 GEd’50Carole Weinheim Karsch Ed’59

GEd’78Debra R. Kauffman GEd’92Dr. Carl Kaysen C’40 HON’76Nouvel M. Klages Ed’47 GEd’50Margo T. Kusienski, DMD D’95

GEd’96Dr. Althier M. Lazar Gr’93Melissa Sue Littman C’91Marjorie Miller Luke CW’39Sallie-Ruth MacCorkell Ed’46

GEd’49William E. Macht Ed’43 GEd’48Jen-Jen Liu MaoBernard A. Mason, MD C’68

M’72 INT’76Louise Buell McClure GEd’50Barbara W. McGrath C’90 GEd’91Jane Cohen Millner CW’74 GEd’75Harvey D. Morse C’68 GEd’70William W. Nichols

Michael J. O’Reilly GEd’64Ann Jaffe Pace CW’58 GEd’65Marie L. Piekarski NU’52 GEd’57Dr. Eleanor Anglin Price

Ed’31 G’34Letitia O. Principato CW’49

GEd’76 GGS’99Dr. Josephine Feldmark

Rabinowitz Ed’46 GEd’48 Gr’93Lady Isolde Radzinowicz Ed’36

GEd’66Dr. Linda T. Raichle Gr’92Stephen Regec, MDShirley B. Richardson Ed’49 GEd’50Dr. Charlotte Lynn Robinson

GrEd’76Dr. Leonard Rosen Ed’45 GrEd’53Bessie M. Ruzian CW’41 GEd’64Sue Williams Saul GEd’51Carol J. Scheifele-Holmes GEd’68Harriet Cohen Schwartz Ed’58Rodney A. Sell C’57 GEd’65Elizabeth Nicholson Sevier Ed’45

GEd’47Dr. Francis A. C. Sevier Ed’47

GrEd’55M. Fitzsimmons Shilkin Ed’40

GEd’44Wilma S. Slyoff CW’64 GEd’68

CGS’03Carol C. Spencer CW’46Clinton O. Steadman W’44Cindy G. Sterling C’84 GEd’85Jill Nemez Stolbach GEd’75Juanita Puyoou Strohecker

Ed’55 GEd’58Jan C. Swenson GEd’91 GEd’97David H. Trautenberg C’80 GEd’80Mildred Lazowick Weinstock

Ed’37 GEd’38Paul J. Wexler C’41Dr. Julius J. Willa, Jr. WG’53

GrEd’65Robert C. F. Willson C’82 GEd’83

Class of 1939Dolores Thornhill Frazier Ed’39

GEd’40Genevieve R. Timm Ed’39 GEd’43

Class of 1944Miriam T. Camlin Ed’43 GEd’44Elsie Klein Koiner Ed’43 GEd’44Gloria Jerjisian Sussman Ed’44

GEd’45

Class of 1949Charles R. Appler Ed’49 GEd’51Pauline Gothelf Dickstein Ed’49

GEd’50Gilda Drotman Ed’49 GEd’50Dr. Albert E. Filano Ed’48 GEd’49Gwendolyn Matthews Holmes

Ed’48 GEd’49Roselle Kosack Maerker Ed’48

GEd’49William Roper Ed’49 GEd’50Geraldine L. Smith GEd’49Donald T. Sollenberger C’45

GEd’49Ralph O. Stocker Ed’49 GEd’54Edgar L. Wallace Ed’49 GEd’50

Class of 1954Edna De Veaux Alexander GEd’54Ruth S. Buckingham Ed’54 GEd’55Elizabeth Teti Byar Ed’53 GEd’54Jeanne Peggs Holcomb Ed’51

GEd’54Dr. Neal S. Kahn Ed’53 GEd’54Marlin W. Klinger GEd’54Josephine A. Pagano GEd’54Dr. Clarence H. Preitz GEd’54Shirley R. Rhone GEd’54Sonya Stern Richman, Esq.

Ed’51 GEd’54

Class of 1959Shirley C. Altimore Ed’57 GEd’59Gladys Krieger Bloch Ed’50 GEd’59Eleanore O. Dower NU’56 GEd’59Rev. James J. English GEd’59

Ida Fratkin Epstein Ed’37 GEd’59Nora Haith NU’56 GEd’59Ann E. Lewis GEd’59Ruth Husted Linn Ed’55 GEd’59Dr. Mary J. Pettersen GEd’59William J. Rishel GEd’59Charlotte P. Scarbrough GEd’59Muriel C. Schroeder GEd’59Charles E. Seaman GEd’59

Class of 1964Dr. Robert M. Aiken Ed’64 GEd’66Sheila M. Bell GEd’64Ellamarie O. Bledsoe GEd’64Roblyn V. Breece GEd’64Dr. Sara M. Brown GrEd’64Dr. Bruce C. Burt GEd’64Martha Beck Campion CW’63

GEd’64Dr. William F. Eastman GrEd’64Doris Harvey Edison GEd’64Ivia W. Greene GEd’64Jane Amsterdam Howard GEd’64John W. Kinnikin GEd’64Lois Prestwood Mamourian GEd’64Garwood A. Maunula GEd’64Patricia Kearney Miamidian GEd’64Dennis E. Murfin GEd’64Raymond I. Noyes GEd’64Norma Brooks Phelps GEd’64Judith Brunhouse Sapienza GEd’64Gail Lubets Schwartz GEd’64

Class of 1969Jane M. Bauschard, Esq. GEd’69Barbara Russo Bravo CW’68

GEd’69Susan M. Cotton GEd’69Walter C. Emery GEd’69Barbara L. Evans GEd’69Anne Levesque Garrett GEd’69Dr. William R. Halttunen GrEd’69Dr. Christopher A. Jones GEd’69Warren D. Kelemen GEd’69Gary E. Newkirk GEd’69Robert A. Nykamp GEd’69Nancy B. Savage GEd’69Linda Pronesti Shrier GEd’69Dr. F. C. Vergara GEd’69Kathryn Breon Zink GEd’69

Fall 2009 | Penn GSE | 19

REUNION CLASS HONOR ROLL All gifts from Reunion Year alumniof the School of Education and theGraduate School of Education arelisted.

P E N N G S E D O N O R S

Thank YouClass of 1974Thomas W. Biester GEd’74Dr. David W. Breeden GEd’74Linda Nelson Brill GEd’74Valerie Thompson Broadie

CW’74 GEd’74James R. Coe GEd’74David A. Downes GEd’74Dr. Harriett H. Ennis CGS’71

GEd’74 Gr’88Nancy S. Goodman GEd’74Dr. Charles F. Haughey, Jr. Ed’53

GrEd’74Dr. Marjorie S. Hertz CW’74 GEd’74Dr. Michael G. Kirsch C’68

GEd’72 GrEd’74Sari Margo Kushner GEd’74Debra L. Marzak GEd’74Susan G. Montague GEd’74Jean E. O’Donnell G’74 GEd’74Amy M. Pollack GEd’74Dr. Donald D. Schaffer G’62 GrEd’74Sally G. Weinstein GEd’74Lenox Wilson GEd’74

Class of 1979Nancylee Bergey CW’75 GEd’79

CGS’04 GEd’06 GrEd’11Elena V. Byrd C’79 GEd’79Teri Gross Cohen C’78 GEd’79Betty Gross Eisenberg C’77 GEd’79Ann Sweet Fink GEd’79Dr. Marsha Gerdes GEd’79 Gr’84Dr. Stephen R. Gring GrEd’79Robin C. Kane C’78 GEd’79Susan D. Lastowski GEd’79Terri L. Needels GEd’79Betty Burton Reina GEd’79Mary Hancock Rippel GEd’79Valjean Bell Sanchez C’79 GEd’79Molly D. Shepard GEd’79Edmund C. Spelman III C’79 GEd’79Renee B. Spelman GEd’79Amy B. Weiss Friedman GEd’79

Class of 1984Carol B. Allan GEd’84Gail C. Battista GEd’84Dr. Edward L. Collymore GrEd’84Dr. Jill Conrad GrEd’84Marian L. Fetter GEd’84Nancy L. Horwitz GEd’84Maureen Parris CGS’76 GEd’84

CGS02Therese Schneider-Koller GEd’84Meryl Antonowsky Weiss C’79

GEd’84

Class of 1989Ryna Alexander GEd’89Eileen Golove Bobman CW’56

GEd’89Dr. John Robert Burns GrEd’89Robin J. Gutkin GEd’89Laura Moody Hoskins GEd’89Curtis Dunston Howard, PhD

Gr’89Dr. Alice V. Kelley GEd’89Melinda A. Kotler GEd’89Charles W. Nolan C’84 GEd’89Robert B. Rhoades GEd’89 CGS06Mary R. Robeson GEd’89

Class of 1994Dr. Dale M. Allison GNU’82 Gr’94Karen Grimm Berry C’93 GEd’94Laurie A. Bieber C’93 GEd’94Janet Braker GEd’94Karen Droga Campe GEd’94Dr. Sally Schwer Canning GEd’88

Gr’94Robert E. Lane Gr’94 CGS’05Christina M. Mecca GEd’94Diane P. Monteleone GEd’94Dr. T. Braden Montgomery, Jr.

Gr’94Jonathan R. Nebeker, MD

GEd’94 M’94Dr. Nancy Lee Porter Gr’94David Bacon Smith GEd’94Dr. Lori Beth Stauffer Gr’94Dr. Flora Naomi Taylor Gr’94

Dr. Steven B. Taylor Gr’94 GEd’01Dr. Michael Keith Townsley Gr’94Michelle L. Ulmer-Parker GEd’94Dr. Edwin L. Woolley III Gr’94Elizabeth Cheryl Zack GEd’94

Class of 1999Samantha B. Abelson GEd’99Dr. Kimberly Allen-Stuck GEd’93

Gr’99Dr. Martha B. Bryans GEd’99

GrEd’00Kimberly Y. Erwin GEd’99Aimee Ferguson GEd’99Dr. Steven Guttentag Gr’99Bruce N. Haskin GEd’99 GEd’01

GEd’02Pamela J. Booser GEd’99Dr. Vicky Menexas-Gioroukakis

GEd’99 Gr’01Ryan L. Pry C’98 GEd’99Jennifer Stanwix Reich C’98

GEd’99Dr. Rita E. Silver Gr’99David S. Son GEd’99

Class of 2004Jaime Bard C’02 GEd’04Keith M. Briggs GEd’97 GEd’04Mark Patrick Campbell GrEd’04Richard D. Carreno GEd’04Meghan T. Carroll White GEd’04

GEd’06Rev. Michael D. Class GrEd’04Dr. Marsha H. Comegno GEd’98

GrEd’04Dr. Angela M. Corbo GEd’92 Gr’04Katharine M. Crosswell GEd’04

GEd’04Noah Daniel Drezner GEd’04 Gr’08Suzette L. Escobar GEd’04Emily A. Ford C’00 GEd’04Alan K. Johnson GEd’02 GEd’04Dr. Tracy E. Kamens GEd’00

GrEd’04John F. Kucia GrEd’04

Elisabeth I. Levi C’91 GEd’92 Gr’04

Marianne Lipa GEd’04Deborah S. Marcus GEd’97 Gr’04S. David Ross GEd’04 WEV’09Carl Paul Steidel GEd’04Shuhan C. Wang Gr’04Elliot H. Weinbaum Gr’04

Class of 2009Katherine L. Ross GEd’09



A L U M N I N O T E S

Lorraine Wincor Ed’57 GEd’61 has publishedher first book, The Marriage Circus. The 100-page self-help book addresses the increased pres-sures that the economic recession is putting onmarriages and relationships. A psychologist whohas been helping married couples for 30 years,Lorraine sets out to shatter the delusions of mar-riage and help couples avoid the pitfalls of poorcommunication. She explains, “A high percent-age of committed couples—whether they aremarried, living together, straight or gay—eithercannot afford professional help or are reluctantto do so, which is why I wrote The MarriageCircus.” The book is available at Amazon and atwww.lorrainewincor.com. All proceeds go to theJonathan Tonelli Raylove Fund, to help supporta brain-damaged victim of near-drowing.

Maxine Weisman Greenberg Ed’61 writes,“My son Erik Greenberg Anjou wrote, direct-ed, and produced the new film 8: Ivy LeagueFootball and America, which features a lot aboutPenn. I am a real-estate agent with PrudentialFox and Roach; my area is Margate, Longport,Ventnor, and AC [in New Jersey].”

Nelson B. Heller Gr’69 is president of EdNet atMDR, in Solana Beach, California, and foundingpublisher of the Heller Reports. This comingDecember he will be inducted into the Hall ofFame of the Association of EducationalPublishers for his contributions to the industry ofsupplemental educational materials.

Barbara P. Barnett GEd’71 is head of mod-ern languages at the Agnes Irwin School inRosemont, Pennsylvania. She recently receivedthe 2009 Dorothy S. Ludwig Excellence inTeaching Award (secondary level) from theAmerican Association of Teachers of French, atwhose conference she presented a session onWomen in the Resistance.

Joan Zimmerman Azarva GEd’74 writes, “Tohelp increase the college success rates of studentswith learning differences, I started an onlinecourse called ‘Conquer College with LD/ADD’for high school students and their parents. I alsodo online coaching and consulting.” Joan can bereached at [email protected].

Elaine Samans GrEd’83 writes, “Forty yearsago, I began a new career as an elementaryschool counselor. I also developed the first sum-mer migrant program and was the center super-visor for the Kennett Consolidated SchoolDistrict, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Theprogram for 75 migrant children was a precur-sor of today’s efforts to help students withdiverse backgrounds.”

Leslie Nicholas GEd’85 was inducted into theNational Teachers Hall of Fame in Kansas inJune.

Laurie Bieber C’93 GrEd’95 writes, “Greatarticle about TFA in Penn’s GSE magazine. Iwant to share some more fun facts. I graduatedfrom the College in 1993 and the GSE in 1994with a masters in Secondary Ed. In 1995, Imoved to Houston to help open the first of twoKIPP schools after the pilot program in 1994.KIPP was co-founded by two TFA folks—Mike Feinberg, who graduated from Penn, andDave Levin, who graduated from Yale. In 1995,I helped Mike open the first school in Houstonwhile Dave opened a school in the Bronx.”

Michael K. Townsley Gr’94 has developed asignificant reputation in the finance of privatecolleges and universities. He is currently thespecial assistant to the president of BeckerCollege in Worcester, Massachusetts. Michaelhas written extensively on financial strategies inhigher education. His most recent book,Weathering Turbulent Times, was published thisyear by the National Association of College andUniversity Business Officers.

Emily Nichols Grossi GEd’99 and TomGrossi are thrilled to announce the birth of theirsecond son, Oliver Nichols Grossi, on March17. He joined big brother Jack, who will bethree this month.

Joshua Stern GEd’99 has been named dean ofstudents at Arcadia University in Glenside,Pennsylvania. He served previously as associatedean of students and director of residence life, aposition he has held since 2005. He joinedArcadia in 2002, coming from the Art Institute ofPhiladelphia, where he served as director of hous-ing. He also has worked in various residence-lifepositions at Nichols College in Dudley,Massachusetts; Bentley College in Waltham,Massachusetts; and the University ofPennsylvania. Joshua and his wife, Kim, live inAbington with their two children, Noah and Ava.

Gregory Mena GrEd’00 has started in a doc-toral program at California State University,Northridge. Greg is in the first cohort of Ed.D.students in CSU’s new doctoral program focus-ing on community college leadership.

Carolyn Faulkner-Beitzel GEd’01<[email protected]> received aPh.D. in professional-studies education (spe-cializing in K-16 online teaching and learning)from Capella University in November 2008.She found that teachers, without training inonline pedagogy, struggle to transform theirpractices from the brick-and-mortar to theonline classroom. Currently an instructionalcoach at Academy Park High School in Folcroft,Pennsylvania, she is pursuing a K-12 principalcertificate from Neumann College. She alsoteaches education and social-science courses atseveral colleges and universities, both tradition-al and online, and is a distance-learning consult-ant through her company, DLC.

John Kucia GrEd’04 writes, “For the pastthree years I have partnered with Dr. LindaGravett to write a book that flows from my

1950s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s1960s


Penn dissertation. We have a completed ourmanuscript, titled Leadership in Balance: ANew Brand of Leader for a Global Society. Ouragent is in the process of finding a publisher.”

Rob Muller GrEd’04 joined CNA as associatedirector of their education group and director ofthe Regional Educational LaboratoryAppalachia, one of the ten U.S. Department ofEducation research centers. Rob also continues toteach education policy at Georgetown University.

Regina Vella GEd’04 reports from Georgia,“I’ve been elected to be a Board Director/Secretary of a nonprofit, Kingdom Kids, and amstarting a new term on the Board of Directorswith the Georgia Microboard Association (statesupported nonprofit organization). I’m still atGeorgia Gwinnett College and have successfullyincreased student recruitment (we’ve gone from800 to hitting 3,000 this fall). I’m coming intoyear 3 as director of Career Development andAdvising—although there is talk of changing myrole to Community Relations/StudentEngagement/Service Learning and, of course,Fundraising. I can’t walk down through theSquare in Lawrenceville without beingnoticed/recognized by someone—I’m getting akick out of that. Georgia is being very good tome. Now I’m getting to understand the wholeGeorgia on My Mind mindset.” Regina was alsoone of 28 people recently selected for theGwinnett Neighborhood Leadership Institutefor 2009/10. The program is an eight-monthintensive community leadership institute thatfocuses on promoting civic change by addressingidentified needs within Gwinnett County in sixareas: Community Engagement, Education,Safety, Health & Human Services, Basic Needs,and Economic & Financial Stability. Regina’ssub-group is working on a project to address thecritical need of economic and financial stability inthe county. Regina writes, “I’m very excited torepresent Gwinnett County in this way since ourcommunity encourages positive change and civicengagement. This is a wonderful opportunity tobe one of many leaders representing our county.”

Pam Felder GrEd’05 contributed a commen-

tary to the Teachers College Record this summer.“Exploring Work-Life Balance for the FemaleDoctoral Student” appeared in the June 25 issue.

Clifford L. Stanley GrEd’05 has been nomi-nated by President Obama to serve as UnderSecretary of Defense for Personnel andReadiness in the Department of Defense. Cliffrecently served as the president of ScholarshipAmerica, the nation’s largest nonprofit, private-sector scholarship organization. Prior to assum-ing this position, he served as Penn’s ExecutiveVice President. Cliff retired from the UnitedStates Marine Corps in 2002, with the rank ofMajor General.

Megan Carlson GEd’06 married BennettLangman on June 27, 2009. They reside inCherry Hill, New Jersey. Megan teaches 9thand 11th grade English at Cherry Hill West.Ben is an attorney with Mayfield, Turner,O’Mara, Donnelly, & McBride in Philadelphia.

Claire Kolman GEd’06 and Lou KolmanEAS’00 are proud to announce the birth of theirdaughter, Makena Natalie Kolman, onDecember 30 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Francis M. Hult Gr'07 has been appointed tothe editorial board of the International Journal ofthe Sociology of Language.

Pat Hunt GrEd’07 is now the chief administra-tive officer with the West Virginia Council forCommunity and Technical College.

Lea Johnson GrEd’07 is the new dean of theSchool of Business Administration at AmericanInternational College.

William P. Kiehl GrEd’07 was recently namededitor of American Diplomacy. In addition, Williamserves as the president and CEO of PDWorldwideInternational Consulting. You can follow his blog at http://pdworldwide.blogspot.com.

Ben Aiken GEd’08 was one of five GSE/TFAstudents to receive a Lindback DistinguishedHigh School Teacher Award, given annually to

an outstanding teacher in each of Philadelphia’shigh schools. Also receiving the award were fel-low TFA grads Shavonne McMillan GEd’07Joanna Stone GEd’08, Molly ThackerGEd’07, and Jennilyn Thiboult GEd’09.

Lisa DiGangi GEd’08 writes, “The U.S.Department of Education recruited ‘reviewers’for the Teaching American History (TAH)grants (million-dollar grants) to serve as readersand panel members to evaluate TAH grantapplication. I applied and was selected (soexcited—it’s a seasonal job).” Lisa credits whatshe learned from Judy Brody and her fellowprofessors in the ELPAP program for “prepar-ing me to evaluate and give both ‘warm’ and‘cool’ feedback as part of the score sessions,written feedback, and panel discussions. Theinternship coupled with the readings andassignments empowered me to take the ‘bal-cony view’ while reading and assessing thegrant applications. Consequently, the panelmonitor often referred the panel members tomy evaluative feedback and asked them toreconsider their scores and comments based onmy support statements (the Readings Synthesisand Capstone enabled me to hone those skillsand put them into practice). ELPAP was arewarding experience (although challenging)with many lessons that I continue to employ.”

Ellie Fogarty GrEd’08 made a competitively-selected presentation at the 2009 Mid-AtlanticRegional Conference of the Society for Collegeand University Planning. Her session, “StrategicPlanning as Though Student Learning Matters,”was presented to a standing-room-only crowd ofarchitects, facilities planners, and assessmentprofessionals seeking to understand the role offacilities in creating a learning environment. Sheenjoyed getting back to her dissertation topicand focusing on one segment of her research.

Anne Herron GrEd’08 has been very busy thissummer. She presented “Connecting StudentsWho Are Connected to Everything: BestPractices in Advising Millennial Students” toSt. Joseph’s College of Nursing and “Legal &Ethical Decision Making—Law or Gut


A veteran of urban schools, Sister Rose Martin Gr’00 lovedgraduate school. “I’d been a principal in Catholic Schoolsfor 14 years—in Miami and West Philadelphia—and wentto graduate school because I felt the need to think moreand analyze more and learn more,” she explains.

But she still had a passion for helping children whodon’t have the educational opportunities that every childshould have.

As executive director of Hope Partnership for Education,Sister Rose gets the chance to act on her passion—andapply what she learned in GSE’s Education, Culture, andSociety doctoral program.

Aiming to break the cycle of poverty through education,Hope Partnership operates an educational center in one ofPhiladelphia’s poorest communities—a place where 50 per-cent of the residents live below the poverty line. The centerincludes a middle school, ongoing support for graduates,and adult education.

Says Sister Rose, “What we’re offering is what everyPhiladelphia public school can’t afford to offer—smallclassrooms in extended-day and extended-year schools.”

A joint effort of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus andthe Sisters of Mercy, Hope Partnership is not, however,religious in focus. As Sister Rose explains, “We’re notinterested in proselytizing. We wanted to offer the besteducation possible to students who need it most.”

To that end, Hope Partnership offers small classes, anextended school day, and an extended school year. Classsize is limited to 15, and the school day begins at 7:30 anddoesn’t end until five. The school year runs fromSeptember through mid-June with a July summer session.

“We’re still in our infancy,” she says, “but we offer adulteducation as well. We have monthly family nights when weoffer a variety of programs. We offer GED and basic edu-cation classes, and we have a part-time social worker whohelps connect families with resources.”

This focus on families is critical, explains Sister Rose.All too many of the neighborhood’s adults have beenshort-changed by the educational system—the functionalliteracy rate hovers at 50 percent—and they often don’t

know how to help their children take the next steps inschool. So among the offerings for adults are monthlysessions on parenting skills like helping children withhomework and coping with adolescents.

Another of Hope Partnership’s important features is thecontinuing support it provides to its graduates. The Classof 2008 was the school’s first graduating class so last yearSister Rose and her colleagues launched their high schoolsupport program. The program’s scope is broad, helpingstudents choose the high school that’s right for them andthen helping them navigate new academic and social chal-lenges. The program is designed to continue throughoutthe students’ high school career, with Hope Partnershipstaff helping with SATs and college applications or withthe move into the workforce.

“We have a monthly pizza party/study night,” saysSister Rose, “and they come back for that. We have tutor-ing available after school as well. Last summer, we hadtwo students who had to go to summer school,” she con-tinues, “and we stayed in touch with them to make surethey were attending.”

It’s that kind of day-to-day, intensive involvement in thelives of students and their families that distinguishesHope Partnership’s—and Sister Rose’s—philosophy.

For more about Hope Partnership, visithttp://www.hopepartnershipforeducation.org/

Sister Rose Gr’00

Partnering for Hope

AlumniProfile


Feeling” to the New York Graduate AdmissionProfessionals Conference.

Stephen D. Immerman GrEd’08 has beenappointed president of Montserrat College of Artin Beverly, Massachusetts. Steve previouslyworked in fundraising, fiscal management, con-struction, student life, and alumni affairs throughMIT’s Resource Development, Academics, andStudent Affairs Divisions. He is also chair of theState University of New York (SUNY) atPotsdam Foundation Board of Directors where hehelped to lead a successful $12 million fundraisingcampaign for his undergraduate alma mater.

Paul Marthers GrEd’08 joined RensselaerPolytechnic Institute as vice president forEnrollment and dean of Undergraduate andGraduate Admissions.

Celeste Rodriquez GEd’08 helped secure a$50,000 grant from the Cole Hamels Foundationfor the Stetson Middle School, where she did herstudent-teaching while enrolled in GSE’s TFAUrban Teacher program.

Katherine Ross GEd’08 writes, “I’m workingas the Learning Skills Specialist in the AcademicResource Center at Georgetown University,which is under the Student Affairs division. I’mworking with students who have disabilities andhelping them receive the accommodations theyneed in order to succeed in college. I will also bepresenting workshops throughout the year to stu-dents who want to improve their study skills, test-taking strategies, and time management. I worktwo floors below Jeanne Lord, who is the associ-ate vice president of Student Affairs here and alsoa student in the Exec Doc program at GSE.”

Kelly Thompson GrEd’08 has been selectedas a member of Leadership North Carolina’sClass XVII by the Leadership North CarolinaBoard of Directors.

Jackie Adam GEd’09 and ElizabethHumphries GEd’09, both recent graduates ofthe GSE/TFA Urban Teacher program, landeda multi-million-dollar Department of Labor

grant to fund a Summer Bridge Program forincoming ninth-graders at Bartram High School

Carol Bonner GrEd’09 was appointed deputyprovost at Simmons College after serving asspecial assistant to the President.

David Hanson GrEd’09 has accepted the posi-tion of senior vice president of Finance andAdministration at the Wilderness Society inWashington D.C. David previously served asassociate vice president for Administration andSpecial Assistant at Emory University.

Michael Redding GrEd’09 was named VicePresident of University Relations at theUniversity of Oregon.

DeAngela Burns Wallace GrEd’09 joined theUniversity of Missouri at Columbia as directorof Urban Access and Outreach.

Karen Weaver GrEd’09 presented her disser-tation at the First European Conference inSports Economics, held in Paris in September.Karen was selected to present from among 31finalists. Karen was also interviewed about theBig Ten Network for an August 31 article in TheChronicle of Higher Education. “The Big TenNetwork posted its first profitable quarter lastyear,” she says, “and the trend has continuedinto 2009. Market analysts expect the networkto turn a $57-million profit this year—givingmember universities some $29-million in addi-tion to what their other TV contracts earn.”

Todd Wolfson Gr’07 Gr’09 gives Penn highmarks for help with academic job search in arecent article in The Chronicle of HigherEducation. Just after graduating, Todd landed atenure-track job in journalism and media studiesat Rutgers University. “You might think he’s theembodiment of the academic dream, in which thestruggle to earn a Ph.D. has long provided anentree to a fulfilling academic career” accordingto the article. But Mr. Wolfson is not typical. Heearned two doctorates, in anthropology and edu-cation, at an Ivy League university. He tookadvantage of a strong career-services department.

And he even helped start a nonprofit group. Inshort, he was an exceptional candidate.”

OBITUARIES1920sMinerva Apple Waldbaum Ed’28,Huddleston, Virginia, December 12, 2008.

Born in 1907, Minerva was a week away fromher 101st birthday at the time of her death. Agraduate of William Penn High School, Minervaalso attended the Sorbonne in Paris. She taughtin private school and at Central High School andthe Philadelphia High School for Girls. In addi-tion, she helped her husband, the late SaulWaldbaum, in his career in labor law, negligencelaw, workers' rights, and help for farmers.

She is survived by daughter Elsa WaldbaumStern; sons Eric Waldbaum and MarcWaldbaum; and three grandchildren.

2000sJoseph Cytrynbaum Gr’04, Chicago, July 11,2009.

Joe Cytrynbaum died in Advocate IllinoisMasonic Medical Center, two days after suffer-ing a cerebral aneurysm.

Raised in Evanston, Illinois, Joe received hisPh.D. in GSE’s Education, Society, and Cultureprogram in 2004. His dissertation focused on thelife of an inner-city Philadelphia high school.

After Penn, he returned to Chicago to workwith Umoja Student Development Corp.(Umoja means unity in Swahili.) As a model forschool community partnership, Umoja providesintensive services in underserved schools.

In a Chicago Tribune obituary, Umoja founderLila Leff had high praise for her colleague. “Hewas all about relationships, and that relationshipsdrive every level of success in the work we’redoing,” she said. The children he worked with“weren't his project or his job, they were his joy.Kids wanted to live up to Joe’s version of them.”

In 2008, Joe took a tenure-track position teach-ing social work at Northeastern Illinois Universitybut remained at Umoja as a volunteer.

That year, he and his wife, Erin Flynn, wel-comed their son, Rocky, named for thePhiladelphia icon.

We want to hear from you!Please send your news to: Editor, Penn GSE News, University of Pennsylvania, Graduate Schoolof Education, 3700 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6216. Or you may send it via e-mail to [email protected]. Please include your degree and year of graduation. Thedeadline for Alumni Notes submissions for the Spring 2010 issue of the Penn GSE Magazine isMarch 30, 2010.


peace work

Tell me about the work you’ve been doing in Iraq.My most exciting project is with a group called the IraqiPeace Foundation, which is a network of about 70 people inIraq, working to establish programs in peace and conflictstudies at Iraqi universities and other informal community-based education programs throughout Iraq.

How did you become involved in this field? I have a bizarrebackground for this kind of work. I used to be a sports jour-nalist, covering basketball and baseball for the New YorkDaily News. It was an exciting career for a guy in his 20s. ButI found myself itching for assignments so far off the beat thatmy editors and I realized that my interests lay elsewhere. Iactually went to Colombia and reported on how they werereviving their professional baseball league during a civil war.

That might have given you a clue! So I went to Columbia fora master’s in international public affairs, focusing on conflictresolution. There, I got involved with the Center forInternational Conflict Resolution and a project they werestarting up with 25 Iraqi-Kurdish academics and governmentofficials. That was in 2000.

Tell me more about what you were doing in May? I was thereto teach conflict management to the first class of students in anew program at Dohuk University. Dohuk is in the KurdistanRegion of Iraq, and the university there just launched a mas-ter’s program in Peace and Conflict Studies—the first universi-ty to do so. The program is new and small and unclear about itsfuture, but its mere existence is quite an amazing development.

What about the students? The initial four students willbecome the first Iraqis to earn degrees in this subject in theirhome country. These four trailblazers clearly understood thatthey’ll need to use what they learn in this program to help shiftthinking in their communities away from violence as aresponse to conflict and toward peaceful approaches. Teachingthis course gave me a greater insight into one possible role thatIraq’s higher education system could play in peacebuilding.

How so? So much of peacebuilding is about helping peopleshift their thinking in terms of what they consider normal

approaches to conflict. Universities are highly respected insti-tutions in Iraq, so if they seriously begin to promote explo-ration of peaceful approaches to conflict, the impact could beenormous. Ali, a young Iraqi man and long-time colleaguecame to visit my class in May. He recently completed a mas-ter’s degree n peace and conflict studies in the UK and is con-sidering pursuing a Ph.D. He explained to my students thattheir participation in their program was especially importantbecause it represented a step toward sustainability for peaceand conflict studies in Iraq. The workshops that myColumbia colleagues and I have conducted by the dozensover the past six years really have only limited impact, heargued, but standing university programs will have a muchbetter chance to achieve long-term social change.

Is that your vision as well? Until now, most of this work hasbeen ad hoc, with a couple of colleagues delivering shortworkshops. But having a few Americans parachuting in isn’ta sustainable model. Iraqis were resolving conflicts 6,000years before the U.S. even existed, and this effort needs tobuild on that local capacity. Many of the professors I know inIraq would like to see the Ministry of Higher Educationestablish Peace and Conflict Studies as a formal field of study.

Are there many such programs in the U.S.? Peace andConflict Studies first emerged as an academic field in Europeafter World War II. It finally gained some traction in the U.S.in the 1960s and 1970s. There are several hundred programsin the U.S. now—but mostly master’s degree programs, notdoctoral ones. One of the problems is that this is an interdis-ciplinary field. At GSE, my studies [in the Education,Culture, and Society program] cut across sociology, anthro-pology, history, education—typical Ph.D. programs wouldn’tallow me to do that.

If it’s not too skeptical of me to ask, what difference can anacademic program make? We’ve had conflict and war stud-ies for a long time, and how far has that gotten us? This can’tbe our only conception of conflict, and universities can play ahuge role—not just as spaces for activism but to promote anew way of thinking internationally. n

Q&A / Thomas Hill

A conversation with ECS doctoral student ThomasHill, recently back from a trip to Iraq—his 19th todate—where he’s working to promote peace

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Gifts that Fund the Future

Plan a gift today that can provide for the future of Penn’s Graduate School of Education by including a charitable bequest in your long-term plans. Create your legacy gift by naming GSE as a beneficiary of your will, living trust, through a retirement plan or life insurance policy.

Benefits of an estate gift allow for alumni and friends to give in ways that may not be possible during your lifetime and because of the estate tax charitable deduction, a bequest can reduce the tax burden of your estate. More importantly, such a gift offers the personal satisfaction of knowing your commitment will fund the future of GSE.

Planning does make the difference!

For more information on bequest gifts, contact Frank Barr, JD800.223.8236 or [email protected] www.upenn.planyourlegacy.org

© University of Pennsylvania, Office of Gift Planning

Documents

C1 Cover S06 - Penn GSE