Program in Systemic School Reform

Senior Projects Initiative

The School District of Philadelphia is ramping up the quality and academic rigor associated with the "Senior Project" and PHENND is trying to match each participating school with a university partner. These partners will provide project mentors and other resources to help the schools and students succeed.

Course Development Institute

The School District of Philadelphia is ramping up the quality and academic rigor associated with the state-mandated "Senior Project." PHENND has been asked by the District to match each participating school with a university partner. These partners will provide project mentors and other resources to help the schools and students succeed.

To that end, PHENND is recruiting faculty from area campuses wishing to partner with selected high schools on the Senior Project Initiative. We are looking for faculty who will teach a service-learning course in Fall 2009 and/or Spring 2010 semesters using the Senior Project Initiative as a major service partnership for the course. Faculty from a variety of disciplines are encouraged to participate. All faculty participants are expected to attend a three-day institute, June 3-5, which will cover service-learning pedagogy, understanding the Philadelphia senior project, and how to use the former to support the latter. Faculty who have already participated with the program will be on hand to share their experiences. You will also here from School District administrators, teachers, and students, about their interest in the program.

The institute is free of charge (meals and materials included). Please contact the PHENND Office by Friday, May 22, 2009, with any questions or to RSVP.

Service-Learning Support Organizations - SLSO

PHENND co-convenes a round table of K-12 service-learning organizations. The group disseminates best practices, shares lessons learned, and advocates for improved and expanded service-learning support at the School District of Philadelphia. Past accomplishments include: creating a common definition of service-learning, producing service-learning curriculum supplements for the new core curriculum, and hosting the Atlantic Regional Service-Learning Conference (2004).

Ford Foundation Initiative (2000-2002)

With funding from the Ford Foundation, and in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania, PHENND worked to deepen partnerships between higher eds, their local school partners and community partner organizations. The project included substantial professional development (including academic credit) for teachers in order to implement a community problem solving approach.

For more information about any of these initiatives, please contact Hillary Kane at hillarya@pobox.upenn.edu