Penn GSE is a world-class professional school offering programs in 30 fields of education. Penn granted its first PhDs in pedagogy in 1897, and in 1914 Penn GSE was founded as the School of Education with nine undergraduate courses taught by three professors. The School launched a graduate division offering the Master of Science in Education in 1931 and the Doctor of Education starting in 1944.
In 1961, the School was restructured and renamed the Graduate School of Education (GSE), and in 1966 it moved to its current building. Today, with 34 tenured and tenure-track faculty and just under 1,300 students, Penn GSE is a small school with remarkable scholarly productivity and influence, located within a dynamic Ivy League setting. Below are just a few of the School’s highlights from the past century:
1914: Penn establishes the School of Education, led by Dean Frank Pierrepont Graves; it is located in College Hall and offers the Bachelor of Science in Education.
1915: The Maria Hosmer Penniman Memorial Library of Education is established with a donation of 3,000 books from Dr. James Hosmer Penniman.
1921: John Harrison Minnick becomes Dean.
1933: The School of Education reorganizes its undergraduate curriculum into a “five-year program” in which students begin professional courses in the junior year, obtain the BS degree at the end of the senior year, and earn teaching certification in a fifth, graduate year. The School no longer teaches freshman and sophomore students.
1935: The School establishes a Department of Nursing Education for the training of teachers and administrators in nursing education and public health.
1940: The Penniman Memorial Library of Education, now housed in Bennett Hall, has grown to include 47,000 volumes.
1940: The School of Education moves to Eisenlohr Hall on Walnut Street between South 38th and South 39th Streets. This is the first building dedicated solely to the School.
1942: Francis Nwia-kofi Nkrumah, later known as Kwame Nkrumah, Chief of State of Ghana, receives an M.S. from the School with a major in Social Studies.
1944: The School acquires space for several departments in the Eisenlohr Annex Building, which is located adjacent to Eisenlohr Hall.
1948: Emit Duncan Grizzell becomes Dean.
1956: Women have gained increased visibility as faculty and leaders at the School. Two women have attained full professorships: Theresa L. Lynch in nursing education and Laura Hooper, director of the Illman-Carter Unit and holder of a chair in elementary education. Three are assistant professors, Mary E. Coleman, Helen Huus, and Helen E. Martin. Six have the rank of lecturer.
1956: William Edwin Arnold becomes Dean.
1961: The School is restructured and renamed the Graduate School of Education. Undergrad programs in education are transferred to the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Liberal Arts for Women.
1962: The Penniman Library moves to Penn’s new Van Pelt Library building.
1964: Morris Simon Viteles becomes Dean of GSE.
1965: A new building for GSE is completed at 3700 Walnut St. and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2015.
1968: Neal Gross becomes Dean of GSE, bringing expertise in grant writing and beginning the tradition of winning competitive grants. Gross introduces a combined B.A./M.S. program that allows secondary-school teachers to earn both degrees in four years.
1975: Dell Hathaway Hymes becomes Dean and develops the School’s language-based educational programs.
1981: GSE professor Morton Botel, ED’46, GED’48, GR’53, founds the Penn Literacy Network (PLN), which offers school districts in the region a groundbreaking curriculum to help teachers of all subjects and grade levels make literacy an integral part of their instruction.
1985: Penn GSE is ranked in the top ten among education schools based on the scholarly productivity of faculty in a study by Richard J. Kroc.
1987: Marvin Lazerson becomes Dean of GSE and institutes a focus on the recruitment of high-caliber faculty, work that his successors will continue.
1987: Future University Trustee George A. Weiss, W’65, and future Penn GSE Board of Overseers member Diane N. Weiss establish Say Yes to Education, Inc. promising to pay for the college education of 112 sixth graders at Belmont Elementary School in West Philadelphia if they graduate from high school. Say Yes sets up a program site at GSE, to direct educational services to support the students. 19 percent of the students will earn four-year degrees, despite growing up where only 6 percent of the population has a bachelor’s degree.
1995: Susan Fuhrman becomes the first woman Dean of GSE. Under Fuhrman, the School will become known as a center for education policy and research and its Ph.D. program will become full-time.
1997: GSE has received more than $26 million in new research awards in the past academic year.
1998: Penn and GSE enter into a partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers to create a University-assisted pre-K–8 public school in West Philadelphia that will be known as the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander School (Penn Alexander).
2007: Andrew Calvin Porter becomes the tenth Dean of GSE. Porter enhances the School’s Ed.D. and Ph.D. programs and creates an entrepreneurial direction for the School.
2014: Penn GSE climbs to 5th place in the 2015 education school rankings by U.S. News and World Report.
2015: Pam Grossman becomes the eleventh Dean of Penn GSE.
Educators and their impact will be front and center at Penn’s Graduate School of Education (GSE) Alumni Centennial Celebration during the University’s Alumni Weekend on Friday, May 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. Led by Penn President Amy Gutmann and GSE Dean Pam Grossman, alumni and friends will recognize the School’s accomplishments during its 100 Years of Leading in Education and the achievements of alumni making outstanding contributions to GSE and the field of education today. The event will take place in the Penn GSE Courtyard behind the School’s building at 3700 Walnut Street.
“The celebration will be a wonderful opportunity to bring together our alumni and friends to honor Penn GSE’s long and illustrious history of high-quality research and practice,” said Dean Grossman. “Ever since I was named dean of the School, alumni have been contacting me to tell me how much they loved GSE and their programs. I look forward to meeting many more amazing alumni at the celebration and learning how they are making a difference as we anticipate GSE’s next 100 years.”
GSE alumnus Matthew O’Malley, GED’95, a member of both the Penn GSE Board of Overseers and the Education Alumni Association Board of Directors, will serve as the master of ceremonies. Following speeches by President Gutmann and Dean Grossman, the 2015 Education Alumni Association Awards will be presented to five GSE alumni who represent some of the School’s most distinguished graduates and leaders in the field of education. The event will also recognize the dedication and success of alumni teachers who have spent five or more years in the classroom. Faculty, staff and student leaders will join in the festivities, which will include balloons, cake and plenty of red and blue.