Because quality public education is a key factor in where families choose to live, Penn’s partnerships with the West Philadelphia community have long focused on improving the neighborhood’s public schools. Over the past decade, more than 1,700 Penn faculty, students and staff have joined together with local educators and community members in more than 130 programs at 33 different West Philadelphia public schools.

Penn faculty members and graduate students, especially those from the Graduate School of Education, have applied their expertise to curriculum improvements, classroom instruction, professional development for teachers and technological innovations. Through the Center for Community Partnerships, University faculty and students engage in academically-based community service, that is, civic action intrinsically linked to Penn’s core missions of teaching and research. Over 120 courses from a wide range of disciplines and schools link Penn students to work in the community. Through the University’s Civic House Penn students serve as tutors and mentors, while local high school students can investigate academic and career opportunities through programs at the University.

This growing, two-way relationship between Penn and the West Philadelphia public schools has been capped by the creation of a model Penn-assisted PreK-8 public school in a pioneering collaboration among the University, the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. Now officially called The Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School, it is named for the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in economics, not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but also in the nation. At a time of severe budget strain and managerial change in governance of the City’s public education system, Penn faculty and staff have helped the West Philadelphia schools make real progress:

• The Penn Alexander school opened in Fall 2001 in temporary space serving a diverse group of neighborhood kindergarteners and first graders;
• The brand new building for the innovative Penn-Alexander public school opened in September 2002;
• The new Penn Alexander School will serve as a center for local education leadership, providing a curriculum resource library, teaching case study collection, video conferencing facilities, and staff development programming for the entire city school district;
• The University is also working to strengthen the local Lea Elementary public school, where a new library is already completed;
• Penn faculty have developed new curriculum units, mentoring, and professional development programs with Powel Elementary, Drew Elementary, Lea Elementary, University City High School, and West Philadelphia High School;
• The University has taken a leading role in coordinating resources from local corporations and institutions to support two West Philadelphia high schools and their 23 feeder schools;
• Penn’s medical and dental schools have implemented health screening, education, and referral programs at four West Philadelphia schools;
• The University has helped expand evening and weekend school programs at several West Philadelphia, offering academic, job training, cultural and recreational classes to all members of the community.

These and other developments have been the result of University partnerships with the school district to help ensure quality public education options for families in West Philadelphia:

• Penn Alexander School
• West Philadelphia Academic Improvement
• Lea Elementary School Improvement