Reforming Philadelphia Schools: A Research Practicum on Community Engagement

Catalog description

This Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course offers a unique opportunity for students to directly contribute to school improvement efforts in Philadelphia. Teams of students will consult with a local public school with the goal of conducting actionable research with broad policy relevance to the community engagement in education sector. Teams will submit a final report and present their findings at a public venue. The course is designed as a research practicum because understanding community engagement in education as it occurs in practice will provide insights that are unlikely to surface if we merely considered it in the abstract. The experience will provide students a set of skills appropriate to the design, interpretation, and presentation of research on community engagement in education. But we are much more ambitious in our aims. Our consultancies are also meant to help a local community solve an immediate problem of educational relevance. The course is suitable for graduate and undergraduate students with an interest in education, policy, and civil society.