2017

BY THE NUMBERS

In some ways, it is hard to quantify all that Dean Grossman has done for Penn GSE over the past eight-and-a-half years. All of the mentoring, supporting, recruiting, listening, and collaborating has changed the School’s culture and community—but the numbers do tell a story of her priorities for Penn GSE and its growth in size, reputation, and capacity.

Both applications to the School and its enrollment have skyrocketed during her tenure. Since 2015, applications to the master’s programs have grown more than 115 percent, and overall enrollment is up more than 20 percent. Thanks to Penn GSE’s expanded global impact, international students now represent close to 40 percent of current degree students, up from approximately 21 percent in 2015, and this year’s applicants came from more than 80 countries around the world.

With this growth, Dean Grossman prioritized the need for robust financial aid—and more of it. She introduced need-based aid during her tenure, and in 2022, 73.5 percent of admitted master’s students were awarded some type of aid. The average award is now more than 50 percent greater than it was in 2015.

Another priority was diversifying Penn GSE’s faculty and student body to be more reflective of the world outside its doors. Dean Grossman hired 19 of the now 40 standing faculty members, with 48 percent of the current overall faculty identifying as a person of color. That faculty now teaches a student body in which 47 percent of domestic degree students identify as people of color.

Under her leadership, she launched new offices and initiatives dedicated to key areas at the School: partnerships with the School District of Philadelphia (the Office of School and Community Engagement), educational innovation (Catalyst), teacher preparation and professional development (the Collaboratory for Teacher Education, the Center for Professional Learning), and antiracism and equity priorities (HEARD: The Hub for Equity, Anti-Oppression Research, and Development; the Committee on Race, Equity, and Inclusion).

Even before this progress, Penn GSE had outgrown its modest campus footprint. With offices and classrooms spread across University City, the School did not have the space to house all its new students, faculty members, and offices in one building. Keen to foster a close-knit community, Dean Grossman unveiled her vision for “One Penn GSE” and set out to fundraise more than $13 million in capital contributions for an expansion that will bring most of the School under one roof later this year.

“I wanted to build a ‘One Penn GSE,’ where there’s room for our students and our faculty and our staff to work together, to collaborate,” she said. “I think it represents the future of the School and a vision for the School of how we can bring people together in a way that we have not been able to do, and that’s what I'm most proud of. It’s not just the physical building, it’s the community that it represents.”

But big ideas need big backing. Dean Grossman oversaw the largest capital campaign in Penn GSE history, which surpassed its $75 million dollar goal by almost 30 percent.

“We raised close to $100 million for GSE to transform the School,” said Korn, the campaign chair. “The name of the campaign was Extraordinary Impact, and when I think back, that’s the way I would describe Pam’s impact on GSE—it was truly an extraordinary impact.”

Dean Grossman also received the largest single gift in the School’s history—a $16.25 million commitment from the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation—which created the new McGraw Center for Educational Leadership and expanded existing support for the Harold McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education that has been housed at the School since 2020.

“Our family has been honored to work with Pam Grossman to support and advance the mission of Penn GSE,” said Harold McGraw III, WG’76, the former chairman, CEO, and president of the McGraw Hill Companies. “Her intellect, dedication, and spirit of innovation has left an indelible mark on Penn GSE and the broader education community. The new McGraw Center for Educational Leadership is one of many examples of her commitment to developing future generations of outstanding leaders spanning all types of education.”

A primary focus for Dean Grossman—from day one—was to grow and formalize the connections between Penn GSE, Philadelphia schools, and the neighboring community.

“What Pam did was she put school and community engagement at the center of our mission at GSE. Creating a formal office to facilitate [these relationships] was a sign of the School’s commitment to that mission,” said Caroline Watts, director of the Office of School and Community Engagement (OSCE).

OSCE, founded in 2016, is a national model of a university–school district partnership. It launched the Responsive Math Teaching project, which is building capacity in mathematics instruction in all K–8 schools in West Philadelphia. The office, in partnership with Penn's Netter Center, started a summer program in 2021 to rebuild students’ connection to and preparation for school amid pandemic-disrupted learning. (That program has already served nearly 500 students in grades 1–8.) OSCE also just developed an intensive tutoring program, launched the Alliance for Interprofessional Education to support educators, and is the locus of support for the Penn partnership schools: Penn Alexander School and Henry C. Lea School. Dean Grossman was instrumental in spearheading a new landmark partnership with the district and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers to formalize support for the Lea School in 2022.

“Pam not only helped facilitate connections and collaboration between Penn GSE and the School District of Philadelphia, but her thoughtful and considerate approach to the partnership helped both Penn and the district think about the various needs throughout our system and how Penn could support those needs,” said Michael Farrell, chief learning officer for the district, current doctoral student, and adjunct instructor at Penn GSE.

“Through Pam’s leadership, GSE has dramatically accelerated its connections to the School District of Philadelphia and schools in the region,” said Pritchett. “GSE is connected to schools across the city and at every level. We are training leaders. We are training teachers. We are supporting after-school programs, and we are in the schools. We are supporting the curriculum enhancements during the day. I’m just very proud of all of the work that we, as the University, are doing, particularly the work that GSE is doing.”

Those collaborations have reach beyond Philly’s borders. The dean’s goal, said Director of Development and Alumni Relations Jane Lindahl, GED’18, is for Penn GSE’s work throughout Philadelphia to inspire innovative solutions that prepare students everywhere to thrive in an increasingly interconnected and changing global community.

“We will always have a commitment to the city of Philadelphia,” said Lindahl, “but we can also take what we learn as an institution and share it broadly to help communities globally.”