$800,000
Grant to GSE: KIDS Project
The
Graduate School of Education has been
awarded $800,000 from the William
Penn Foundation for a two-year research
and service project, designed to improve
the lives of young children in the
city.
Partnering
with GSE on this project are the Center
for Mental Health Policy and Services
Research at the University's medical
center and the Cartographic Modeling
Laboratory, which is a joint venture
of the School of Social Work and the
Graduate School of Fine Arts.
Researchers
at Penn GSE will collaborate with
city government and the school district
to create the Kids' Integrated Database
System, the country's first integrated
municipal database for children. KIDS
will streamline and merge separate
databases maintained by the public
schools and by the city's human services
and public health departments. Data
on the educational needs, health and
welfare of more than 250,000 Philadelphia
children will be shared across agencies
for the first time.
Using
the KIDS database, researchers will
be able to examine high-priority issues
in early childhood development in
Philadelphia: school readiness, foster
care and school success and the effectiveness
of special education and behavioral
health service systems.
This
database can "produce findings
with clear policy and practice implications," said
Dr. John Fantuzzo, project director
and a Penn GSE professor. KIDS represents
one of the most practical yet underutilized
opportunities for informing policymakers
of what works for whom and at what
cost."
At
the neighborhood level, the KIDS project
will feature the establishment of
a Learning Links Laboratory, centered
at the Penn Alexander School in West
Philadelphia. Building on the University's
Head Start initiatives, this lab will
be directed by Stephanie Childs, an
early childhood educator with the
School District of Philadelphia.
Learning
Links will feature early childhood mentoring,
conducted by Penn student volunteers; electronic
bridges between the Penn Alexander and
Lea Elementary schools created in collaboration
with SEAS; and transition activities for
children moving from early childhood centers
to the elementary schools.
Almanac, Vol. 49, No. 19, January 28, 2003
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