Caroline Brayer Ebby, adjunct associate professor in the teaching, learning and leadership division of Penn’s Graduate School of Education and senior researcher at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), and Caroline Watts, GSE senior lecturer in the human development and quantitative methods division and director of school and community engagement, have received $2,993,280 from the National Science Foundation for their four-year project “Building Sustainable Networked Instructional Leadership in Elementary Mathematics through a University Partnership with a Large Urban District.”

Dr. Ebby is an expert in how math is taught and how math instruction can be improved. She co-created the Community Based Math Project, a hub for developing locally relevant and social justice oriented mathematics lessons. Dr. Ebby also studies the implementation of standards-aligned math curriculum and the use of formative assessment and learning trajectories to improve K-8 mathematics teaching and learning.

Dr. Watts has served as the University’s liaison to the Henry C. Lea Elementary School in West Philadelphia and as a member of the Penn Partnership faculty group that served as a leadership support team for several West Philadelphia schools. She has also been the school’s coordinator of special education, working across divisions to develop coursework and experiential placements for students that will provide critical learning related to issues in special education and English language learners (ELL). In addition to her school- and community-based work, Dr. Watts coordinates the internship program for students in the Professional Counseling Program at Penn GSE.