Assistant professor of education receives Community Outcomes and Impact Award

Emily Penner, assistant professor of education, and her research partners have received the 2020 Community Outcomes and Impact Award from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning & Community Engagement. Her research partners are Thomas Dee, a professor in Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, and Bill Sanderson, assistant superintendent of high schools in the San Francisco Unified School District. The award will support the group’s continuing examination of SFUSD’s ethnic studies curriculum. “Our previous work provided the first causal estimates of the impact on student outcomes,” Penner said. “Notably, the program had large, positive effects on academically marginalized students during their challenging ninth-grade year.” The International Association for Research on Service-Learning & Community Engagement is a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting research and discussion about service learning and community engagement across the educational spectrum. Service learning is an educational approach that pairs academic objectives with community service.