Founded in 1985, Philadelphia Education Fund's mission is to create equitable access to opportunities for students, by providing resources and expertise that build paths to college and career success. In Philadelphia, where one in four residents lives in poverty, and just two in three students graduate from high school (83% nationally), Philadelphia Education Fund (PEF) sees education as the key to lifting low-income, under-resourced youth out of poverty and serves 1,200 K-12 teachers and 30,000 students annually.
Through our direct services and extensive collaborations, Philadelphia Education Fund is at the forefront of identifying and addressing education needs. One growing need is improving students’ STEM skills and achievement, which plays a key role in allowing underserved youth to step out of generational poverty. In response to this need, PEF launched our McKinney Center for STEM Education in 2017. We offer professional development to improve the STEM teaching skills of local educators; we are developing clean energy curricula with School District, government, industry and nonprofit partners; we recruit and train STEM professionals to provide career guidance to high school students; and we are the backbone organization for the Philadelphia STEM Ecosystem, the Philadelphia STEM Equity Collective, and the Pennsylvania Statewide STEM Ecosystem.
In the fall of 2023, Philadelphia Education Fund will launch a Regional Industries and STEM Education (RISE) online directory.
Many regional STEM industries offer funding, apprenticeships, mentorships, professional development, and other resources. These opportunities have one overarching goal: to provide students with the knowledge, skillets, and confidence to fill and excel in the STEM jobs of tomorrow. Yet no mechanism exists through which Philadelphia educators, students, parents, guardians, and families can learn about these important opportunities. The Philadelphia Education Fund (PEF)’s comprehensive and user-friendly Regional Industries and STEM Education (RISE) Directory will allow industries to list their offerings, foster partnerships, and support k-12 students throughout the workforce development pipeline. Anyone will be able to access and utilize our RISE Directory – whether they are an individual, an organization, a classroom teacher, an informal educator, a funder, a community member, a family member, or a student.
We would like a Fels student to help us design, implement, summarize, and analyze the results of a formative and summative/mixed-method evaluation. Specifically, we are interested in data pertaining to utilization (who is accessing and using the directory); beneficiary satisfaction (to include access, layout, and customer service); and short-term and long-term outcomes (are we impacting students and/or industries).
- A robust and professional evaluation plan.
- The creation and implementation of a formative and summative/mixed-method evaluation.
- Mid-year and final reports describing the evaluation process, the initial and cumulative results, the analysis, and/or suggestions for improvement or future directions.
We are very flexible but would like the Capstone to be completed by the end of the summer semester.
