Watch the Recording



About the Event

The COVID-19 pandemic has put immense strain on our education systems. With the rush to transition teaching to online platforms, we’ve seen many challenges facing students, teachers, and the educational institutions themselves, not to mention the challenges facing parents and caretakers.

While many of these challenges are not necessarily new, it’s like the pandemic has shined the spotlight on the inequities and shortcomings. From internet and technology access issues for low-income or homeless students, to how do we fairly measure student success; from how we create a more individually-responsive system to meet the needs of all students, to how do we ensure an equitable distribution of resources for students from early childhood education up through higher education?

About the Panelists

  • Jean Desravines, President & CEO, New Leaders

  • Douglas Harris, PhD, Professor and Department Chair of Economics, Tulane University

  • William Hite, EdD,  Superintendent, The School District of Philadelphia

 

About the "Reimagining Systems Series"

Every time we turn on the news, it seems like another tragedy confronts us and leaves us to reconcile with deep, provocative, and often painful questions about our world and our society.

From how communities are policed to who does and doesn’t have access to healthcare; from whether our politicians are serving the people or serving themselves to how we should educate children in the midst of pandemic without causing more harm than good—our institutions are facing increasing pressure and it can sometimes feel like there are no common goals for how to fix the problems that plague us.

The reality is, there are many people grappling with these issues and trying to figure out ways to reform or renew these systems. There are people with a diversity of opinions on what is and is not working now, who are thinking about what we need for these systems to work in the future, and who are actively working both from the outside of and from within policing, education, politics, and healthcare.

Join the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia for the Reimagining Systems Series, a four-part webinar series that will touch on these questions and introduce experts in these fields who will inspire attendees to think more broadly and deeply about the issues, and how we might create a world that serves the greater good.