Penn GSE honors three pioneers in education with 2024 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize

Penn’s Graduate School of Education announced the recipients of the 2024 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education on Sept. 17.   

The prize, awarded annually through a partnership with the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Family Foundation, honors individuals for their long-term contributions to education. GSE professors Edmund Gordon, Jody Lewen, and Robert Lerman were recognized for their achievement in pre-K-12 education, higher education, and lifelong learning. 

Gordon received the Pre-K-12 Education Prize. At 103 years old, he has spent more than 60 years engaged in research and programs to foster equitable learning environments and expand access to quality education. As the first director of research and evaluation of the federal Head Start program, he led efforts to support early childhood learning in the forms of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten education, as well as free services for eligible families such as tutoring and extracurricular activities.  

“I’m an economic determinist. I think that access to resources may be the most critical aspect of human development,” Gordon said.  

He established the Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Advanced Study in 1973 at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he is a distinguished emeritus professor. The institute aims to improve educational outcomes for underserved populations in urban areas through research and program development. 

When asked about his greatest contribution to the field of education, Gordon highlighted his establishment of the Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education, which studies and recommends educational assessment models. 

“If the use of assessment to educate were to ever become as popular as the use of assessment for accountability, I would be delighted, because all over the world, people would be using testing to teach people,” he said. “I’m a teacher. I believe in teaching people.” 

Lewen received the McGraw Prize in Higher Education for her leadership and impact as the founder and president of Mount Tamalpais College, the first accredited college in the country that specifically serves incarcerated students. Based in San Quentin State Prison in California, MTC offers individualized support to each student and aims to create a compassionate educational environment. 

“[Students] become agents for positive social interaction,” Lewen said. “That has an impact on the social climate of prison as well.” 

MTC has served over 3,700 students over the past 28 years. Lewen emphasized that the experience doesn’t just benefit students.  

“For teachers and for staff, it’s a joy to serve students who are as motivated and grateful for the opportunity in school as they are,” she said.  

Lerman, winner of the Lifelong Learning Prize, is the co-founder of Apprenticeships for America, a nonprofit organization committed to expanding funding, development, and public awareness of apprenticeship programs. 

“Apprenticeship is a great vehicle for mobility as well as a great vehicle for recognizing learning differences,” he said. “This prize is in education, and I firmly see apprenticeship as a mode of learning.” 

Lerman added that he was grateful for the McGraw prize and for the people across the world who have made his work possible. 

“I’m still trying to learn, and I’m just happy that the prize may give greater visibility to our efforts to scale apprenticeship in America,” he said. 

Each McGraw Prize awardee was publicly nominated by their peers before being considered during three rounds of judging and passing a final evaluation conducted by an independent panel of leaders in the field. In recognition of their achievements, winners will receive $50,000 and an awards sculpture during the official ceremony in November. 

Lewen encouraged Penn community members to reflect on educational access in relation to the privilege of attending a higher education institution. 

“Anybody, basically, on a college campus like UPenn, is in an extraordinary, almost unimaginable opportunity or position to do good for the world. My hope is that each of us thinks long and hard about what we’re going to do with the one life we have, with the enormous opportunities and resources available  to us.”