Released: April 12, 2024

Last updated: January 30, 2025

Teachers have a great direct influence in developing the mindsets of young people, alongside their peers and their parents. To be that inspiring force of good every young student requires, teachers, would need to constantly keep pace with, understand deeply and proffer solutions to the complexities that the world around them presents.

Teachers who can identify patterns in complexity, anticipate changes, self-organize and direct these changes for the good of all, are Changemakers, and are best equipped to inspire a young generation of Changemakers**.**

In pursuit of Every Teacher a Changemaker Initiative, Penn GSE and Ashoka with First Book, are collaborating to establish an international Changemaker Educator professional learning program with a Penn GSE-issued certificate for educators, beginning in the United States.

The course has been designed with a cohort-based learning style that delivers actionable content and equips you and your peers with the right ideas to go back and drive a positive system change in your schools.

What We are Building

A Professional Learning Certificate program: digital delivery of the Changemaker Educator ethos, in a  practical manner, for a large-scale distributed primarily low-income audience

• 100% online and asynchronous

• Pricing: $199, well within the range of schools in low-income neighborhoods and priced for emerging markets

• Designed to be taken within regular working hours or school schedule.

• Delivered by Penn GSE faculty, Ashoka Fellows, Ashoka Staff, and Expert Changemaker Educators from the First Book network and beyond

• Learners earn a Penn GSE Certificate

• Targeted at K-12 educators in low-income areas or Title I schools in the United States

• Cohort system: Peer-led groups of 30, facilitated geographically - Changemaker Educator Community

• Delivered on an adaptive learning management system designed for K-12 educators

Our Target

Our target is to reach 38,000 K-12 teachers in low-income areas or Title 1 schools across the Unites States. We have launched a pilot with educators in the Washington, DC Metro area.

The Proposed Partners

1. Penn GSE: The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education is a top-ranked, Ivy League education school in the city of Philadelphia. Penn GSE will contribute to the course design, distribute to networks and issue a Certificate to learners
2. Ashoka: Ashoka is the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs and a global leader in social innovation championing the “Everyone a Changemaker” movement.
3. EdsUp (TBC): EdsUp is a tech platform that specializes in providing high-quality, engaging learning experiences for educators. ****EdsUp will provide the platform for content curation, cohort provisioning, course management, tracking and reporting.
4. Facilitators: The course will be taught by inspiring Professors, Ashoka fellows and prominent teachers.