University of Pennsylvania’s School Participatory Action Research Collaborative (SPARC) is a research consortium among faculty and students at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education and school leaders, faculty, and students at a cohort of leading independent schools. Through this collaboration, student insights and voices are systematically mobilized to improve school culture, policy, and practice. SPARC ensures that diverse groups of students engage in research that explores issues such as gender, relationships, and identity at their respective schools. Research topics have included Perceptions of Beauty Across Skin Tones, Socioeconomic Status and Tutoring, Diversity in the Lawrenceville Curriculum, and Academic Stress. SPARC is offered as a Winter term co-curricular program, with a sports exemption, for twelve students.

 

This program is run by Lawrenceville's Science Department.