The School of Education

Mission of the School of Education as an Educator Preparation Provider

The mission of the School of Education is to offer a progressive education, preparing the next generation of educators to become advocates and leading citizens in an increasingly global, pluralistic, and inclusive society.

Faculty across the EPP’s numerous and diverse education programs are united in their shared commitment to our Core Values of Equity, Excellence, and Ethics (3Es):

• Equity: Creating equitable practices that combat all forms of discrimination and bias—individual, institutional, and systemic—drives our efforts to foster an environment of trust and collaboration where everyone feels respected and included.
• Excellence: Excellence in education guides our work as we reflect in our learning communities, collaborate, and use education to transform, build knowledge, pursue shared goals, and deepen self-awareness.
• Ethics: Ethics shapes our commitment to create more just and caring spaces that propose new possibilities for an inclusive world.

These values serve as the foundation for the School of Education’s Conceptual Framework, which centers around social justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and advocacy. All programs are dedicated to developing and ensuring that every student embodies and reflects these Core Values, creating a unified approach across various disciplines and specialty certification areas. While the School of Education houses the majority of educator programs for initial teacher certification, there are programs located in other Schools across the college. These programs include initial certification programs in physical education, music education, family and consumer sciences, school library media, speech language pathology, and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). These programs, together with those that reside in the School of Education, define the School of Education as an Educator Preparation Provider, or EPP.