Welcome to Lesley University’s Graduate School of Education, run by teachers for teachers. Many of our faculty are scholar-practitioners known both nationally and internationally for their depth of knowledge and practice, and we continue to hone our teaching craft and to learn from the best of our own graduates to ensure we remain connected to effective instructional practice.
Our promise is to make you a better teacher along each step of your professional career. Our rigorous programs, combined with high faculty support will, get you ready for the challenges in today’s schools. As a Lesley graduate, you will join a national network of fellow professionals, many of who are leaders in their schools.
Our initial license programs of study offer a variety of options so you can take single or combined areas of study such as a straight elementary certificate or a dual program in elementary and English as a Second Language. Our school-based programs allow a year-long residency in a school that reflects your interest and/or approach, from a child-centered private school to an urban residency with a multilingual student body. All of our initial license programs get you into schools your first semester so you can gain a wealth of experience before your first year on the job.
We are also proud of our professional or post-license programs, which allow you to continue to grow your craft and extend your effectiveness to every student. Whether deepening your content knowledge with our math and science programs or enrolling in our innovative Masters’ in Effective Teaching program, you can depend on our ability to bring you state of the art understandings from research on effective teaching. In every case, we work to ensure that you not only know more but are supported in taking that knowledge into the place that matters most to you - your classroom. While demanding, the ability to take courses while teaching allows a direct link from our classroom to your clinical practice, creating conditions where what one learns today can affect a child tomorrow.
Finally, we take accountability for your success seriously. As you will learn from us, the hallmark of great teaching is a relentless focus on analyzing one’s results and figuring out how to get better. Our final promise to you is that we will ask of ourselves the same accountability you will face in your classroom. Through a data-based continuous improvement system, through public reports on our results and through regular accreditation visits, we will hold ourselves accountable to both you and the public.
So take a look at our programs, our faculty, and our results. Then join our community of learning whose alumni demonstrate excellence in education every day in K-12 schools all across the country. Join us in demonstrating that excellent teachers are the key to ensuring all children reach high levels of achievement.
Jonathon H. Gillette, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Education