Center for Special Education

Mission

Founded in 1998, the Center for Special Education at Lesley University is dedicated to understanding and promoting the knowledge needed by educators to improve the teaching of learners with disabilities.

Vision

With particular regard for the economically stressed, and for multicultural and multilingual populations, the Center seeks to create collaborations among families, schools, and communities which make it possible for every child, adolescent, and adult to develop and learn.

Values

The Center is guided by a philosophy that presumes the competence of all people in their different ways of knowing, learning, and expressing.

Goals

The goals of the Center are threefold:

• To disseminate information about current and effective instructional technologies and approaches, and ways to better integrate theory and practice.
• To conduct research that enhances understanding of what teachers need to know about the development of learners with disabilities, and the processes and contexts that best support their development.
• To provide resources for students, teachers, families, school systems, and policymakers on critical questions related to the teaching and learning of individuals with special needs.