Lesley University History

(effective 1/1/07)

Lesley University was founded in 1909 (as the Lesley School) to train young women to become kindergarten teachers. In 1941, the School was incorporated as Lesley College, a non-profit institution of higher education. The College offered programs leading to the bachelor's degree, and was granted authority to award the master's degree in 1953, and the Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in 1976. In 1986, the University received approval from the Massachusetts Board of Regents to award the Ph.D. degree. The Art Institute of Boston became part of Lesley in 1998. In 2000, Lesley College changed its name to Lesley University.

Today, Lesley is a diverse co-educational university, still based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a strong national presence and distributed learning sites in multiple states and in Israel. There are several schools within Lesley: Lesley College, the Art Institute of Boston, the School of Education, and the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences.

Lesley also sponsors the Threshold Program, a comprehensive, non-degree campus-based program for highly motivated young adults with diverse learning disabilities and other special needs.

The University Centers and Institutes at Lesley were established to encourage the development of innovative professional development training models beyond the traditional course model. The Centers serve as important links between practitioners, policymakers and educators. The Centers and Institutes, housed primarily in the School of Education, employ alternative models of delivery, and provide opportunities for faculty to explore innovative ideas and policy development, and conduct evaluation and research.