Welcome to the University of Maryland College of Education. It’s my pleasure to extend a personal greeting on behalf of our faculty, staff and students, and to invite you to explore on our website the breadth and depth of our outstanding institution.

For nearly 100 years the University of Maryland has helped prepare the teachers for the awesome responsibility of educating our children. Over the last half century we have grown to become one of a handful of national leaders helping set the agenda for k-16 education, grounding the preparation of teachers in cutting-edge research, sending our graduates to schools and classrooms as teachers, counselors and administrators, and sending the graduates of our master’s and doctoral programs to campuses and organizations across the nation and indeed, around the world.

If there is a hallmark to the graduates of our programs and our research I believe it is this: excellence and relevance, each informing the other. We encourage our students to be leaders in the classroom and school and to use research to guide and evaluate their professional practice. For our faculty we encourage and support research of the first order that explores a wide range of critical issues ranging from understanding how children learn and develop to the development of useful and effective assessments to the social and cultural challenges surrounding educational achievement. Our national rankings reflect our success—10 of our programs are ranked in the top 20 in the nation, and we have achieved significant growth in our externally funded research over the past decade.

The national education agenda has been focusing increasingly on the importance of a technically literate citizenry and so we are today developing programs in the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics that recognize the interdisciplinary nature of the world as it exists versus the world as it has been historically taught. We also share the national concern about the lack of equality in the performance of our schools and through our Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education place special attention on creating a common understanding about how to help all children learn. We believe every teacher and school needs to address this challenge but we also believe that all teachers and school leaders need to understand the strengths and benefits that diversity brings to our schools and to our society and to address our challenges in minority education within this context.

We devote considerable resources to the delivery of an array of programs both on and off campus for individuals such as career changers, retirees, or simply recent college graduates who have decided to pursue a professional career in education. Our programs encourage inquiry and reflection, teaching for understanding, embracing diversity and building democratic learning communities—the core tenets of successful teaching and learning. Through these Outreach programs we are fulfilling our commitment to bring the benefits of quality teaching to our community.

The most important challenge facing our nation is this: How can all children achieve? To meet this challenge, and as a part of the University of Maryland’s Great Expectations development, our college has set a number of strategic objectives: ensure the best students are able to pursue careers in education; attract and retain leading scholars with endowed chairs and professorships; provide support for the Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education; and establish research centers that promote interdisciplinary work to solve education’s critical issues in child development, special education, school counseling, literacy, mathematics and science. We have already achieved some success towards our $20 million goal, endowing this past year the Jean Mullan Professorship in Literacy. We look forward to additional successes as more people learn of our capabilities, experience and dedication and choose to add their resources to our initiatives.

I can think of no greater calling than preparing our youth for tomorrow, and I am proud to be associated with such a dynamic, engaged college and university. I welcome your interest in the University of Maryland College of Education. Should you desire more information about us I encourage you to contact our Office of Student Services at 301.405.2364, or our Office of Advancement: 301.405.2334.

Sincerely,
Donna Wiseman
Dean