MISSION & GOALS

Drawing on a rich tradition of excellence, our mission is to enhance learning and human development, in and out of classrooms, and across the life span. We seek to advance knowledge about the full spectrum of challenges in learning, development, behavior, and adaptation.

We bring multidisciplinary expertise to bear on policy and practice about the changing needs of students, professionals, and educational systems, locally, nationally, and across the globe. We view questions of theory, research, practice, and policy as complementary and interrelated, and from this perspective, seek to:

	Discover innovative research-based knowledge and solutions for the problems facing individuals, families, professionals, and educational systems;
	Prepare outstanding professionals for classrooms, schools, communities, higher education, and policy forums;
	Produce rigorous scholars to carry out the next generation of discovery and innovation; and
	Provide visionary leadership for educational policy and change, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Toward these ends, our work includes:

	Conducting a broad program of research aimed at understanding and improving teaching and learning, development and behavior, policy and practice;
	Offering high quality programs of study to students in the region, in the state and nation, and beyond;
	Collaborating with schools and communities, institutions of higher education, and policymakers, locally, across the state, nationally, and globally;
	Integrating our research, teaching, and service activities such that each is reciprocally enriching of the others; and
	Contributing as leaders in the nation among graduate schools of education.