University of Miami's School of Education .... Empowering Change

When most people think of a school of education, they imagine a place where training teachers is the primary if not only activity. At the University of Miami's School of Education, teacher training is vitally important, but is only one facet of a novel and dynamic educational unit.

There are three departments in the school: Teaching and Learning, Educational and Psychological Studies, and Exercise and Sport Sciences. Together with the Dunspaugh Dalton Community and Educational Well-Being Research Center, the collective focus is on well-being as the core of the school's mission. Through top-ranked academic programs and innovative outreach projects, the school works to prepare the next generation of educators, scholars, and agents of change in multicultural communities.

Under the leadership of Dean Isaac Prilleltensky, there is a renewed sense of energy and purpose within the school and a determined commitment to community outreach. Without a strong and nurturing community, there cannot be strong educational programs. As Dean Prilleltensky has said, "Schools have to be focused on social justice. For all children to come to school prepared to learn and thrive is social justice."

A number of new programs have been developed to support this commitment to community change: an undergraduate major in Human & Social Development; a master's degree program, Education & Social Change for Teach For America cohort members; a master's degree leadership development program, Community & Social Change; a doctoral program in Higher Education; and a master's degree program in strength and conditioning in Exercise Physiology.

The school participates in about 30 outreach and research based projects in South Florida that are key to advocating for healthy, connected communities. One of these is P-SELL. This initiative, with National Science Foundation grant support, provides teacher professional development and a hands-on science curriculum for English Language learners in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Steady and sustained test score improvement has been documented in math, writing and science. A new U.S. Department of Education grant has just been secured to expand the research project to additional schools.

Another research and development program is in the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences: the THINK (Translational Health in Nutrition and Kinesiology) program engages teens in hands-on health-enhancing exercise and nutrition, literacy, career development, and team building activities.

The Kulula Project, in the Department of Educational and Psychological Studies, uses University of Miami student mentors to reach out to the children and families in the historically black community to involve them in new ways to learn self-awareness, leadership, and respect for their heritage through African culture and history.

The School has also raised its national academic profile. For the last three years, in the US News & World Report's "America's Best Graduate Schools," the School of Education has been ranked among the top 50 in the nation. The school was also highly ranked by Academic Analytics, which analyzes objective academic data and faculty productivity within universities. Four of the school's programs ranked in the top five nationally in the last two years: teaching and learning, math and science, research and measurement, and counseling psychology.

University of Miami's School of Education is a major voice in the local and national debate on how to improve education. As stated in the Spring 2010 issue of Miami Magazine: "In the multicultural classroom that is South Florida, the School of Education is spreading its wings far beyond traditional teaching approaches to help transform community challenges into communities of change." For more information on the School of Education, please visit their website at www.education.miami.edu.