Our Working Themes

LUTE Introduction |  Institutional Context |  Vision, Purposes and Professional Commitments | Our Working Themes | Our Graduates |  Our Departments/Programs | Our Centers and Institutes | Our Partners | Conclusions |  Bibliography

Four themes guide our work as teacher, school counselors, and educational leaders and shape our interactions with liberal arts colleagues and school- and community-based partners. These themes are interrelated and reinforce our efforts to serve as catalysts for leading urban transformative education. They are evident in program design, curriculum, instruction and assessment, and they bolster the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and practices that we expect Lehman College School of Education graduates to demonstrate once they complete their studies.

• Theme I - Empower Learners. School of Education faculty, staff, candidates, and alumni are empowered, through participation in collaborative inquiry and shared decision-making, to promote and support innovative practices in educational settings.
• Theme II - Educate for Equity. School of Education faculty, staff, candidates, and alumni are mindful of inequities and advocate for social justice as they work on closing achievement, opportunity, and attainment gaps.
• Theme III: Realize Potential. School of Education faculty, staff, candidates, and alumni are sensitive to the needs of the whole child/adolescent/adult. At every level, educators must help students to realize their potential by establishing rigorous academic standards, using assessment to track progress, attending to diverse learning styles/needs, and taking into account social/emotional factors that contribute to or impede school success.
• Theme IV - Affirm Diversity. School of Education faculty, staff, candidates, and alumni affirm diversity by creating environments that ensure safety, equity, and appropriate outcomes for all learners and educators. We recognize the importance of school-family-community partnerships as essential educational contexts, knowledge bases, and sources for inquiry.

Lehman graduates must demonstrate evidence-based outcomes that are linked to the working themes that we value as well as the knowledge, skills, practices, and dispositions that we expect graduates to develop (see Appendix A).