College Overview

The College of Education at the University of South Florida is a comprehensive metropolitan College of Education and one of the largest units of its type in the United States.


History: Then and Now

The College opened its doors in August 1960, with a charter faculty of ten. Since that time the College has grown to 173 tenured and tenure earning faculty across four campus sites, with a full-time equivalent total of 147 (including part-time and visiting instructional faculty).

Today the College has a rich diversity of academic and research programs, faculty and students. The College of Education enrolls approximately 4,800 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs and contributes 28% of the total university student credit hours.


Financial Support

During the past year, the College of Education received over $16 million in external grants and contracts in support of its research and professional service efforts. In addition, the College has been engaged with the University of South Florida in a capital campaign to raise $12 million in private support for scholarships, endowments and special projects in the College of Education. To date nearly $9 million of that amount has been achieved.


Organization

The College is organized for administrative purposes into seven academic departments:

Supporting the infrastructure of the college are ...

College-supported Centers

The College also encompasses an array of distinguished Centers that are supported by both private and public funds.

These include...

Our Facility

Over the past two years the College has opened the doors of a new $22 million state-of-the-art education facility. The Education Complex consists of facilities with technology support to enable both contemporary and future technological innovation to enhance teaching and learning. Embedded in the new and renovated structures are computer labs, technology support systems and multimedia production facilities equal to no other in the country.


Our Schools and Partnerships: Practical Application

The College, consistent with its emphasis on clinical education and research, has opened two new public schools:

While continuing to support ... In addition to supporting the operations of these three campus based schools, the College has invested in partnerships with four school districts for the specific purpose of establishing Professional Development Schools. Currently eight such schools in four counties provide extensive and continuous professional opportunities for research and practice for students, teachers and university personnel.



Our Mission

Established as a mission of the College in 1993, the College embraces the dual statements of Improving the Schools of Today and Inventing the Schools of Tomorrow. The College views itself as one such "school" recognizing that this College must continuously improve its educational programs and practices through self examination, reform and renewal.

To this end, the College has embarked upon a planning process to create and sustain a new educational culture. The planning endeavor with defined accountability parameters has occurred primarily through the Council of Chairs and has incorporated both departmental and college based values.

Beginning in January 1998, departments were asked to present goals and objectives for each department for a five year period, 1998-2003. Each of these plans was presented during a Chairs' retreat.

From these reports, six general themes were developed:

These themes represent the core values of the College and provide a basis from which college goals could be derived. These themes were presented to the full faculty in Fall 1998, and Chairs were asked to discuss them and apply them to the work of the departments. In addition, particular goals related to undergraduate and graduate education were also developed.

What follows is a description and delineation of College Goals based upon these themes.

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