Partners for the Future: Overview

Office of Advancement

Historic Endowment to support K-16 Mind, Brain Education

During no time in our history has education experienced such dramatic change as that which is taking place today. Being a leader in urban education, the University of Texas at Arlington’s College of Education (COED) lies within a 60-mile radius of more than 180 independent school districts with a combined student population approaching one million. The University of Texas at Arlington College of Education has a responsibility to find creative ways to provide outreach and support to the communities it serves. With increased cost and growth evident in higher and public education and a decrease in the amount of traditional funding, sharing resources and collaborating with public and private partners is ever more important.

A premier provider of teacher and administrator education programs, the College of Education has grown by more than 700% in the past six years and is located throughout the UT Arlington campus in eight facilities. Led by the Associate Vice President for K-16 Initiatives and Dean of the College of Education, Jeanne M. Gerlach, the administration, faculty, and staff pride themselves on being a leader in PreK-16 public education partnerships.

First established within the College of Liberal Arts as the Teacher Education Section of the Department of Psychology, the academic unit that is now the College of Education has been preparing educators and serving local schools since 1963. A steady growth in enrollment and the approval of additional degrees, endorsement and certification programs led to the department’s designation as a free-standing Center for Professional Teacher Education in 1978 and its eventual elevation to school status with the University on January 1, 1999. On August 6, 2003, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recognized the School as a College of Education.