From the Dean

Welcome to our Website! We are delighted that you are visiting us. So take a look and please contact us to learn more about the College of Education and its many offerings.

Our College continues its long-standing tradition of preparing teachers for classroom instruction. After all, we've been successfully preparing teachers for over 120-years and along the way have built a reputation as Louisiana's premier teacher education program. As the needs of schools and society change so has our College by extending our traditional teacher training program to a diverse audience, like you, who is interested in becoming a part of the most noble of all professions, teaching. Our College offers undergraduate teacher preparation programs, as well as graduate programs in areas such as educational leadership, educational technology, and P-12 school and college counseling. The College of Education offers twelve undergraduate and three graduate teacher preparation programs. They include fifteen graduate programs for teachers; three graduate, non-teaching programs; and one educational specialist program with seven concentrations for preparing teachers and other school personnel. If you're interest ed in these dynamic programs please refer to the College of Education's menu bar on the main page of our Website and click on Degrees or Certification to obtain specific information on degree programs or teacher certification requirements.

In addition to a wealth of degree offerings that should fit your individual needs, we have a faculty, staff, and facility that will assist with your preparation to become a teacher or extend your current skills for advanced preparation in one of our graduate programs. Our faculty takes full responsibility for your knowledge and preparation. They are highly qualified to prepare teacher candidates to meet their goals and believe the process of preparing effective, professional educators is a collective enterprise, where excellence in teaching is highly valued. In fact, embedded in our theme, Models for Learning, is the philosophy that candidates in all programs will be taught in ways, which will empower them to work effectively in schools and other educational settings. How do we accomplish this? By placing our undergraduate and graduate candidates in academic settings, field based experiences, clinical practice, and professional educational roles that allow them to become models for learning , included in our theme and mission as a College and University dedicated to teacher preparation.

Our mission is enhanced by placing teacher candidates in excellent school environments where field experiences, such as those with our partner schools located throughout our service area, work with our faculty to provide the best possible real world experience in preparation for the classroom. In our graduate or advanced programs, candidates enjoy similar field experiences but focus on applied research and application-based activities that better prepare them to teach and lead. It is our hope that you will contact us about Northwestern's dynamic teacher preparation program and join the hundreds of others who went before you to become part of a rich legacy in teacher preparation that is sensitive about the past but grounded in the future. Join us by enrolling in one of our undergraduate or advanced programs in the College of Education. Let us know how we can play a role in defining your future.

Dr. Vickie S. Gentry