College of Education > About > Centers & Initiatives

Centers & Initiatives

​In the College of Education, centers and initiatives help prepare our students to work in schools and in settings which support the work of schools. These extracurricular organizations and activities are especially important for engaging our students with the larger community and vice versa. 

Centers

​Academic Success Center (ASC) – The ASC serves the needs of individual students as they pursue a degree and prepare to work in educational settings.

Center For Educational Technology (CET) – CET promotes initiatives that enhance student access to, and engagement with, technology and that help faculty integrate technology into their teaching contexts.​

Institutes

Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education – The first such university-affiliated institute in the United States, it's purpose is to research the philosophies and practices of renowned Japanese educators Daisaku Ikeda, Josei Toda and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, as well as to provide workshops and symposia on these to students, educators, counselors, academics, and educational leaders in the greater Chicago area.

Stockyard Institute – Stockyard Institute is an ongoing civic and artistic practice founded in 1995 by Chicago artist Jim Duignan. Influenced and shaped by youth, radical teachers, and local activists, this continually growing network of collaborators instrumentalized the traditions of conceptual art and grassroots community organizing to collectively respond to the needs, questions, and hopes of those involved. A truly "lived practice," Duignan's projects emerge organically from early, formative experiences in Chicago's neighborhoods and alleys, public schools and parks, and his encounters with artists working outside of the mainstream. Operating on the margins of institutions, Stockyard Institute utilizes artistic processes to create utopian spaces of radical equality.

Initiatives

DePaul University/Facing History & Ourselves Collaboration (DPU/FHAO Colla​boration) – The College of Education and Facing History & Ourselves have come together to raise awareness among educators and the public about the need to teach for social justice while also providing educators with concrete tools to enhance their classroom practice in addressing complex social issues.

Integrative Knowledge e-Portfolio – Integrative Knowledge E-Portfolios (IKEs) are places where our students reflect on their lifelong and life-wide experiences, integrate personal and professional knowledge, and explore the impact of beliefs and knowledge on their roles and actions as professional educators and counselors. IKEs are a canvas on which students can weave together, challenge and showcase their knowledge, values, goals and professional identities.

Lift as You Climb – Lift as You Climb (Lift) is an inter-generational leadership development program housed in DePaul University’s College of Education. Dedicated facilitators, advisors, community liaisons and members of the university community provide programmatic supports that promote participants’ independent and collective goals. With educational leadership and the broader educational landscape as its focus, Lift serves as a site of critical engagement.

Office of Innovative Professional Learning (OIPL) – OIPL offers individuals, organizations, schools, and businesses the most innovative, meaningful training that contributes to individual and organizational success. OIPL accomplishes this with professional development, coaching, mentoring and a distinctive program micro-credentialing that provides job-embedded and competency based training. From international mindedness to building vision and purpose, OIPL offers a customized training experience that extends the expertise of the College of Education faculty to all professionals.

College of Education Quarterly Forum Initiative – This initiative sponsors quarterly forums on important education issues. Forums are free, open to all DePaul students and faculty, teachers in public and private schools, alumni and members of the community. Previous forums have included topics such as restorative justice in schools, challenging high stakes testing and the impact of poverty on children's mental health. To learn about upcoming events, please see our COE Events page or contact Diane Horwitz at dhorwit1@depaul.edu.

Catholic School Council – The CSC emerged in the fall of 2009 from discussions with the principals and presidents of the four Catholic high schools in which the College of Education has a formal partnership. The goal is to find mechanisms and processes to best utilize the partnership and to collaborate more effectively with other units within the university.

Initiatives Working in Schools

BiLD Lab – A collaborative research group interested in linguistic, educational, and sociolinguistic aspects of bilingualism and SLA.

Moos Elementary Partnership – Working closely with faculty and staff at this CPS school, Dean Zionts and faculty have developed a creative collaboration that allows COE faculty to pilot innovative programs that offer benefits to each institutions’ students. 

Student Teaching and Field Experience – Every undergraduate​ student in each of the College of Education's 20 majors serves a minimum of 100 hours of field experience time. Fieldwork places all CoE students in area schools assisting teachers and working directly with children. After completing the field experience requirement, the colleges undergraduates perform a full quarter of student teaching in approximately 100 CPS, charter or Catholic schools in the Chicago area.

Additionally, the College of Education's graduate programs require a variety of field experiences, from clinical internships to practicums to student teaching. A link to COE courses requiring field work and hours embedded per course can be found here

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