ECP’s mission is to prepare educators for professional service and leadership in schools and community agencies in and around New York City. Its four graduate programs provide a rigorous education and embody and reflect the Education Unit’s conceptual framework and organizing themes as well as the standards established by their professions, Queens College and its Division of Education, the City University of New York, and the New York State Education Department. ECP is committed to candidate excellence, as well as diversity in enrollments, faculty, curriculum, and field placements. As such, it recruits candidates (a) who demonstrate high academic achievement and personal attributes suited for working with children, youth, and families; (b) who represent the various racial, cultural, and linguistic communities in the New York metropolitan area. In addition, it seeks faculty who value diversity and who represent a variety of communities, philosophies, instructional approaches, and scholarly interests. ECP recognizes the need for public and urban educators to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Consequently, ECP’s programs help candidates strike a balance between their professional identity (e.g., special educator) and the need to work with other educators and community representatives to prevent and solve problems. Because Queens College is a commuter school, and because the vast majority of ECP candidates work full time in the pubic schools and attend Queens College part time, candidates are under stress to balance their personal and professional lives. Recognizing this, and recognizing the diversity of candidates, ECP continually endeavors to develop an intellectual and social community that will—now and in the future—support candidates’ professional development.

ECP is unified in its commitment to improving the quality of educational services to children, youth, and their families. Consequently, its faculty continues to obtain grants, conduct research, write articles, write books, edit journals, hold offices in professional organizations, run large alternative teacher education-certification programs, and work with families, schools, and human service agencies. In addition to bringing local, national and international visibility to the faculty and to Queens College and to helping children, youth, and their families, these endeavors help faculty to understand the daily realities of schools. This knowledge informs faculty efforts, encourages interdisciplinary problem solving and cooperation, and influences the development of ECP’s curriculum and program efforts.