Dear USC Rossier Faculty, Staff and Students,
I’m happy to report that USC Rossier has formally adopted a new mission statement. Darline Robles, who chairs both the Diversity Task Force and the Urban Education Planning Committee, presented the statement at the faculty meeting today:
The mission of the USC Rossier School of Education is to prepare leaders to achieve educational equity through practice, research and policy. We work to improve learning opportunities and outcomes in urban settings and to address disparities that affect historically marginalized groups. We teach our students to value and respect the cultural context of the communities in which they work and to interrogate the systems of power that shape policies and practices. Through innovative thinking and research, we strive to solve the most intractable educational problems.
Our new mission will be made public tomorrow, although we have already started updating our literature and website.
As you all know by now, this change has been the result of a multistage process that benefitted from the input of just about everybody at USC Rossier.
It began a year ago, with the Academic Program Review of our four doctoral programs. A team of external reviewers called on USC Rossier to clarify the meaning of the words “urban education” as used in our mission: “The mission of the USC Rossier School of Education is to improve learning in urban education locally, national and globally.”
This same goal was also identified as a priority in two subsequent reports: a set of recommendations from the Diversity Task Force in December 2016 and in a climate assessment report solicited from the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Study of Race & Equity in Education in February 2017.
The Urban Education Planning Committee, under Dr. Robles’ guidance, then began the process of exploring the meaning of “urban education” by surveying faculty, staff and students and hosting a retreat in May 2017.
The outcome of this process was the recognition that we needed to reformulate our entire mission.
The Academic Program Review process helped us begin to identify what was most important to us as a school, and the subsequent efforts of our faculty, staff and students answered this call to action by drafting this essential new mission statement.
Advancing educational equity is central to everything we do — from ongoing revisions to our degree programs to the focus of our research to preparing students for roles as teachers, counselors, advisors and administrators.
While we should celebrate this milestone, our work continues. A mission statement is only as good as how well we carry it out. We will continue to address student suggestions, including changes to our curriculum, and we will continue to hold ourselves accountable.
Thank you to all for your input, and thank you also to members of the Urban Education Planning Committee, who gathered and analyzed ideas and suggestions from several hundred people: Shafiqa Ahmadi, Sonya Black‐Williams, Ross Brenneman, Darnell Cole, Joanna Drivalas, Rob Filback, Alan Green, Edna Martinez, Morgan Polikoff and Kristan Venegas.
Fight On!
Sincerely,
Karen Symms Gallagher, Ph.D.
Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean
USC Rossier School of Education
Waite Phillips Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0031
Asst: hardison@usc.edu
213.740.5756 (office)
213.821.2158 (fax)