Curry School of Education and Human Development
History
The Curry School of Education and Human Development offers professional programs designed to prepare individuals for a variety of careers related to the practice of education. The school was named for Dr. Jabez L. M. Curry, an eminent southern educator. It was endowed in 1905 by gifts from John D. Rockefeller and the General Education Fund and became a professional school in 1919. Graduate programs in education were established in 1950, and the degree programs offered now include the Bachelor of Science in Education (B.S.Ed.); the Master of Education (M.Ed.), Master of Teaching (M.T.), Educational Specialist (Ed.S.); Master of Science (M.S.), and two doctoral degrees (Ed.D. and Ph.D.).
The School Today
The Curry School of Education and Human Development has two major missions. The first is to prepare individuals to work in America’s educational system, pre-kindergarten through collegiate levels, and to conduct research and scholarship that address problems and issues of importance to our education system. Through partnerships with other organizations and educational institutions, the Curry School is committed to developing exemplary and innovative approaches to address those issues and problems, and to improving instruction and schooling in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Curry programs continue to provide national leadership in the preparation of beginning teachers, as well as advanced training for experienced teachers and school leaders.
A second mission of the Curry School is to enhance human potential and performance by preparing professionals and conducting research in such areas as psychological/emotional development, physical development and fitness, and speech/language/auditory development. These areas contribute to the betterment of the human condition and are directly related to increased learning and successful experiences in the world-at-large.
Programs within the Curry School are among the best professional education offerings in the country. Faculty hold offices in professional organizations, are scholars of international renown, and are numbered among the University’s finest teachers. Students score well above the national norms on the national examinations, and are members of such student honorary societies as Chi Sigma Iota, Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Delta Kappa, Outstanding Students in America, and the Raven Society.
Extensive information about the Curry School of Education and Human Development and its programs is available on the web, http://curry.virginia.edu.
