Education Programs | Lesley University

Great teachers don’t just teach: they inspire, innovate, and help shape the future.

At Lesley, we’ve focused on preparing educators to teach and transform since 1909. Lesley’s distinct curriculum, Scholar Partner Pr ogram, and highly respected Professional Learning Center deliver the cutting-edge theory, multiple skills and approaches, and extensive practical experience that students need to excel inside and outside the classroom.

Whether you’re pursuing a career in early childhood, special education, secondary education, or educational leadership, a Lesley degree gets you into the classroom early and often, providing you with everything you need to get to work educating the next generation.

Lesley’s Distinct Toolbox of Techniques and Approaches

The Lesley curriculum offers a full and rich set of tools that empowers teachers to educate a wide range of learners, both as student teachers and as educators working in the field. It’s a research-informed curriculum that emphasizes inclusion and trauma-informed teaching, and that helps educators understand when to implement different instructional strategies and approaches. The Lesley curriculum empowers tomorrow’s teachers to reach students in a variety of different ways, making them more empathetic and impactful educators.

Get Inside the Classroom Early

Teaching can’t be mastered from books alone – which is why you’ll start applying what you learn by working alongside teachers in their classrooms. During your very first semester as an undergraduate, extensive school district and independent school partnerships will provide you invaluable experience applying instructional methods engaging with different types of students and learning to anticipate and respond to a wide range of classroom challenges.

Education students gain hands-on experience through our unique Scholar Partner Program, which pairs students with a guaranteed internship or field placement site, allowing them to develop deep relationships with schools where they will do their student teaching. Students can also elect to work in a partner school in a teacher residency program, which provides students the ability to work side by side with experienced educators while completing coursework. These deep-rooted partnerships produce connections that often lead to permanent employment.

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A Community of Peers and Caring Faculty Mentors

Teaching is a deeply rewarding and sometimes challenging pursuit, one where community and connection matter.

As a Lesley student, you’ll learn from seasoned faculty who share their experience, passion, and commitment to teaching. And you’ll work alongside peers not only in the classroom but often in the cohort of students doing internships or field placements in a particular school or district. It’s a network that touches every part of the Lesley student experience, one that you’ll turn to again and again over the course of your teaching career.

Support That’s with You for Life

Lesley does more than prepare teachers: we support them through every stage of their careers with a range of resources and supports, including:

Lesley’s New Teacher Community – A support group and other resources for educators who are new to teaching, soon to be expanded to communities of practice for teachers at all other stages of their careers
Continuing education and professional development courses, seminars, and timely, relevant microlearnings
An active, coast-to-coast alumni network
A well-deserved reputation as one of the nation’s leading universities for training educators
Priority job matching and curated career fairs
Proactive job “matching” of employers with Lesley alumni

Learn more about how we support professionals working in the field through every stage of their careers.

A diverse group of about fifteen professionally dressed adults stand together, posing for a photo. They are all smiling and cheering with excitement, many with their arms raised victoriously. They are indoors in a room with wood floors, a large abstract painting, and a green banner on the wall behind them.

Explore our Scholar Partner Program, which guarantees internships upon acceptance as well as other types of internships and field placements that uniquely prepare Lesley students for career success.

Current Scholar Partners Include:

Framingham Public Schools
Home for Little Wanderers
Justice Resource Institute
Lilian Prep Early Education Academy
Old Sturbridge Village

Perkins School for the Blind
Quincy Public Schools
Westwood Public Schools
Worcester Cultural Academy

Students also have the opportunity to participate in our Teacher Residency Program. Current Teacher Residencies include:

Belmont Day School
Buckingham Browne & Nichols
Berwick Academy
Brookwood School
Carroll School
Shady Hill School

Undergraduate Programs

Unlike most bachelor’s programs, Lesley’s undergraduate education programs get students into classrooms from day one, providing them with the real-world experience they need to become impactful educators fluent in the diverse needs, learning styles, and settings of today’s students.

Master's Programs

Lesley’s Master’s programs are distinguished by a curriculum that exposes students to multiple approaches and methodologies, and our Scholar Partner Program - which maximizes the time students spend working in the classroom through guaranteed internships received on acceptance.

PhD Programs

Lesley’s low-residency PhD programs allow students to earn their degree with fewer credits and give students the opportunity to develop an individualized thesis and study path and conduct research in their own workplace.

Certificate Programs

These streamlined options help you expand your skillset, improve your effectiveness, and enhance your career options.

Take the next step

Ready to begin your journey with Lesley? Share some basic information by filling out one of the forms below so that we can reach out to you with more information about our programs. Or, email admissions@lesley.edu to connect with a member of our admissions team.

Undergraduate Inquiry Form | Graduate Inquiry Form | Threshold Inquiry Form