Slippery Rock University was established as a teacher preparation institution of higher education in 1889.  The entire history of the university is linked inescapably to preparing high quality teachers.  With the recent reorganization, teacher education programs are centrally administered within the College of Education.  Twenty-five percent of all SRU majors are in teacher preparation.  Approximately 30% of the faculty members of the university devote their professional efforts to students enrolled in teacher education programs.

The college provides a range of unique educational benefits for teacher preparation and the continuing education of certified teachers.  The Multi-Cultural Heritage Center provides a significant regional resource for improving teachers skills in multi-cultural classrooms and teaching to students of different cultures.  The Education Media Lab constitutes an instructional technology resource center providing state-of-the-art equipment for pre-service teachers to experiment and learn the latest in technology for the classroom.  The School Collaboration Center helps bring school districts, educators, volunteers, and other resources together to improve basic education, professional teacher development, and opportunities for school-age students from diverse backgrounds to work together and discover their similarities.  Additionally, the college has three specialized labs to assist in teaching social studies, science, and mathematics.  Overall, the university has invested over $100,000 in equipment, new labs, and marketing initiatives within the last two years for the college.

The College of Education is a distinctive resource for the advancement of teacher education.  The college provides the editor and managing editor for the History of Education Quarterly, published at SRU on behalf of the History of Education Society.  Recently, the college entered a consortium with Duquesne University, University of Pittsburgh, Butler County Community College, Allegheny Community College, and IUP for a K-16 collaborative for $100,000.  The university received from the Howard Heinz Endowment a $20,000 grant to bring teachers from selected elementary schools together with SRU faculty to provide new ideas and innovations in teaching and a $100,000 grant  to connect rural and urban schools with innovative teaching techniques for preservice teachers.   Furthermore, the university expects to receive an additional technology grant (“Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology”) for $116,000 to increase the quantity, quality and diversity of future teachers, and improve the responsiveness of the System to emerging state and regional needs for teachers.

The SRU graduate is known and respected.  Although the college mission is to provide teachers for Pennsylvania, Slippery Rock University provides teachers for the nation.  Annually, 30% of  the education graduates take jobs outside of Pennsylvania because of aggressive recruitment of the SRU student.  The semi-annual job fair for teachers draws participants from 346 recruiters, with representatives from as many as twelve different states. The 1999 Florida Teacher of the Year is a SRU graduate, and the Clark County School District (Las Vegas, Nevada) recently named an elementary school in honor of an SRU graduate. 

The teacher preparation programs work collaboratively with all levels of higher education.  The university has collaborative programs with Clarion and Lock Haven universities serving the Northern Tier. The newly proposed principalship certificate is a collaborative with Clarion University to serve the Northwestern Pennsylvania region.  Within the next year, the university will have established two transfer articulation agreements with Butler County Community College and Community College of Allegheny County to increase seamless access to teacher education degree completion for students who begin with a community college.

Quality teacher preparation is a critical recurring need in Pennsylvania and the nation. SRU has repeatedly demonstrated distinctive skills in providing innovative, responsive, and adaptive programs to meet these needs and to assure the best learning experiences for future generations.  For 112 years, this has been an area of distinction at Slippery Rock University.