She points out that law, business and medical schools require certain courses that all students must take. Education schools, she says, are equally professional—and should have similar requirements.

Pagett says the first core course will be tried out—on an elective basis—next spring, addressing a general topic pertaining to education.

“No matter which [program] you graduate from, you should not be able to leave the Ed School without understanding how people learn,” he says.

A New Model

Lagemann hopes other schools of education will follow GSE’s lead and create more focused, professional programs.

And she has taken steps to encourage GSE faculty members to work with professors throughout the University.

Already, the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) and Harvard Business School (HBS) have teamed up with GSE to train school superintendents.

Lagemann has also proposed an increased partnership with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to involve undergraduates in education and “make education a much more important part of life in the undergraduate Houses.”

And she has increased GSE’s involvement in local and national education issues, aiming to make GSE a leading voice.

“We’re trying to create a new model that we hope will be copied by other schools of education,” she says. “We really need to have an impact on policy and practice.”

In addition to strengthening existing connections to Boston and Cambridge public school systems, Lagemann has turned her gaze outward to include President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act” and other policy issues of national importance.

And Lagemann says she hopes to cast GSE’s net even wider.

“We think it’s very important to remember that people are moving around the world and most educational problems and possibilities have global roots,” she says.

This year Lagemann visited Mexico to recruit teachers, hosted the education minister of Ghana and encouraged her faculty to continue holding videoconferencing seminars, such as a lecture series by Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education Howard Gardner that was broadcast in China this past year.

Thomas Professor of Education Marcelo Suárez-Orozco says Lagemann’s global focus is crucial for affecting change in American public education.