Department of Education - UCLA School of Education & Information Studies

Uplifting Knowledge

Through scholarship, teaching, institution, and community, our Department of Education prepares tomorrow’s leaders to fearlessly pursue the incredible potential of an educational system that embraces and adapts to difference.

We train educators and researchers to cultivate equity and confront systemic inequity, to reshape how classrooms and communities function and who they serve, to frame intellect as a treasure and access to resources as an inherent right. It is our mission to help humankind thrive by uplifting knowledge and empowering truth.

Where Education Comes to Life

UCLA is the only global public research university that began as a teacher’s college, a degree in Education was the first awarded at UCLA. Ed&IS is the longest running school on campus.

With over a century of experience in championing bold new viewpoints in education, the Department is a renowned leader in the study and practice of urban education, student testing and assessment, teacher and continuing education and development — particularly in urban communities and multi-ethnic environments. We’re esteemed for our focus on early childhood development, including issues of access, equity, and quality that face K-12 and higher education. In the Department’s research centers, groundbreaking research is more than a concept — it’s a plan of action.

Degrees Awarded

Education and Social Transformation Major

Education Studies Minor

Higher Education & Organizational Change (M.A. & Ph.D.)

Human Development & Psychology (M.A. & Ph.D.)

Social Research Methodology (M.A. & Ph.D.)

Social Sciences & Comparative Education (M.A. & Ph.D.)

Urban Schooling (Ph.D. only)

Educational Leadership Program (Ed.D.)

Principal Leadership Institute (M.Ed. and Preliminary Administrative Credential)

Student Affairs (M.Ed.)

Teacher Education Program (M.Ed. and Preliminary Teaching Credential)

Transformative Coaching and Leadership (M.Ed.)

Academy for Excellence in Medical Education

UCLA Professional Leadership and Coaching Academy

UCLA Women’s Community College Leadership Academy*

UCLA Women’s School Leadership Academy*

University Women’s Leadership Academy for Mid-Career Professionals*

*open to people of all gender identities

Certificate in Advanced Quantitative Methodology in Educational Research in the Social Research Methodology Division (open only to current UCLA doctoral students)

UCLA campus students walking up Janss steps

Find Your Place

UCLA Ed&IS provides pathways for all. Let’s see where you fit.

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A Culture of Challenging Convention

Our undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni form a cohesive and dynamic unit with the shared goal of cultivating real-world change from revolutionary educational thinking. In our community no idea is too new, no obstacle is insurmountable and no student is unteachable. The imagination and empathy of our community drive incredible results, altering individual and collective pathways in education for the better, for all.

The Department of Education was named the nation’s #3 graduate school of education in U.S. News and World Report’s 2024 rankings of American Graduate Educational Institutions and is consistently the top public research school of education on a national level.