The educator, believing in the worth and dignity of each human being, recognizes the supreme importance of the pursuit of truth, devotion to excellence, and the nurture of the democratic principles. Essential to these goals is the protection of freedom to learn and to teach, and the guarantee of equal educational opportunity for all. The educator accepts the responsibility to adhere to the highest ethical standards.

Preamble to the Code of Ethics of the Education Profession,
National Education Association

An essential precondition for achieving our mission is to translate our vision into concrete measures or standards that can be used to inform our instruction and assess the achievements of our candidates and the effectiveness of our programs. However, to successfully operationalize these abstract principles it is necessary to individualize them and adapt them to the specific needs of our candidates. PEP is divided into two broad sub-units—the one relating to teacher education, the other relating to the education of future administrators—and we have developed two roughly parallel sets of candidate proficiencies that express a shared vision, but that do so in a way appropriate to the needs of each group.

The aim of our teacher education programs is to prepare candidates who:

1. Understand the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline.
2. Understand and apply knowledge of human development and research in pedagogy to design diverse learning experiences that promote intellectual, social and personal development.
3. Understand and appreciate how students differ in their approaches to learning, are sensitive to diversity, and can adapt learning experiences to diverse learners.
4. Apply a variety of instructional strategies grounded in pedagogical content knowledge to creatively develop critical thinking, cognitive and performance skills, and intellectual curiosity for all learners.
5. Understand and apply knowledge of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation.
6. Understand and apply knowledge of effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication strategies to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.
7. Plan and adjust learning experiences based upon knowledge of the discipline and its pedagogy, curriculum goals, the individual student, and community.
8. Understand and apply formal and informal modes of assessment to evaluate learners, monitor learner progress, and inform and improve instruction.
9. Actively seek opportunities to grow professionally, including engagement in reflective practice; continually evaluate the effects of their actions on others and are flexible in their responses; open to constructive criticism; and intellectually curious.
10. Foster collegial and communal partnerships to support student learning and well-being, both inside and outside the classroom.

The aim of our educational leadership programs is to produce candidates who:

1. Develop and demonstrate the skills needed to work with a board of education to facilitate the development of a vision of learning for a school district that promotes the success of all students.
2. Demonstrate the ability to plan programs to motivate staff, students, and families to achieve a school district’s vision.
3. Demonstrate the ability to bring together and communicate effectively with stakeholders within the district and the larger community concerning implementation and realization of the vision.
4. Develop a sustained approach to improve and maintain a positive district culture for learning that capitalizes on multiple aspects of diversity to meet the learning needs of all students.
5. Demonstrate an ability to assist school and district personnel in understanding and applying best practices for student learning.
6. Collaborate with families and other community members.
7. Respond to community interests and needs.
8. Demonstrate a respect for rights of others with regard to confidentiality and dignity and engage in honest interactions
9. Demonstrate the ability to combine impartiality, sensitivity to student diversity, and ethical considerations with their interactions with others.
10. Make and explain decisions based upon ethical and legal principles.
11. Espouse positions in response to proposed policy changes that would benefit or harm districts and explain how policies and laws might improve educational and social opportunities for specific communities.

Both sets of proficiencies are aligned with the PEP and Stony Brook University missions, the PEP themes, New York State standards, and INTASC/ELCC standards (respectively).