Our Name Change

In June, 2020, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to remove Woodrow Wilson from the name of our graduate school. Our new name, the High Meadows Graduate School of Teaching and Learning, recognizes the commitment and leadership of our founding Board chair, Carl Ferenbach. This fall, the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education gave approval for us to begin doing business under our new name.

We began as a program of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and the original name of the school reflected our association with the Foundation. Yet Woodrow Wilson’s racist legacy has always been incompatible with who we are, what we stand for, and what we strive to accomplish in the world. Our fundamental commitments to equity, justice, and anti-racism are deeply embedded in our competencies and our curriculum. Our goal is to prepare educators who serve our youth and school communities by building equity and student agency — and who help to dismantle the structures of systemic racism and injustice that incite violence and harm.

The times we live in and the future that lies ahead requires us to commit to work toward creating a more just and equitable society and world in both words and actions. At the High Meadows Graduate School, we believe that education holds the promise for a better life for students of today and tomorrow. To achieve this goal, we need educators who have deep knowledge of their subject matter and who can prepare their students to be agile and collaborative learners, to work in diverse environments, to persevere under stress, and to independently learn and grow. We need educators who will prepare their students to flourish in the economies of the future, and to develop in them the knowledge and skills to create just and caring communities and a sustainable world. We are dedicated to preparing such educators and proud to do so under our new name.