We are proud to be Arizona’s first College of Education. Other Arizona firsts include:

• Arizona’s First university to operate the Equity Assistance Center — promoting equal educational opportunities for all children — for California, Nevada, and Arizona
• Arizona’s First Professor in the National Academy of Education (Luis Moll, now Associate Dean of the College of Education)
• Arizona’s First International Teacher Education Program
• Arizona’s First Chair of International Higher Education (Gary Rhoades, now Director of The University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education)
• Arizona’s First Instructional Technology Facility for Teachers
• Arizona’s First — and still the state’s only — programs to prepare rehabilitation counselors and educators of the deaf and blind

• First institute (American Indian Language Development Institute) devoted specifically to training American Indian educators in all fields of American Indian language study and research
• First Eye Movement Miscue Analysis Research Laboratory
• First Center for the Study of Higher Education in the Southwestern United States

And not to be missed:

America’s Largest Literature Collection for Children and Adolescents

Hidden in the basement of the UA College of Education building is a magical place. It’s a place where lives change — thanks to the power of books. The International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature is the largest collection in America, and it’s housed right here. In fact, there’s only one larger collection in the world. Recently, the basement library has been filled with kids from an alternative high school in Nogales. They were there to create their own books, which they will then read aloud to preschoolers. “I’m intrigued by the powerful things that can happen by bringing books and kids together,” says Kathy Short, professor and the driving force behind the collection.

U.S. News & World Report