The Graduate Division of the School of Education and Psychology was created in 1993 and received State of New York approval for its first graduate degree programs in 1995. The Graduate School was established on the basis of a firm conviction that education is one of the most important tools for bringing about continuous improvement in the conditions of life for all people.

Solidly committed to the goal of universal education of high quality, the Graduate School was given the mission of developing and implementing educational programs that would supply schools and other educational settings with the most professionally competent teachers, administrators, and educational support personnel. A central philosophical concept on which the Graduate School is based is the notion that the goal of learning is more learning and that the primary mission of education is to enhance educability - to stretch minds and to increase each person's ability to learn independently. The founders recognized that not all children come to school equally prepared to exercise their own intelligence and to derive maximum benefit from the school experience. This recognition lead to the important goal of placing in the hands of all learners the essential tools of learning: personal logic systems, a solid knowledge base about methods of learning, habits of thinking about one's own thinking processes, and a motive structure that makes learning its own reward.