Over the past decade the phrase "making a positive difference in the lives of others" emerged and stuck as a statement--part vision and part goal--for the University of Vermont (UVM) College of Education and Social Services (CESS). The phrase captured the energy and intention of the educator preparation programs and signaled the role of these programs as applied social and behavioral sciences disciplines, thus locating them among the other disciplines of the university. In the early 1990s, the CESS was well positioned as one of UVM's professional schools and was poised for change just as the national debate about the quality of public education of educators was heating up. In this article, the authors begin with a brief examination of that debate, arguing that program development was influenced by claims and assertions in the national discourse and by events and struggles at the local, university level. Turning next to what programmatic changes emerged from this dialectic, the authors conclude by analyzing how effective the changes have been and what needs to happen next. (Contains 3 footnotes.)