IISE accomplishes its mission by focusing its strategic activities toward the achievement of five major goals:

Goal 1: to serve as a premier research, planning, monitoring and evaluation hub for development projects in cross-cultural and international contexts;

Goal 2: to offer capacity building expertise and assistance for educational agencies at all levels, HIV/AIDS and other multisectoral programs, higher education institutions, and indigenous education programs, with a long-term goal toward local sustainability;

Goal 3: to help develop a global orientation and international understandings among faculty, staff, alumni and other constituencies of the School of Education;

Goal 4: to assist colleagues in public and private schools in the Pittsburgh area to internationalize their curricula and to be linked to a global network of educators; and

Goal 5: to facilitate institutional linkages as well as visiting scholar and other exchange programs on an international level.