Welcome to Southwest Center for Educational Excellence!
Southwest Center for Educational Excellence is an education service organization serving 48 school districts and three colleges/universities in southwest Missouri. The Center impacts more than 48,000 students and 4500 educators. The spirit of cooperation lies at the heart of the consortium as members work together to develop services by combining expertise.
The Center specializes in curriculum development/implementation, professional development for educators, and educational reform. More than 200 Missouri school districts are using resources developed at Southwest Center by member teachers and curriculum specialists. Typically the Center offers an array of professional development opportunities each semester for educators, resulting in more than 5,000 registrations per year. All programs/services delivered through the consortium are based on local educational needs.
The Center was founded in 1996 in a spirit of cooperation. The idea was to network, share strategies for improving education, and avoid unnecessary duplication of services.
Whether it be in the areas of technology integration or school improvement, SCEE delivers! Numerous standards-based professional development opportunities are offered on a regular basis in locations throughout the consortium. Input and feedback from member-district personnel ensure that these programs meet local needs and are continuously improving. More than 5000 workshop registrations are processed each year!
The Center provides forums for superintendents, curriculum coordinators, non-certified personnel and other specialty groups. Member superintendents meet monthly to guide the direction of programs provided by the Center. SCEE also serves as a unified voice for its member districts on key issues with the state and provides the media with information that allows the community to see the positive side of education. In another public-relations effort, the Center sponsors a yearly Celebration of Schools banquet program, offered free to community members.
The center developed Missouri Curriculum Guides in mathematics, communication arts, science, social studies, health/physical education, and fine arts. Also offered to member districts is a powerful online curriculum management tool that allows teachers across the consortium to input and share lessons and teaching strategies. The tool also delivers the Missouri Grade-level Expectations in a database format so that lessons may be written to them. The Missouri Model Curriculum will be entered in the database as it becomes available
The Center is active in educational reform. The National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, appointed by former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, has released an urgent report to the nation called Before It’s Too Late. The report insists that “America’s students must improve their performance in mathematics and science if they are to succeed in today’s world…,” and the most direct route to improvement is “better mathematics and science teaching.” Southwest Center is meeting this challenge by working with the National Science Foundation in a five-year science/math improvement effort, the Ozark Rural Systemic Initiative.
Partnering with Missouri Southern State University and College of the Ozarks, Southwest Center offers fantastic opportunities for American history teachers through US Department of Education Teaching American History Grant Projects.