About Us
Southwest Center for Educational Excellence, an education service center for southwest Missouri schools, is housed in a 8000-square-foot facility located just west of the Webb City Crowder College location. The facility includes a staff development center, a computer lab, offices, a resource center, and kitchen. The building literally belongs to member districts and may be used by them on a reservation basis. 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. One of its early missions was to develop curriculum aligned to the Show-Me Standards. In ten years, the Center has become a valuable resource for instructional support.
SCEE has become a leader in professional development for educators, curriculum and assessment, and educational reform.
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.
