Purnell School founded the McCord Grauer Center for Excellence in Teaching in 1999 to serve as a premier site for teacher training and professional development.
The Center for Excellence in Teaching has helped faculty redesign their curriculum through the funding of Teaching Center Stipends. In the past two years a number of Purnell faculty have written proposals to receive one of these stipends, and the result has been a dramatic change in student learning and understanding. Examples of these funded projects are: a collaboration among the World Cultures faculty to redesign that curriculum to include participation of the performing arts, studio arts and science departments and the conception and writing of an original play for performance by an ongoing student acting troupe.
Leaders in Education series brings national and international leaders in teaching and learning onto Purnell's campus to share their knowledge with faculty through workshops and conferences. The first of these, a workshop with Grant Wiggins, the curricular designer, attracted participants from area private and public schools.
To reach the broad audience of public schools, independent schools, charter schools and alternative schools, the Center strives to offer its programs at a low cost or free of charge. The Center has raised over 1.8 million dollars, principally in endowed funds to support these efforts.
