The College of Education at Missouri State is responsible for the administration of many special projects and initiatives:

Project Access:
Project ACCESS provides autism resource information to public schools in the form of on-site and telephone consultations, as well as support via internet.  In addition, Project ACCESS designs autism specific professional development opportunities and trains professional credentialed individuals to present these courses through Missouri's RPDCs. These trainings are offered to Missouri school district staff and educators who work with youngsters ages 0-21 years, who experience Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and related disabilities.  On-site child specific consultations can be arranged through the use of Missouri Autism Consultants and district staff can be trained to be In-district Autism Consultants.

Blindness Skills Specialist Program:

Child Development Center:
The mission of the Missouri State Child Development Center is to provide a learning laboratory for students to observe young children and to participate in a high quality developmentally appropriate early childhood program for children 6 weeks to 5 years old.  The Center experience allows to students to link educational theory with practice.  The Center includes a high quality program for children of university students, faculty and staff, and the community, research opportunities and a commitment to diversity.

Project Diverse:

Institute for School Improvement:
Located at Missouri State University (MSU), the Institute for School Improvement (ISI) is a research arm of the College of Education. The Dean of the College of Education serves as head of the Institute and a full-time senior faculty member serves as director of research and evaluation. The director and ISI staff, including faculty associates and graduate assistants, work collaboratively with school and community partners to design, implement, and evaluate projects that link theory and research to practice. Among its goal, ISI strives to:

• Improve student learning and educational practices.
• Contribute to the development of sound educational policy.
• Create and field test evidence-based practices for teaching and school leadership.
• Generate new knowledge and improvements in theory.
• Facilitate dialogue and mutual beneficial relationships among educators and researchers.
• Initiate and respond to requests for project proposals.
• Support the continuing professional development of teachers, administrators, and other educational personnel.
• Develop, use, and promote trustworthy methods for conducting educational research and evaluation.
• Assure protection of human subjects through highly ethical and clearly defined methodologies for inquiry.

• Enhance dissemination of research findings and evaluation results to practitioners, policymakers and other researchers.

Hispanic Initiative:
The COE Hispanic Educational Access Initiative is a community outreach project that provides communities and schools serving Hispanic youth and their families with identified services and support.  The MSU College of Education has identified a need for students pursuing educational degrees in the areas of teaching, counseling and school administration with field experiences and clinical practice in more ethnically diverse settings.  Currently two school districts in southwest Missouri with significant Hispanic enrollments, Monett and Verona, have been identified for these supports.  Preservice teachers as well as other students desiring to work with Hispanic youth through the CASL Program are provided transportation (10 trips per semester) to these school districts to tutor, mentor and interact with Hispanic students under the supervision of a coordinator from MSU and teachers from the districts.

Literacy Center:
The Literacy Center supports a variety of programs and projects that promote individual and family literacy throughout southwest Missouri. The Center works with University students, faculty, community groups, organizations and area P-12 schools to develop and deliver these programs to children and families.

Regional Professional Development Center (RPDC):

STARRS:

Teaching Academy: