Northwest Missouri State University is among a prestigious group of institutions of higher learning as a two-time recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Excellence in Teacher Education Award. The honor is bestowed by the American Association of State College and Universities (AASCU), and Northwest earned the McAuliffe Award in 2006 and 2018, making it just the third institution in the nation to receive the award two times since its inception in 2002.
The award is named in honor of Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who was killed in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster and honors institutions for excellence and innovation. Recipients have shown evidence of top-level administrative support, alignment with its institutional mission and strategic agenda, contributions to significant institutional improvements or programming, research and incorporated best practices.
Preparing outstanding educators has always been central to Northwest's mission - from it beginnings as a state normal school at the outset of the 20th century to its role today as a comprehensive public University. Since 1906, the Horace Mann Laboratory School has been a hallmark of Northwest and its teacher training program, providing an on-campus clinical teaching environment for University students while serving local children in kindergarten through sixth grade. Additionally, early childhood programs for children age 3 through pre-kindergarten are offered at the Phyllis and Richard Leet Center for Children and Families.
