by Kendall Newton
Contributing writer
The Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library at Southeastern is now the home of the Albert H. Brigance Curriculum and Assessment Center, a curriculum resource center for elementary education majors.
The grand opening reception will be held during homecoming week activities on Thursday, Sept. 27, from 2-4 p.m. Anyone may attend.
According to The Magnolia, the university’s alumni magazine, the Brigance family donated a grant worth $230,000.
Part of the funds were used to build and stock the center while the rest of the money was divided between the Brigance Endowed Lectureship, the existing Brigance Scholarship and an endowment to keep the center’s materials current and maintained.
Director of Libraries Sharon Morrison said that Albert H. Brigance is an alumnus of Southeastern who wrote the internationally acclaimed Brigance Diagnostic Inventory of Basic Skills and the Brigance Diagnostic Inventory of Early Development.
These materials assist elementary teachers in the diagnosis and assessment of basic skills such as reading and math.
The Brigance Center will hold six sets of Brigance’s assessment tools, as well as standard children’s and young adult fiction and non-fiction books, reference books, teacher resources and other assessment and curriculum tools to be used primarily by elementary education majors, according to Morrison
Construction of the center began at the end of July 2012.
Morrison said that nothing like The Brigance Center has ever existed at Southeastern and the materials will greatly benefit the elementary education program at the school.
“We are teaching our students to become teachers,” she said.
Courtesy photo by Katy Ann Glover
The Albert H. Brigance Curriculum and Assessment Center, a curriculum resource center for elementary education majors, is located on the first floor of the Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library beside the computer lab.