About Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education
Introduction
As part of MCEE’s continued commitment to documenting and sharing its far-reaching impact, this inaugural impact report offers a dual focus: highlighting MCEE’s key accomplishments over the last year, while reflecting on five years of sustained growth, innovation, and national influence. It also features the ongoing impact of MCEE’s flagship documentary, Belonging Beyond Brown, as a central component of the broader mission to advance equity, belonging, and transformative educational practice.
The Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education (MCEE) is committed to transforming education through innovation, groundbreaking research, and meaningful partnerships. It aims to inspire and prepare the next generation of educators to lead with purpose, vision, and transformative impact.
Belonging Beyond Brown (BBB) is a documentary by MCEE, released in 2025 in partnership with the Gilead Foundation, that explores the emotional stories of displacement, resilience, and the enduring quest for justice experienced by Black educators and students before and after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. BBB is now an ongoing educational platform with expansive storytelling about belonging in education and tools to help all educators foster a more inclusive experience for students.
It means something to a student when a teacher assumes their brilliance, and does not wait to see if they are.
Dr. Daniel Black, “Belonging Beyond Brown” (Gilbert et al, 2025)
A House of History of Educators
Morehouse College was founded in 1867 with a central purpose and mission to educate Black men for careers in ministry and education. Today, with nearly 17,000 alumni representing more than 40 states and 14 countries, Morehouse College is the nation’s top producer of Black male college graduates who pursue and earn advanced degrees. The National Science Foundation has ranked Morehouse as the number one producer of Black men who go on to earn doctorates in education, science, math, computer science, the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts.
Our Vision & About the Program
The Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education aims to cultivate a highly sought-after pipeline of innovative practitioners prepared to lead with purpose, creativity, and cultural responsiveness. MCEE serves as a nationally and internationally recognized hub for educational research, thought leadership, storytelling, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, with a particular focus on the education and advancement of Black learners and historically underserved communities. Through strategic partnerships, convenings, immersive learning experiences, and multimodal approaches to teaching and research, the Center continues to shape the future of education and inspire transformative impact across the education ecosystem.
The Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education (MCEE) is an interdisciplinary hub for educational innovation, research, leadership development, and community engagement. Grounded in the values of educational excellence, belonging, and ethical leadership, the Center advances transformative approaches to teaching and learning that will have a positive impact on the education sector.
Established in 2019, MCEE enhances the academic mission of the Morehouse College Education Department by providing students with high-impact co-curricular experiences that extend learning beyond the classroom. Through research opportunities, professional development, immersive field experiences, and multimodal learning initiatives, the Center exposes students to diverse career and academic pathways across the broader education ecosystem.
The MCEE Difference
Highly effective educators must be prepared to do more than complete coursework and pass certification exams. They must know how to apply their learning through strong instruction, cultural awareness, leadership, and meaningful engagement with students and communities.
According to the Southern Education Foundation, Black students make up approximately 15% of public school students nationally, while Black teachers represent only 6.1% of the teacher workforce; Black men account for just 1.3% of public school teachers. As the nation’s only historically Black college dedicated to the education and development of men, Morehouse is uniquely positioned to help address this gap.
Through the Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education, students gain access to valuable co-curricular experiences not typically offered in traditional educator preparation programs. Unique opportunities offered to students include:
- Undergraduate research activities
- Participating in book publishing and documentary film production activities
- Presenting at national and international convenings and conferences
- Early exposure to premier graduate school programs
- National policy and practice tours
- Civic and community engagement
Together, these experiences help students strengthen their voices, broaden their perspectives, and develop the capacity to make a transformative impact in schools, communities, and society.
