About A+ Schools Program
The A+ Schools Program was created in 1993 by state law as an incentive for improving Missouri’s high schools. The primary goal of the A+ Schools Program is to ensure that all students who graduate from Missouri high schools are well prepared to pursue advanced education and/or employment.
The A+ Schools Program is designed to accomplish that imperative. “The A+ Schools Program will mobilize an intensive partnership among high schools, community colleges, students, teachers, parents, labor, businesses, and communities to give these students the motivation, skills, and knowledge to graduate from high school. It will create an innovative and well-designed path from high school to high skill, high wage jobs.”
(Excerpt from a speech on World Class Schools for June 5, 2008)
The impact of this program has proven to be phenomenal. There are now 364designated A+ high schools across the state.
There has been a reduction in the drop out rate and an increase in the graduation rate in designated A+ schools as compared to the state as a whole. A+ high schools are providing more rigorous coursework as a result of the A+ program and students are rising to the challenge. The A+ Schools Program has produced thousands of successful students.
One successful young man used his A+ eligibility to attend St. Louis Community College where he enrolled in the Ford ASSET program. He graduated and is now a Ford Transmission Specialist and Diesel Certified Technician. He used A+ to obtain a degree that led him back home where he is gainfully employed at a local business.
Another student used her A+ eligibility to attend Moberly Area Community College and earn an Associates Degree in Nursing. She then went on to enroll, at her own expense, at the University of Missouri where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing in December 2006. She is now a Registered Nurse in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at the University Hospitals in Columbia.