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“It’s not just the money,” said Jocelyn Strand, director of A+ Schools at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “A lot of these kids are first-generation college students. We often hear that never before had someone told them that they could go to college or succeed in college. Every A+ high school has an A+ coordinator who works with students and encourages them.”
The A+ Coordinator at BHS is Kevin Gerke.
Strand wants to encourage high school students and their parents to check out the A+ program. She especially wants to alert ninth graders to the advantages of signing up sooner rather than later.
“The earlier students sign up for the program, the easier it will be for them to meet the state requirements and avoid the missteps that might make them ineligible,” Strand said. “All four years of high school matter in determining eligibility.”
In the past four years, nearly 50,000 high school students graduated with A+ eligibility. The vast majority of students entering college through the A+ program are first-time, full-time degree-seeking students. The state legislature appropriates about $25 million to the program each year.
“The A+ Program is a Missouri success story,” said Chris L. Nicastro, Commissioner of Education. “Overall, schools that participate have lower dropout rates, higher GPAs, lower remediation rates, higher college entrance test scores, and a higher percentage of students continuing to postsecondary education.”
The first thing interested high school students and parents should check is whether their high schools are A+ designated. Much more than a scholarship program, the A+ Schools Program is about school improvement, and high schools must meet requirements to receive the A+ designation. These requirements aim to improve coursework rigor, to support at-risk students to lower dropout rates and to involve community stakeholders in the education process. The program also requires schools to track objectives for each student, which generates data schools can use to keep improving.
Established by state law in 1993, the A+ program is open to all public schools. Currently, 274 of Missouri’s 570 high schools are participating, and more than 100 other schools are in the process of seeking state approval.
Many schools seek designation because parents and students push for it. Communities see an A+ school just down the road and don’t understand why their students shouldn’t have the same opportunities.
Students who take part in the A+ program must meet requirements for GPA (2.5 points or higher on a 4-point scale), attendance (an overall rate of at least 95 percent for grades 9 through 12) and good citizenship (standards are set by schools and so vary). Students must also spend 50 hours doing district-supervised unpaid mentoring or tutoring (in many A+ schools, tutoring is offered as a course). Once students earn the A+ award, they have up to four years after high school graduation to use the benefit; that means graduates who do not go straight to college still have time to use their A+ award.
More information on the A+ Schools Program, including a list of A+ designated high schools, is available on the Missouri Department of Elementary and Education Web site at www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/aplus.
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