What is the A+ 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 the following 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 program provides incentives for local high schools to:

• to increase student achievement
• increase attendance and graduation rates
• offer at-risk intervention
• provide technology enhancement in the curriculum
• promote rigorous coursework and preparation for success after graduation, and
• offer career guidance and interaction with business partners in the community

 A+ Eligible students have the opportunity to take advantage of up to two years of tuition and general fees if they attend a Missouri eligible Vocational/Technical School or Community College~