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Governor Touts A+ Scholarship Program At Scott City High School

Jacob McCleland
/
KRCU

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon visited Scott City High School on Tuesday to congratulate that school on becoming an A+ School.

The state’s A+ scholarship program offers two-year scholarships to community colleges and some four year schools like Southeast Missouri State University and Truman State.

Nixon says 118 new schools were accredited as A+ schools in April. That means 99% of Missouri schools participate in the program.

“So we’ve moved from 50% to almost 99% in four years. So that’s good progress. I’ve got a commitment to get to 100%, and it’s a lot easier to get to 100 from 99 than it is to 100 from 50. We’re making the kind of progress that I think is going to get us there,” Nixon said.

To qualify, Nixon says students must maintain a B average, have 95% attendance and commit 50 hours per year towards mentoring.

“And so what you want to do is, you want to get these high school students not only coming to school and getting good grades but also working in the elementary schools to challenge those kids. Most of the mentoring programs have high school students going down and reading with the elementary students or working math problems with them. We’ve found it’s a good way to get younger students more challenged,” Nixon said.

Scott City superintendent Diann Ulmer believes the program has helped improve student performance.

“The standards are there. The kids know what the goals are,” Ulmer said. “When they take time to go and tutor elementary kids, they have the opportunity to be a teacher. The best way to learn is to teach somebody.”

Nearly half of Scott City High School’s graduating class of 70 students is participating in A+.

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