Drury offers tuition break for SPS teachers working in high poverty schools
Drury University is offering a tuition break on graduate school for teachers who work in Springfield schools with the highest concentration of families struggling to make ends meet.
The Drury University and Title I School Partner Grant offers eligible teachers from Springfield Public Schools a 50% reduction in tuition for graduate-level courses toward a master's degree in education.
Teachers must work in a Title I school, a federal designation based on the high number of students enrolled who also qualify for free or reduced price school meals, a national measure of poverty.
Applications are due by July 1 each year.
“At Drury, we believe teachers should be prepared to educate the whole child, from academics, emotional intelligence and physical well-being,” said Natalie Precise, dean of the School of Education and Child Development, in a Thursday news release. “We also recognize Title 1 schools are especially in need of educators who can provide well-rounded, highly skilled instruction. Through this partnership, we can make those foundational tools more accessible to teachers.”
Abby Whisnant, a first-grade teacher at Fremont Elementary, is a recipient of the grant. She will graduate from Drury in May with a master's degree in integrated learning with an emphasis in language and literacy.
In a news release, she called the grant a “blessing and a dream.”
“In Title 1 there’s a lot of research to back the data that entering students’ literacy levels are far below that of their higher socioeconomic counterparts. So being in a Title 1 school, I wanted to take classes that would help me develop my literacy instruction to help these kids out,” Whisnant said, in the release.
To qualify for the grant, teachers must work full-time in a Title I school in SPS and must continue to work there for two years after completing the degree.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Drury offers tuition break for SPS teachers seeking master's degrees
