NPR visits Urban Preparatory Academy to Witness Innovative Education in KS
By Carla Eckels |
January 13, 2023
Small private school in Wichita gets big boost in helping serve its students
Wade Moore, Dean of Urban Preparatory Academy.
Wichita’s Urban Preparatory Academy was awarded a $500,000 prize.
A small private school in Kansas got a huge surprise last month. Wichita’s Urban Preparatory Academy won a half-a-million-dollar prize. The funds from the Yass foundation will be used for upgrades at the K-8 school, founded in 2014. For this edition of In The Mix, Carla Eckels starts her day at Urban Prep…
Interview Highlights:
Dean Wade Moore [Right] with Yass Prize Grant Manager Jeanne Allen [Left]CARLA ECKELS: Was this the first time the students heard about the award?WADE MOORE: Yes. We received the award [on] December 15, and I was in New York and that was the last day of school and so I did not have the opportunity to share it with them … today was the first day that they heard about it. Our school was recognized as a Yass finalist. The Yass Prize depends on four principles; it’s called STOP: sustainability, transformation, outstanding and permissionless. With the Yass Award, it shows that we are one of the top innovative schools in the nation. Ninety-nine percent of our children are on scholarships, and we work real hard to raise money so that our children have this opportunity. This little, small school in Northeast Wichita, hidden among houses. We are a very up-and-coming school.What do you plan to do with the funds?
We want to upgrade our technology. We’re still using the same technology that we used when we started the school… We want to upgrade our infrastructure to handle that online presence.
The Yass Foundation advances the four core STOP principles: Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless education. Each year, the Foundation will reward dozens of organizations, building a growing network of innovative providers that demonstrate these qualities in their commitment to new ideas, technologies, and approaches to learning that bring education into the 21st century. The Foundation is powered by the Center for Education Reform (CER) in partnership with Forbes.
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