Administration

Mr. Andrew Murphy holds a BS in Elementary Education from Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, a MS in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Park University in Parkville, Missouri, and a MS in Educational Leadership from Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. He started as an ELL teacher in 2014 at Carver and has since worked as a 4^th grade, 3^rd grade, instructional coach, and vice principal before becoming Carver’s principal in the summer of 2022. 

Mr. Murphy has a passion for multicultural education, which started from the many opportunities he had to travel during his undergraduate time at Graceland University. He completed teaching practicums and student taught in Falmouth, Jamaica, Ndola, Zambia, and in Suva, Fiji. This focus on multicultural education and equity led him to apply for Teach for America, an organization that “works toward the day when every child will receive an excellent and equitable education.” After serving his two years at Carver Dual Language, as an ELL teacher and classroom teacher, he decided to stay and continue working at Carver.

At Carver, Mr. Murphy has been a part of the instructional leadership team and most recently served in a hybrid position of half-time teacher and half-time instructional coach. During these years, he was a part of a teacher-led team that made huge programmatic shifts to the dual language model used at Carver. These changes were nationally recognized as he and the team of teachers at Carver (Amanda Niedzwiecki, Morgan McPartland, Alex Ornelas, and Debbie Alexander) were recognized as national finalists for Teach for America’s Sue Lehmann Award in the fall of 2019.

Traveling is a huge passion of Mr. Murphy’s. He’s been fortunate to combine his love of traveling with his love of education through leading professional development sessions in Spain, Zambia, and throughout the United States on best practices in dual language education and teaching foundational literacy skills. Most recently, he has spent summers in Zambia mentoring teachers for HealthEd Connect’s community schools.

“I am so fortunate to be able to serve the students, families, and teachers at Carver. I have found a home at Carver because it’s a special place that not only has caring teachers, but effective teachers who have put systems in place to ensure that students are bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural by the end of sixth grade.”

In his free time, Mr. Murphy enjoys traveling, reading, playing piano, pickleball, tennis, card games, and spending time with family and friends.