GEAR UP Summer Programs

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GEAR UP Summer Programs

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What is GEAR UP?

• Gaining
• Early
• Awareness
• Readiness for
• Undergraduate
• Programs

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State GEAR-UP Program Goals

• Competitive six-year matching grants that must
  include both early intervention and scholarship
  components to
• increase high school graduation and college-going
  rates of students from low-income families
• ensure that middle and high school students and
  their families have the information that they
  need to prepare academically for college
• enable students from low-income families to
  attend college by providing scholarships to
  students in need.

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GEAR UP Virginia
THE COHORT APPROACH GEAR UP serves all
students in seventh grade who are at a
participating school in which at least 50 of the
students are eligible for free and reduced-price
lunch.
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GEAR UP 2006-2012

• GEAR UP Districts 25
• GEAR UP Schools within Districts 38
• Total Enrollment 5,986

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GEAR UP Virginia

• EARLY INTERVENTION COMPONENT
• A. Academic Readiness Programs
• 1. Academic-year, school-based program
• a) Tutoring
• b) Speakers and workshops
• 2. Summer Programs
• 3. Mentoring
• 4. Neighborhood Academies
• 5. Professional development for teachers
• B. College and Financial Aid Awareness Programs
• 1. Publications
• 2. Presentations
• 3. Pre-collegiate awareness website

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College Graduates by Age 24

• Young People from High Income Families 48
• Young People from Low Income Families 7

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FACTS

• A high school counselor, on average, spends 4 to
  20 minutes each year with high school students.
• In Virginia, the ratio of high school counselors
  to students is 1335.
• In families with an income of less than 25,000,
  40 of the students never attain a college
  degree.
• In families with over 75,000, only 16 never
  attain a college degree.
• Almost 29 of students entering 9th grade never
  graduate.
• Of those who go on to college, 53 go immediately
  after high school.

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2007 Summer Programs

• Transition programs in the southwest
• Alice Funk, Southwest Regional Manager, GEAR UP
• Joan Hart, Buchanan County Public Schools,
  Guidance Counselor
• College sponsored programs across the state
• Dr. Gabrielle Peltier, Norfolk State University,
  School of Education

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The best transition programs are those that
include a variety of activities (Hertzog and
Morgan, 1999)
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Activities that

• Provided students and parents information about
  the new school
• provided students social support during the
  transition and
• brought school personnel together to learn about
  one anothers curriculum and requirements.

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• The first day of high school is every students
  first step toward graduation!

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• or as is the case for one in every three students
  in this country, their first step toward
  dropping out.

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Across the United States

• Every 29 seconds another student drops out of
  high school
• 1 million students drop out annually
• Among all students 1 in 3 fail to graduate on
  time
• 1 of 2 African-American, Hispanic, and Native
  American students do not graduate on time
• The Silent Epidemic, 2006

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In Virginia

• Of every 100 high school freshman in Virginia
  about 74 percent graduate on time as compared
  with 68 percent nationally
• Only 63.6 percent of African American students
  complete ninth grade on-time
• Only 69.1 percent of Hispanic students complete
  ninth grade on-time
• 80.7 percent of white students complete ninth
  grade on-time

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In Virginia

• The rate of grade retention is highest in grade 9
  at 13 percent. This is about twice the
  percentage of students held back in grades 8 or
  10
• Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute,
  2004

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In Virginia

• 88 high schools have a ninth grade retention rate
  of 20 percent or more
• Virginia Department of
  Education, 2004

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• Research has found that effective middle to high
  school transition program can reduce the barriers
  to learning thus decreasing drop out rates and
  increasing retention rates.

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SOAR Goals and Objectives

• Decrease the number of GEAR UP students who are
  retained in grade 8 or 9
• Increase the mathematics proficiency of GEAR UP
  students
• Increase the language arts proficiency of GEAR UP
  students
• Decrease the number of GEAR UP students who
  dropout

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• Increase the number of GEAR UP student who
  graduate from high school
• Increasing college readiness of GEAR UP high
  school graduates.
• Increase the number of GEAR UP graduates who go
  to college
• Increase GEAR UP students and their families
  knowledge of college preparation and financing

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Building a Leadership Team

• Middle School Teachers
• High School Teachers
• Middle and High School Administrators
• Central Office Administrators
• Representatives from College and Universities
• Businesses
• Community Organizations
• Students
• Parents

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Assessing the Needs of your Students and Schools

• What is unique about your ninth graders?
• What is your four-year on-time graduation rate?
  What is it disaggregated by sub-populations?
• What is your schools ninth grade retention rate.
  What is it disaggregated by sub-populations?
• What programming options are currently available
  for academically challenged ninth graders?

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• 5. What academic interventions are currently in
  place when ninth graders begin to struggle?
• 6. What data do you gather on ninth grade
  success? What additional data are you
  considering collecting if any?
• 7. What initiatives are currently in place to
  provide for effective transition for students
  from grade 8 to grade 9?
• 8. What strategies are in place to assist ninth
  graders who are struggling readers?

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• Every Middle to High School Transition Program
  should contain one or more of the following
• A plan(s) to create enhanced transition for
  students from grade 8 to grade 9
• A plan(s) to identify ninth grade students at
  risk of failure
• A plan(s) to implement instructional and
  organizational strategies that focus on student
  motivation and academic success
• A plan(s) to focus on improving literacy among
  ninth grade students.
• (Source Reinventing the Ninth Grade, Dr. Gary
  Fields, International Center for Leadership in
  Education, 2005).

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Planning a Effective Middle to High School
Transition Program

• Who
• What
• When
• Where

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Things for Consideration

• Transportation
• Curriculum
• Partnerships

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• Schiller defined academic transition as a
  process during which institutional and social
  factors influence which students educational
  careers are positively or negatively affected by
  this movement between organizations.
• K. S. Schiller, 2004

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• A school administrator once noted although
  kindergarten is very much like first grade, grade
  5 is very much like grade 6, and grade 12 is very
  similar to the freshmen year in college, grade 8
  in the middle school is nothing like grade 9 in
  the high school

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• Alice J. Funk
• Lead Regional Resource Manager
• GEAR UP/ACCESS Virginia
• State Council of Higher Education for Virginia
• Virginia Highlands Community College
• Abingdon, VA
• [phone]
• alicefunk_at_schev.edu