gear up summer programs

State Council of Higher Education for Virginia

January 2006 State Council of Higher Education for Virginia

GEAR UP Summer Programs



What is GEAR UP?

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



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.



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.



GEAR UP 2006-2012• GEAR UP Districts 25

• GEAR UP Schools within Districts 38

• Total Enrollment 5,986



GEAR UP VirginiaEARLY INTERVENTION COMPONENT

A. Academic Readiness Programs1. Academic-year, school-based program

a) Tutoringb) Speakers and workshops

2. Summer Programs3. Mentoring4. Neighborhood Academies5. Professional development for teachers

B. College and Financial Aid Awareness Programs 1. Publications2. Presentations 3. Pre-collegiate awareness website



Young People from High Income Families 48%

Young People from Low Income Families 7%

College Graduates by Age 24



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 1:335.

– 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.



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



The best transition programs are those that

include a variety of activities (Hertzog and

Morgan, 1999)



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 another’s curriculum and requirements.



The first day of high school is every student’s first step toward graduation!



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



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



• 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”

In Virginia



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



In Virginia

• 88 high schools have a ninth grade retention rate of 20 percent or more

Virginia Department of Education, 2004



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.



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



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



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



Assessing the Needs of your Students and Schools

1. What is unique about your ninth graders?2. What is your four-year on-time graduation rate? What

is it disaggregated by sub-populations?

3. What is your school’s ninth grade retention rate. What is it disaggregated by sub-populations?

4. What programming options are currently available for academically challenged ninth graders?



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?



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).



Planning a Effective Middle to High School Transition Program

Who

What

When

Where



Things for Consideration

Transportation

Curriculum

Partnerships



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



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



Alice J. FunkLead Regional Resource Manager

GEAR UP/ACCESS VirginiaState Council of Higher Education for Virginia

Virginia Highlands Community CollegeAbingdon, VA (276) 739-2462

[email protected]

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