Early Outcomes of the GEAR UP Program. Fianl Report

摘要

In 1998, Congress authorized the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) program. The purpose of the program is to foster increased knowledge, expectations, and preparation for postsecondary education among low-income students and their families. GEAR UP projects may provide services to students, parents and teachers at high-poverty schools with at least 50 percent of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch. Services may include: tutoring, mentoring, college field trips, career awareness, colleges-readiness counseling, classes, meetings, parent education about access to higher education, curriculum reform, and teacher training. GEAR UP is based on a model of providing services to an entire grade cohort, and grantees are required to offer services to all students in the target grade or grades according to their needs, but individual participation is voluntary. GEAR UP services must begin no later than the seventh grade. The GEAR UP model also stresses partnerships of schools, districts, community organizations and postsecondary institutions. The first grants were awarded in August of 1999. Most of the first GEAR UP grantees began by serving sixth- or seventh-graders in fall of 1999, with the intention of providing continuing services to this cohort of students as they progressed through high school.