The 2013 GEAR UP National Conference will be in San Francisco this year, and we are excited to share conference information and registration. This national convening of GEAR UP professionals, parents, students, policymakers, and community partners is coordinated by the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP) and planned in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of this conference is to highlight the importance of education/community partnerships and the accomplishments of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP). This conference also serves to facilitate the forging of new alliances among faculty, to help attendees learn about other federal and foundation-sponsored college awareness efforts, to learn about other academic and student support programs, and to find new ways to engage local communities, businesses and professional associations in the work of GEAR UP partnerships. The conference is especially relevant to education practitioners, business leaders and policymakers who wish to learn more about creating and sustaining education collaboratives that can help improve public education and promote student academic achievement.

Roll Call of the GEAR UP States

The Roll Call of the GEAR UP States is a much-anticipated tradition at the Conference. Each state is called, celebrated, and cheered by the audience as a way to welcome all participants to an exciting few days of learning and sharing.

Concurrent Sessions

The conference program includes concurrent sessions focused on impacting middle school and high school students, their families, faculty and administrators, student services and college access professionals, program evaluators, parent involvement coordinators, business and community partners, and education policymakers. Sessions will include panels of experts, researchers, practitioners, how-to presentations, research presentations, and descriptions of the most effective GEAR UP practices. These sessions will present proven models and promising practices.

Plenary Sessions

Plenary sessions serve as the core of the conference curriculum and are designed to provide the context for concurrent session dialogues. Plenary sessions will feature nationally recognized individuals in the field of education and workforce development, as well as educational policymakers, political appointees, congressional staff, business leaders, and others who champion the cause of improving public education and making postsecondary education more accessible to underrepresented communities.

2013 NCCEP/GEAR UP Youth Congress
Sponsored by Texas Instruments

NCCEP’s Youth Congress is a youth leadership program that implements a student-focused curriculum, blending leadership development with life skills and strategies for increased learning. The Youth Congress is part of NCCEP’s Annual Conference being held this year in San Francisco from July 14 – 17, 2013.
GEAR UP youth who participate in the Youth Congress will have the opportunity to experience a professional conference while interacting and learning with other students from around the country. The students will learn strategies for increasing learning capacity, as well as relationship and communication skill-building. They will also experience leadership skill development, while strengthening their confidence to effectively tell their story.
GEAR UP Programs that wish to register students to participate in the 2013 Youth Congress must first register the student as part of the regular NCCEP Annual Conference registration. In order to be fully registered, the GEAR UP Program Director (or designee) must coordinate the completion of the necessary permission forms and guidelines for youth to participate. These forms can be completed and submitted prior to registration, or you can find a link to the forms as part of the registration.

For any questions or to learn more contact NCCEP’s Director of National Programs,Diane_Charles@edpartnerships.org. 
Click Here to download the 2013 form.

Post-Conference Events

NCCEP Evaluators’ Institute

Evaluators’ Institute 101 – The Basics of GEAR UP Evaluation

Wednesday, July 17 • 1:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Session Description: Evaluation has always been a necessary component of administrating a GEAR UP grant. While we often think of the U.S. Department of Education’s Annual Performance Report (APR) when it comes to evaluating GEAR UP, it is important to realize that this tool alone does not provide the depth and breadth needed to adequately evaluate individual GEAR UP programs or entire GEAR UP partnerships. Other evaluation is needed to continually improve our work and demonstrate the effectiveness of the GEAR UP program.
This workshop will provide participants with:
• An understanding of the GEAR UP Annual Performance Report (APR) and how to conduct effective program evaluation beyond the APR.
• An understanding of the types of program evaluations their GEAR UP grant should be undertaking.
• Tips for negotiating relationships with other GEAR UP program and institutional staff.
• An opportunity to interact with and learn from experienced GEAR UP evaluators.
• Materials and suggested topical resources for further exploration following the Institute.
Facilitated by GEAR UP evaluators, this session will provide new GEAR UP evaluators with a foundation for their critical evaluation work. Materials will be provided.

Who Should Attend? Evaluators new to the field or new to GEAR UP are encouraged to attend this session. A basic understanding of GEAR UP and evaluation methods is desirable, but not required.

Evaluators’ Institute 201 – An Introduction to Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses for GEAR UP Evaluators 
Wednesday, July 17 • 1:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Session Description: GEAR UP evaluation activities hold much promise to be more than a simple exercise of collecting and reporting APR data. However, once you have the data there are so many options for analyzing and reporting. Join seasoned GEAR UP evaluators and analysts to learn about specific quantitative and qualitative methodologies for analyzing GEAR UP data to answer some questions about your program.
Through the sharing of analytical knowledge by the GEAR UP evaluator community, this workshop will provide participants with:

Evaluators’ Institute 301 – Creating Comparison Groups through Propensity Score Matching 
Wednesday, July 17 • 1:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Session Description: GEAR UP evaluation has become more rigorous over the past few years. Grantees are encouraged to use comparison groups to analyze GEAR UP data. Given the limitations on educational research for experimental studies, Propensity Score Matching is a leading method for creating comparison groups for data analyses. To advance GEAR UP evaluation, GEAR UP grantees must evaluate their data in ways to answer questions about program effectiveness.

U.S. Department of Education GEAR UP Sessions

Annual Performance Report 
Wednesday, July 17 • 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM

The U.S. Department of Education will provide technical assistance designed to assist grantees in completing an Annual Performance Report (APR). Each grantee’s annual and cumulative result has a direct impact on the future of the GEAR UP program as appropriations are connected to program results aggregated from individual project data. This session will review the process for completing the web-based APR.

Documenting the Match
Wednesday, July 17 • 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM

This session is designed for GEAR UP project directors and budget representatives who want to learn about the rules and regulations associated with matching GEAR UP funds. The session will explore allowable, allocable and reasonable matching purchases as well as unallowable costs that grantees should avoid.

Final Performance Report 
Wednesday, July 17 • 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

The U.S. Department of Education will provide information to grantees regarding the closeout of their grants. This session will include information about how to request a no-cost extension period and detailed information about the Final Performance Report that each grantee is required to file at the end of the grant performance period.

Click HERE or a complete conference description and registration information.

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On Tuesday July 24, members of the GEAR UP community held a briefing on capitol hill entitled: GEAR UP: The College Access Program that Drives Education and Economic Success in Your Community. The briefing, hosted by NCCEP, was convened to share success stories and to learn why GEAR UP is widely viewed as the most effective solution for increasing academic achievement, high school graduation rates, college enrollment rates, and economic development in high poverty communities.

Congressman Chaka Fattah (PA‐2)

Congressman Ruben Hinojosa (TX‐15)

Lisa Brady Gill, Texas Instruments (invited)

Shelley Davis, Director, California GEAR UP

Hector Garza, Alumnus from Texas Region One ESC GEAR UP

Joshua Sparks, Alumnus from GEAR UP Kentucky

Nathan R. Monell, Executive Director, NCCEP (Moderator)

As one of the featured speakers, California GEAR UP Director Shelley Davis shared the success of GEAR UP in California and also how GEAR UP is addressing the state’s education challenges. Here is an excerpt:

In our state, the challenges for achieving educational equity are unprecedented. Funding for K-12 public schools remains a critical challenge while tuition and fees for postsecondary education continues to rise. The nearly four million students who are Latino or African-American have a 1 in 20 chance of graduating from a California public university. Clearly, our prosperity is dependent on us changing these odds. With an increasingly diverse student population and an ever widening achievement gap, the GEAR UP mandate to serve low-income students in high poverty communities – most of whom are African-American and Latino –positions us to address this challenge 24 hours a day every day.

In California, GEAR UP funds have supported the State grant and over 50 partnership projects since 1999. The California State grant was funded for its third six-year cycle on October 1, 2011. Working in partnership with other college access programs and initiatives, our program goal is: Develop and sustain the organizational capacity of middle schools to prepare all students for high school and higher education through a statewide network of support for adults — counselors, faculty, school leaders and families –who influence middle school students.

We believe that with enhanced organizational capacity, schools will be able to educate all students to the high levels of mastery required for college admission and graduation as well as for the increasingly technological world where the contributions of graduates are needed for both individual and societal benefit.

The briefing included testimony from student alumnus and representatives Fattah and Hinojosa, all sharing the power and impact GEAR UP has and continues to have across the country in creating a college-going culture.

For more information on GEAR UP success stories, check out the GEAR UP Works! blog prepared by NCCEP.

Dear GEAR UP Supporters,

National GEAR UP Week is next week!

Here is Congressman Fattah’s official invitation and an update on our National GEAR UP week schedule.

It’s critical that next week be a national celebration of GEAR UP, with activities at sites across the country demonstrating the value of our programs and the support they have in our communities. Please let me know as soon as you can if you can do one of the six focus activities.  We have a team of people here ready to help you make your GEAR UP Week activity a success.

As a reminder, GEAR UP Week focus activities are:

• Post a GEAR UP Dreams Wall – butcher paper for your students to post their dreams and goals
• Host a celebration event
• Host a lunchtime celebration at school
• Write and send letters to your Members of Congress
• Sign and deliver an oversized thank you card to your Congressperson’s district office
• Create a GEAR UP Chain of paper links representing the students and families you serve

And here’s our master planning schedule for the week:

Monday, October 24th – NATIONAL GEAR UP WEEK BEGINS!

• Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Congressman Fattah usher us in with a video message. (Stay tuned for a link – note that it will be available all week.)
• NCCEP’s National GEAR UP Online Week Call to Action launches: 1000 emails and 100 calls to Members of Congress in support of college access.
• Puerto Rico GEAR UP’s Dream Wall activity begins
• Is your action on Monday? Let us know and we’ll list it and help promote it!

Tuesday, October 25th

• National GEAR UP Week actions across the country
• Is your action on Tuesday? Let us know and we’ll list it and help promote it!

Wednesday, October 26th

• National GEAR UP Week actions across the country
• Is your action on Wednesday? Let us know and we’ll list it and help promote it!

Thursday, October 27th

• National GEAR UP Week actions across the country
• Is your action on Thursday? Let us know and we’ll list it and help promote it!

Friday, October 28th

• National GEAR UP Actions across the country
• Is your action on Friday? Let us know and we’ll list it and help promote it!

National GEAR UP Week is all about celebrating GEAR UP and all of the hard work you and your team does to help your community of students get into college and succeed. Let us know how you plan to participate.  We’ll be there to help every step of the way.

If you are celebrating in California, email us and tell us what you are doing: sean.brennan@ucop.edu

Today, the Department of Education released the FY2011 slate of states and partnerships that will receive funding from the federal GEAR UP program. GEAR UP, or Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, delivers college access and readiness services to low-income, primarily first generation students for a 6 or 7-year period, starting no later than 7th grade. GEAR UP serves approximately 750,000 students each year, and helps students achieve at or above grade level standards, understand the college admissions process including financial aid, and graduate high school prepared for college-level coursework. Nationally, GEAR UP students apply and enroll in post-secondary education at a higher rate than their peers.

This announcement is shared by those of us in California with mixed emotions. Welcome to new and returning grantees. To those who will no longer be of service as a GEAR UP grantee, know that we will miss the interaction and dialogue we have shared. We  hope our paths cross as we continue to press on in service to students, families and communities. There is much work to be done.

Sincerely- California GEAR UP

Of the 296 applications submitted in July, 19 states and 47 partnerships received funding. Although, the total number of 2011 awards is down significantly from the number expected, this is a consequence of partnership grants requesting larger sums of funding to serve larger cohorts of students. These GEAR UP grantees will be nurturing the next generation of college graduates, with many focusing on the Department of Education’s broader agenda of working with persistently lowest-achieving schools and developing strategies to use State longitudinal data systems to deliver reliable and comprehensive information on participant outcomes.

The FY11 slate comes on the heels of a $20 million cut to the GEAR UP program, negotiated during the Fiscal Year 2011 budget debate between Congress and the White House. The funding cut will eliminate more than 40,000 low-income students from the program, and many will have no other way to receive the supports they need to put them on track for postsecondary education.

In President Obama’s FY12 budget, he requests a $20 million increase for GEAR UP, restoring the program to the FY10 funding level. The House and Senate markups as of today indicate flat funding for FY12, with no restoration of funding lost in FY11.

Just before leaving for their August recess, members of Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011. While the full implications of the Act are not yet clear, one thing is crystal clear: GEAR UP is at risk.

When Congress re-convenes in early September to pick up their budget and appropriations work, they’ll be tasked with cutting billions of dollars from the federal budget. GEAR UP and other college access programs may well be on the chopping block.

Our members of Congress and the Obama administration need to hear from each and every American concerned about college access and committed to efficient, effective, locally-driven, and family-focused programs like GEAR UP. Now is the time to make our voices heard: protect the future by protecting funding for GEAR UP and other college access programs.

Here’s where you come in. I need you to act TODAY.

Please click here to sign the petition asking the President to stand up for college access during the upcoming appropriations battles.

Signing the petition adds your voice to the GEAR UP chorus, and is a first step down the road to protecting this critical program.

The flagship program in NCCEP’s Youth Services programming is the Youth Leadership Summit. In an effort to include student perspectives and the opinions of young people, NCCEP created national opportunities for youth to participate in the NCCEP/GEAR UP Annual Conference. More than 200 GEAR UP high school students have participated in the Youth Leadership Summit since the inception of the program in 2003. NCCEP has been partnering with GEAR UP for Excellence to present the Summit since 2005.

Blending leadership development with the experience of participating in a professional conference, the Summit teaches participants how to be advocates for their schools and communities, empowering them to become the voice for their peers. Youth leaders, known as GEAR UP Scholars, work together to compile a Summit report focused on what educators should consider as they design strategies and programs for increasing student achievement.

The culmination of the Summit, and the highlight of the NCCEP/GEAR UP Annual Conference, is the presentation of the report to the conference attendees. For a half an hour, the Scholars are given the stage to voice their opinions and share their ideas. Conference attendees frequently comment that the Summit report brings a fresh and energized perspective that reminds them why they became engaged in the education arena.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO!  YLS 2010

The National Council for Community and Education Partnerships has established the Dr. Peter A. Dual International Fellowship Program in honor of NCCEP founding board member and chairman, who was a champion of providing students and young professionals the experience of global education.

The program was created to develop research projects and education initiatives that will better prepare students to operate in a global society. As part of the NCCEP mission, this project seeks to expand education opportunities for low income students and their families in the US and Mexico, as well as other countries.

The fellowship will be awarded to recent college graduates and young professionals who plan to become engaged with international education development and implementation.

Applications will be accepted from individuals within the US, Mexico, and other countries in which NCCEP has an international presence. For more information contact marianafranco@edpartnerships.org or visit the website.

Today kicked off the first day of one of the largest conferences of college access and education professionals in the entire country.  Among many highlights of the opening session, Congressman Chaka Fattah, the author of the original GEAR UP legislation, spoke about the importance of “Investing in smart kids, not just smart bombs.” See the video interview of the congressman on our Twitter feed: http://yfrog.com/n6w81z

The Honorable Martha Kanter, Under Secretary, US Department of Education added further support for GEAR UP and similar innovative programs across the country. Highlights of her speech include:

“GEAR UP supports the President’s vision of having the worlds most educated workforce by 2020…the work of GEAR UP has never mattered more.”

“Education is the premier civil rights issue of our time.”

“GEAR UP along with other complementary programs and key collaborations…a whole community comes to the table in support of Secretary Duncan’s ‘Cradle to Career’ agenda.”

Dr. Kanter bolstered the crowd with her words and further supported GEAR UP’s mission.

Dr. Kanter shared the importance of institutionalizing what we know that is working with GEAR UP.  Their efforts are guided by the goal of President Obama for America: to have the best educated workforce in the world by 2020. Dr. Kanter is personally motivated by the acknowledgment of our President that “education is the civil rights issue of our time.”

Shelley Davis Director, CA GEAR UP

Other speakers include NCCEP International President Hector Garza, Laura Rendon, Weiya Liang, and California’s own Shelley Davis.

The “Father of GEAR UP” Congressman Chaka Fattah, continues his reign as our champion in the House and now Chair of House Appropriations Committee. He shared encouraging news from President Obama as he continues to extol our program success. The Congressman graciously acknowledged the presence of the delegation from Mexico, including comments celebrating GEAR UP expansion in the international community under Dr. Garza’s leadership. Words of wisdom: “Ignorance is far more costly than education”.

Shelley Davis Director, CA GEAR UP

Follow us on Twitter for up to the minute happenings and to see the great video of Congressman Fattah talk about California GEAR UP.

The lunch plenary was punctuated with an award for Congressmen Ruben Hinojosa for his outstanding support for GEAR UP. He was unable to make it due to flooding in his home district, but his staff accepted on his behalf presented by Roberto Rodriguez of the President’s Domestic Policy Council.

UPDATE:

Many of the morning and afternoon breakout sessions on the first day have included:

• Customizable online education communities with EduGuide.
• Vermont Student Assistance Corp: career and college planning resources for middle and high school students, as well as adults. Includes scholarships and grants.
• Oregon GEAR UP Principal Leadership Program in conjunction with Education Partnerships Inc. shares leadership strategies for principals in 12 clusters with systematic, school-wide, and local site planning to create a sustainable school culture.
• The awesome staff at Wooster High School in Reno, NV shared how they engaged families and parents throughout the community through detailed engagement plans, resources such as EdLine, Connect Ed, and Infinite Campus, use of bilingual community reps, mentoring programs, and engaging community parters as key collaborators.
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens presented by Franklin-Covey. The training attended by mostly students talked much about taking control of teens lives, improving relationships, finding balance, and long term planning.
• SAISD GEAR UP advanced mathematics coursework to prepare students for college. Concepts from Agile Mind.

UPDATE:

We also had a chance to meet with many of the gallery presenters such as:

• Data Management specialists CoBro Consulting.
• Our good friends over at Education Catch the Dream showed us La Plática de Prosperidad which helps engage parents and families.
• More to come….

Check back soon as we continue to update. Let us know what you think!

California GEAR UP Celebrates 10 Years of creating college-going culture across the state of California. Our partner organization, National Council for Community and Education Partnerships, produced a great video highlighting the success of the last 10 years and laying out GEAR UP plan for the future.

Watch the video here:

NCCEP 10 YEARS VIDEO