The GEARUP SCORES! Partnership announces that it has received notice of a seven-year $21.6 million grant starting with the 2008-2009 school year!

GEARUP (Gaining Early Awareness & Readiness in Undergraduate Programs) is a federal college awareness and readiness initiative for economically disadvantaged youth administered through the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Post-Secondary Education.

The Partnership’s primary partners are the University of Cincinnati (UC), Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS), the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative (CYC), Cincinnati State Community & Technical College, and Parents for Public Schools of Greater Cincinnati (PPSGC). Partners providing additional support include The Enquirer, the Cincinnati REDS, and the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Partner for Achieving School Success (PASS) center in the UC College of Education Criminal Justice, & Human Services (CECH), under the direction of Dr. Steffi Cappel, serves as the partnership’s lead agency and provides administrative and fiscal leadership and oversight.

This grant will provide supplementary educational services to more than 3,000 sixth and seventh grade students in 31 targeted CPS elementary schools beginning in January of 2009. GEARUP SCORES! will then follow this cohort of students over the next five school years until they become 11th and 12th graders fully prepared to 'take off from the educational runway'. The goal is for all members of this cohort to ultimately graduate from post-secondary educational institutions.

GEARUP SCORES! will work to accomplish this goal through:

• academic preparation of students in math, science, and literacy,
• active engagement of students in college-access opportunities, and
• support of parents, families, and students with necessary resources to ensure that students remain in school and develop the confidence, skills, and positive attitude to become college graduates.

Specific support services will include academic intervention (through in-class/in-school and out-of-class/out-of-school tutoring), college awareness and advising activities, dropout prevention counseling/mentoring, and parental involvement training/support provided by a full-time staff of 20-30 skilled and dedicated professionals.

The GEARUP SCORES! partners previously collaborated successfully on the Cincinnati GEARUP Success Partnership which served more than 4,000 CPS students in grades seven through twelve from 2002 through 2008.