SECTION II: Narrative Information

3. What barriers or problems have you encountered in administering your grant, and how have you addressed these problems?

The Chicago GEAR UP Alliance’s efforts to build and sustain a multi-layered, broad-based coalition of support for teachers, students, parents and families in school-university networks across the city of Chicago represents an ambitious ongoing agenda. The achievements made to date are noteworthy and the potential is outstanding. In our Year 5 Annual Performance Report we summarized the challenges in administering the grant over the first five years of the project. The information below reflects new developments in addressing those challenges.

Data Collection: We have made a great deal of progress this year in accessing student information and other Chicago Public School data by establishing strong relationships with individual school leaders. Collection of uniform data across all schools is difficult because there are no standard district protocols for sharing data. The CPS Office of High School Programs and the new Department of Postsecondary Education are working closely with us to ensure that we have the data needed. The latter office in particular has been helpful. We worked closely with the Department of Postsecondary Education in writing the proposal for a new GEAR UP project and are confident that we will be able to continue to access the necessary data in the future.

Changes in school structures: New initiatives at the Chicago Public Schools have resulted in changes in the composition of several of our schools. A number of schools across the city have been closed over the past several years which resulted in a large influx of students from non-GEAR UP elementary schools into a number of GEAR UP high schools. Michele Clarke Middle School is in the process of becoming Michele Clarke Preparatory School, a selective high school offering an International Baccalaureate Program. The Gates Foundation funded the creation of several small schools within specific high schools. This had a direct effect at the Orr Multiplex where two new schools opened and one closed, resulting in a shift in students and faculty in addition to the complexities of building effective, collaborative relationships with new school administrators. Similarly, there is a new Naval Academy at Senn High School. GEAR UP has worked with schools throughout these times of change. Turnover in teaching staff and tension and distraction that result from changes of this magnitude have made the progress of the work more difficult.

In another instance of unexpected change, GEAR UP has had an extremely positive impact. Renaissance 2010, a city initiative that seeks to involve more business and community partners in the running of small schools has a goal of opening 100 new schools. A group of teachers proposed a new school, Uplift, to be opened at Arai Middle School (a current GEAR UP school). The proposal written by GEAR UP teachers and community members is for a school that embodies the goals of GEAR UP-high standards and expectations for students, rigorous curricula that is connected to real world applications, and genuine involvement by parents in student success.

Following Cohorts Into High School: Last year we reported on ways in which we have addressed the challenges of serving students who do not attend GEAR UP High Schools. In many cases these students have achieved at a high level and are accepted into one of the selective CPS high schools. Unfortunately, the success of these students does not become part of the pool of GEAR UP student achievement data. At the GEAR UP high schools, another challenge remains as we serve a subset of students, our GEAR UP cohort. In an effort to expand the numbers of students we could legitimately identify as GEAR UP students at these GEAR UP high schools, our high school specialty group developed criteria for participation. These criteria were rigorous and required a student to participate in five or more GEAR UP events. While many students participated in GEAR UP activities, not all students who were new to the program completed the requirements to be identified as a GEAR UP student.

Current GEAR UP Students Post-Grant Period: Our first cohort of seniors will graduate at the end of this GEAR UP project. For these students, GEAR UP began in seventh grade and continued throughout their high school career. We have been concerned about ways to meet the needs of current GEAR UP students who are not able to be written in to a new proposal but who have worked hard and have anticipated that GEAR UP would be there for them through high school. The Chicago Public School Office of Post Secondary Education has agreed to ensure that certain services in career development and exposure to postsecondary options are made available to our current GEAR UP students past this year. Although the activities will be less personalized and comprehensive than in the past with GEAR UP funding, we are pleased that the relationship forged with CPS will benefit these students in the future.

Calculating Unexcused Student Absences: This information is not kept by schools and we have had great difficulty in gathering this information for our GEAR UP students. Last year we reported information on the number of unexcused absences to the best of our ability but this year we have opted to report information that is collected by the schools and the district, the Chronic Truancy Rate. This rate is calculated on the number of students who were absent at least 10% of the 180 days of school. Unfortunately this rate includes excused absences and the rates for all students in the school i.e. all non-GEAR UP as well as GEAR UP students. The data may, therefore, be misleading but we have found no way to report on our GEAR UP students alone.

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