SECTION II: Narrative Information

5. Describe how your project's activities and outcomes are likely to be sustained over time. What systemic changes have occurred in your school(s)?

Student Services

GEAR UP re-identification of students (previously written off as being "kids at risk") into "kids at hope" with great potential has come about through the expansion of opportunities for students to demonstrate their abilities through activities like Kids at Hope, adventure/experiential education, arts integration, Saturday programs, and after school programs. GEAR UP professional development has increased the willingness of school staff members to identify and nurture these students.

For many of the GEAR UP high schools students, discipline is a problem. One network has helped create and implement a Positive Behavioral Support program in their high school. The model emphasized the importance of articulating consistent expectations across all school settings and teaching those expectations to students. That model led to a school team that reviews discipline trends and a student peer jury responsible for mediating conflicts and resolutions.

The newly developed CPS Department of Postsecondary Education has adopted GEAR UP's approach to providing students with extensive information about higher education. CPS has also adopted the transition programs developed by GEAR UP for entry to high school. College Bridge programs will continue and will attract larger numbers of students as a result of better preparation and communication between universities and the public schools. The ability of the public schools to work closely and productively with university- and community-based partners has grown along with greater ease of collaboration across institutions. Several schools have student teams who now create and conduct activities designed to increase awareness of and success in entering college and careers. Juniors and seniors now receive guidance in their preparation, application, and enrollment in post-secondary education.

GEAR UP schools are being adopted by companies and university programs. Kraft Foods used their "Kraft Cares Day: A Day of Community Service" to interact with high school seniors and juniors in communicating the importance of post-secondary education and preparing students for interviews. John Marshall Law School faculty, staff, students and alumni will be participating in activities with a GEAR UP elementary school.

The eMentoring partnership with IBM will continue to be supported into the future at a number of GEAR UP schools. eMentoring is designed to increase student achievement in writing, and strengthen students' academic, social and leadership skills. GEAR UP partners with IBM to bring eMentoring to a number of GEAR UP schools. The program features one-to-one online mentoring between an IBM employee and a student using a web-based system specifically designed by IBM to support this program. The website is at http://www.mentorplace.org. Through MentorPlace, IBMers provide students with academic assistance while simultaneously developing supportive, caring connections. This partnership has a powerful impact not only on a school and student learning, but also on a corporation and its' employees' beliefs and expectations with regard to Chicago Public School students' abilities and futures.

The partnership between GEAR UP and Children's Memorial Hospital will also continue into the future. This partnership offers health care career experiences for eligible students. This internship places students in various hospital units at Children's Memorial Hospital. Students receive high school credit and a stipend. Students interact with patients and hospital staff. This program teaches students about the wide variety of job opportunities that the health care field offers.

Tutoring programs are now being institutionalized as part of the universities' missions and their college graduation requirements. One university mandates that its students engage in service learning, which can be completed through tutoring at local elementary schools. This university has also created a Scholars program that requires members to complete three courses which integrate service learning.

Professional Development

The outstanding activities and outcomes of our professional development activities will be sustained in number of ways. Strong teacher and administrator commitment to sustaining their schools' changes in classroom practice while continuing to improve their knowledge and skills will ensures that the growth of the past 6 years will not only be maintained, it will grow.

Many activities and approaches introduced by GEAR UP are now a part of the 'teaching norm' and have been fully integrated into the culture of the school. After collaborating to develop multiple units on Young Adult Literature using effective literacy strategies, teachers want to continue the practice and eagerly anticipate attending and presenting at another conference this fall. Arts integration is not just commonly accepted-it is an expected approach to increasing student achievement. One school has written and received a grant from the Chicago Public Schools to help support work in arts integration and one network's principals cited arts integration as an extremely effective practice being implemented on a large scale. After school and summer programs are now viewed as opportunities for teachers and parents to collaborate with one another and to pilot innovative curricula, developing skills that can then be applied in the regular classroom setting. Teacher-led workshops at school, network and partnership events such as the Annual Teacher Leadership Conference and the Young Adult Literature Conference extend the impact of the work of individual teachers beyond their classroom and school.

At Loyola University, the professional development activities, endorsement courses in math and science, and school support begun in GEAR UP have been institutionalized through the establishment of a Math and Science Education Center that receives funding from multiple private and public sources. Loyola will continue to support the television math program Countdown!, with its accompanying website for teacher, parent and student use. This web site uniquely supports all three of the areas of GEAR UP emphasis. It is a rich professional development resource for educators who can pace their professional learning in mathematics by freely and repeatedly accessing quick time movies demonstrating effective instructional methods. Students benefit from these same quick time movies, which are easily accessible and well organized according to the major NCTM math concepts. The website provides parents with a free "at home" math tutor to supplement and/or enrich their student's math education. In addition, through an SBC grant, CDs and DVDs will be made of the Countdown! lessons for use by parents and teachers.

An additional website developed at Loyola, science*power, will be available this summer for professional development and be maintained into the future. Loyola has also become the implementation center for the Chicago Public School adopted NSF science curriculum, Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP). Advanced Placement Institutes in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, and Computer Science will become regular summer programs at Loyola University. The AP Institute in Spanish Language and Literature, initiated at Loyola, will be supported at Northeastern Illinois University in the future.

In collaboration with GEAR UP and the School of Education, Loyola University has designed a program for graduate classes that will provide a middle school math endorsement, a middle school science endorsement, a K-5 math specialization, and a K-5 science specialization. This program has been approved by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). A total of $500,000 from private and public grants (Polk Brothers, Lloyd A. Fry, BP America, Boeing, ISBE and IBHE) supports teacher tuition.

Institutionalizing tutoring has become an unforeseen benefit to current and future teachers and students in GEAR UP schools. Several universities have institutionalized tutoring in specific GEAR UP schools by including this work as a part of education students' clinical and service learning hours. This not only serves to support current public school students, but it supports the education of future teachers who will gain experience working in urban public school settings.

In a joint program between Loyola University (Gear Up) and Illinois State University (Illinois Professional Learners Partnership-IPLP), Hayt Elementary School became a professional development school. Senior teacher preparation candidates are integrated into the elementary school program for a full academic year, providing additional instruction and support for students. Professors from Loyola and ISU supervise the students and provide professional development for Hayt faculty.

Other universities regularly place students at GEAR UP schools for both clinical and student teaching experiences. These relationships will continue to benefit both student populations well into the future.

Integrating the teacher, parent and student learning activities is integral to the way in which Northeastern's Chicago Teachers' Center approaches school improvement. In all areas, the combination of inquiry-based instruction with arts and technology integration and adventure education has become part of the institution's approach to best practice. Creating opportunities for teachers and/or parents to pilot new strategies and curricula for facilitating changes in classroom practice is now the standard CTC approach to professional development. The Young Adult Literature Conference, Inquiry and Design Institute, the Teacher Leadership Conference and the VOCES/Voices conference in bilingual literature and culture have all evolved as cornerstone professional development events to be continued through a variety of funding sources. Each of these events includes parents as leaders and participants alongside teachers.

The partnership with the Chicago Public Schools has resulted in a new level of mutual support and collaboration between universities and the CPS system. The lessons learned through GEAR UP are being translated into new programming at CPS. A number of the CPS literacy coaches have participated in the Chicago Teachers' Center's Young Adult Literature Conference, and the Chicago Teachers' Center's VOCES/Voices Conference is a collaborative effort with the Chicago Public Schools Office of Language and Culture.

The BLAST summer program begun in GEAR UP with the financial support of CPS has continued. Our innovative summer programming that links professional development to implementation and provides engaging inquiry-based learning opportunities for students was adapted by CPS two years ago in its summer STEP UP Program which supports students in the transition from 8th to 9th grades. GEAR UP staff at Northeastern's Chicago Teachers' Center developed curriculum for STEP UP counselors, Survive and Thrive, and have continued to work with all high school counselors throughout the academic year. CPS established a Department of Post-Secondary Options devoted to goals closely aligned with those of GEAR UP. CPS staff from this department based at our high schools work closely with GEAR UP staff to provide a wide range of resources to teachers, parents and students.

Parent Programming

The legacy of the GEAR UP parent program is that GEAR UP has helped to nurture and develop parent leadership within many of the GEAR UP schools. Parents who have been trained in leadership skills will continue to advocate for their children, other parents, and other school children long into the future. These parents have developed important leadership and advocacy skills to such an extent that advocating is now part of their lives and their natural inclinations. Many of these parents have won seats on their Local School Councils and Bilingual Committees

Other parent outcomes which will be institutionalized and sustained over time include the Parent Talk Show and the Third Thursday Panel Discussion in Woodlawn, as well as Family Nights in the North Lawndale, De Paul, Loyola, West Town, the GEAR UP Transitions to Success (GUTS), and the Truman Networks. Parent Book Clubs will likewise continue in West Town, Truman, and the GUTS Network. Workshops will continue in all networks with parents or participating teachers facilitating.

The Woodlawn Network has established a Parent Center that will be supported by one of the Woodlawn Schools in the future, and West Town and GUTS are engaging in dialogue with the schools about continuing to sustain such a strong parent presence in the schools after GEAR UP. In addition, many parents have been trained to become facilitators of such innovative programs and philosophies as team building, True Colors, and Kids at Hope, and these parents will continue to train other parents long into the future--all as the result of the ongoing GEAR UP parent programming.

Loyola's partnership with John Marshall Law School is expected to continue into the future, and so is the collaboration that many networks have established with other community-based organizations such as the partnerships with the Albany Park Community Association and Thurgood Marshall Middle School; the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and Ames Middle School; the Bessie Coleman Library in Woodlawn and all the Woodlawn schools; West Town United and the West Town Network; River North Association and Roosevelt High School; and organizations such as 1,000 Black Men, Harmony Health, and Riveredge Hospital with Michele Clark Preparatory High School.

Other collaborations and discussions are continuing with schools and networks to solidify the great benefits of the GEAR UP parent program so that the message of GEAR UP-all kids can succeed and attend college-lives on and on.

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